Sandy K. Wurtele

Wurtele has also served on numerous task forces concerning preventing childhood sexual and emotional abuse. In 2012, she was appointed a child protection consultant by the vicar general for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington. While serving in this role, she evaluated and made recommendations regarding diocese policies on the protection of children and youth from sexual exploitation. Following this, Wurtele established the Service-Learning Internship and Community Engagement Center (SLICE) program to allow students the opportunity to earn college credits through internships. In the same year, she participated in USA Swimming's first Safe Sport Leadership Conference. In 2014, Wurtele was selected to sit on the nine-person Safe Sport Program Review Task Force for USA Swimming. The aim of the task force was to suggest ways to prevent the sexual and emotional abuse of athletes. Based on their recommendations, USA Swimming approved a series of task-force recommendations including improved training, transparency in the reporting and investigation of incidents, and counseling and emotional support services for victims. During the summer before the 2017 academic year, Wurtele sat on the faculty-led redesign team that was preparing to move all Faculty Course Questionnaires online beginning fall 2017.

In 2009, Wurtele received the William Friedrich Memorial Child Sexual Abuse Research, Assessment and/or Treatment Award from the Institute on Violence Abuse and Trauma for "her work to prevent child abuse and for development of effective abuse prevention programs." The following year, she published two books, Off Limits: A parent’s guide to keeping kids safe from sexual abuse through Safer Society Press and Out of Harm’s Way: A Parent’s Guide to Protecting Young Children from Sexual Abuse through Parenting Press Inc. A third book, Safe Connections: A parent’s guide to safeguarding young teens from sexual harm was published in 2012 by Parenting Press.

In 1987, Wurtele was awarded a FIRST Independent Research Award from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to develop and evaluate child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention programs for young children. Wurtele began comparing different ways to teach children body safety skills in classrooms in Pullman, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho. In 1988, Wurtele accepted a faculty position at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs and transferred her research program to Colorado Springs where she offered CSA prevention programs to parents and children at local preschools and in Head Start classrooms.

Wurtele was born in Nebraska City, Nebraska. She enrolled at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln for her undergraduate degree and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Wurtele graduated with High Distinction in 1977 and then completed her Master's degree and PhD at the University of Alabama. Following an APA-approved clinical internship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, she accepted a faculty position at Washington State University.