Antoinette Tuff

On August 19, 2013, Antoinette Tuff was a school bookkeeper, severely depressed that her husband of 33 years had recently left and faced the daunting challenges of raising a son with multiple disabilities and a daughter in law school as a single Mom. Never did she think that she would become a hero saving more than 1,000 lives, a best-selling author, an international celebrity, an expert on community safety, the Founder and CEO of a non-profit, Kids On the Move for Success or a guest of Michelle Obama’s at the State of the Union Address.

The next day, her life changed forever, Antoinette, an accidental hostage negotiator, used her experiences with challenging life issues to successfully convince an armed gunman who entered the Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy to give her his AK-47. This is the only school active shooter situation in the US that ended without death or injury to school students, faculty, parents or shooter himself. Experience hostage negotiators, law enforcement and community leaders praised her intuitive, yet textbook, hostage negotiations on August 20, 2013.

As a speaker, Antoinette shares how her everyday crisis management techniques with Tuff Tactics apply to a wide variety of situations, both large and small. Audience members will learn how stressful incidents in their everyday life can be leveraged as an asset when dealing with difficult interpersonal relationships, heated customer interactions or if they find a gun pointed in their direction. Her crisis management presentation with Conversation in the Crosshairs is designed to complement structured crisis situation and relationship training utilized by security, human resource, and legal teams.

Seven-time Grammy® Award winner, Toni Braxton, stars as Antoinette Tuff, in “Faith Under Fire” for Lifetime TV. “Faith Under Fire” premiered on Saturday, January 27, 2018. “Faith Under Fire” was produced by Sony Pictures Television and based on the book “PREPARED for a PURPOSE: An Inspiring True Story of Faith, Courage and Compassion in Crisis” by Antoinette Tuff and Alex Tresniowski, Executive Producers are T. D. Jakes (Heaven is for Real), Judith Verno (Masters of Sex), Derrick Williams (Miracles from Heaven), Toni Braxton and Craig Baumgarten (Toni Braxton: Unbreak My Heart). Emmy nominee Vondie Curtis Hall (Abducted: The Carlina White Story) directs from a script written by Laura Harrington and Stephen Kay. Additional, her real-life story was documented by the Biography Channel, which was also shown on Lifetime TV.

After the school shooting in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, Antoinette Tuff became a recognized an expert and community leader for student safety. Antoinette believes that compassion, confidence, and control are the best options when dealing with student safety, which includes the prevention of bullying, suicide and deescalating an active shooter situation. She is frequently asked to participate in the conversations in the media and on Town Hall panels, including:

• WGCL-TV CBS46 – Arming Teacher Panelist – February
• DeKalb Community Safety Town Hall – March 17, 2018
• March for Our Lives Speaker – March 24, 2018
• March for Our Lives – Town Hall – April 7, 2018
• GPB – On Second Thought – Arming Teacher Interview – April 13, 2018
• Georgia Students for Change – Rally and Town Hall – April 20, 2018

Kids on the Move for Success believes that there are many issues that contribute to the success of children. For children to succeed, they must feel safe, must be transported to a world beyond their everyday life, learn that STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) fields are available to all and that giving back to the community is important in learning acceptance and developing leadership skills. Kids on the Move for Success believes compassion, confidence, and control are foundational elements in the success of children now and in the future. Our programs are designed to be mobile and dynamic allowing us to impact communities at the local, state and national level.