Cultivating Resilience

Our guest Diane Wagenhals is a Program Director for Lakeside Educational Network. Her current responsibilities include overseeing programming and authoring curriculum for the Lakeside Global Institute. Lakeside manages therapeutic schools and services that identify and address student behaviors but also the real reasons students struggle and fail. Lakeside also trains professionals across the coun...

The Takeaway "SEL has five major components: self-awareness, self management, social management – the skills we use to manage relationships — and responsible decision making. There used to be this notion that you had your cognition — your rational side, your frontal brain — and you had your emotional side — you're limbic system — and they just fought for each other for dominance over decisions. Bu...

The Takeaway The Michigan Elementary Middle School Principals Association (MEMSPA) facilitates conversations among school communities to bring together the vision and voices of many districts. Such communication establishes a plan for a better future while working in the present. Constant discussion helps leaders learn new methods, update their vision, and address the current implications of traum...

Summary Our discussion explored visioning and building schools through a more holistic, compassionate approach to working with students. The Rainbow Community School in Ashville, NC, was used as a case study. Drs. Renee Owen and Christine Mason led us into trauma-informed visioning, weaving understanding and support into the fabric of schools. We learned to craft visions prioritizing relationships...

Guest Dr. Debra Gustafson is the Associate Superintendent for the Geary County Unified School District 475 in Juncture City, Kansas. Deb's primary responsibilities focus on providing leadership and expertise in developing, achieving, and maintaining the district's educational programs and related services to increase student achievement. Summary Our conversation focused on the challenges and oppor...

Guest Gary R. Howard, Ph. D., has been supporting individuals and organizations in the deeper work of personal, professional, and systemic transformation for the purpose of achieving social justice and equity in our schools and our nation. Howard is the president and founder of the REACH Center for Multicultural Education in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of  We Can't Teach What We Don't Kn...

Guest Dr. Kelvin Butts is the Superintendent of Benton Harbor, MI, area schools and a lifelong educator, having served as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal. Summary Our discussion touched upon trauma and mental health issues in the Benton Harbor Area Schools, emphasizing the need for mental health initiatives for both teachers and students. The importance of leadership philosophy and g...

Guest Anitra Gallegos is the Principal of the Panorama Middle School in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Summary As a passionate and dedicated principal, Anitra is committed to addressing trauma and creating a culturally responsive and trauma-informed environment in her school. She believes that all students can learn and succeed, and she is always looking for ways to improve their education. She is a...

Our Guest A lifelong educator, Michelle Trujillo M.Ed is a Co-Founder of the Center for Learning and Well-Being and is known to make a tangible, sustainable, and positive difference through her books, speaking engagements, and interactive workshops. Named Nevada's 2016 Innovative Educator of the Year, Michelle has appeared on television (including Oprah), podcasts, and radio nationwide. Michelle p...

Guest Melanie Johnson , Sac and Fox Nation, M.Ed., CPS, is the Director of the Whole Child Initiative for the National Indian Education Association. Melanie has worked with tribal communities and organizations for over 20 years. Melanie is a Certified Prevention Specialist and has worked in the field of substance use and misuse prevention in native communities, focusing primarily on native youth f...

Guest Afrika Afeni Mills , MEd, is the CEO of Continental Drift, LLC, an author, Education Consultant, and Adjunct Professor at Boston College's Lynch School of Education and Human Development. She has been an educator since 1999 with a background as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, teacher developer, and school administrator.  Afrika is the author of Open Windows, Open Minds: Developing...

Our guest Horacio Sanchez, President and CEO, Resiliency Inc.  Horacio Sanchez is a highly sought-after speaker and educational consultant, helping schools learn to apply neuroscience to improve educational outcomes.  He presents on diverse topics such as overcoming the impact of poverty, improving school climate, engaging in brain-based instruction, and addressing issues related to implicit bias....

Summary Equity, inclusion, and justice should be critical goals of education today. To effectively work toward achieving them, though, the mental health and overall well-being of children and school staff must first be addressed. Following the success of Season 1, the podcast series, Cultivating Resilience: A Whole Community Approach to Alleviating Trauma in Schools continues to explore various wa...

If COVID has an upside, it's that it has brought attention to the emotional needs of students (and faculty members). Indeed, if a student doesn't feel emotionally safe in the classroom, their ability to learn is severely impeded. And if an educator is experiencing extreme stress, their ability to work effectively with kids is compromised. The bottom line is that educators must work toward balancin...

One of the clear takeaways from our series on trauma in schools is that few teachers and administrators receive training on student trauma before they find themselves in front of their kids. Most professional development in this critical area is provided to educators in what are often too-brief training sessions after they are already in the schools. Our guests in this episode, professional develo...

One way trauma grows in the Native American child is through schooling. Native American children attend either schools made up primarily of Native students, or they attend U.S. public schools with the potential for more of a mixed population. As we'll learn during the interview, Native American children who attend U.S. public schools are often criticized for their silence. But their silence doesn'...

One of the aspects of trauma that needs to be fully recognized is its intergenerational potential: the trauma that a student carries with them can often be further weighted by what their parents and or ancestors experienced. This is particularly true for people of color and indigenous populations. Mary Peter, District Vice-Principal, Indigenous Education, Cowichan Valley School District on Vancouv...

When we think about trauma and adverse childhood experiences, the conversation understandably gravitates to one of what happened to the student. That approach can focus us externally on the damaging experiences and events themselves. Dr. Scott Ratchford , an expert on equity and the Coordinator of Equity Advancement for the town of West Hartford, CT, helps us shift our focus to see the internal im...

Most attempts at large-scale change in education fail because of incoherent planning, lack of buy-in of stakeholders, and poor execution. Another big reason for failure is pace: leadership tries to do too much too quickly. Moving too fast can be particularly detrimental when adopting something as emotionally rich and behavior-changing as trauma-informed practices. Dr. Dana Milakovic , a mental hea...

If our students need to be in a psychologically safe place before they can succeed academically, today's guests — Drs Yvette Jackson and Michele Rivers Murphy — will argue that the same logic of "first this and then that" also applies to the faculty: reducing student trauma starts with improving the well-being of teachers.

Our study of trauma in schools has naturally focused on students. For example, the discrimination and racism that many live with in their neighborhoods aren't experiences they can easily leave at home. That those experiences negatively impact a student's academic success is undeniable. But our educators of color at home and around the world are hardly immune to that type of adversity. Discriminato...

Christine LeGuizamo is a licensed social worker serving as the Program Director of Mental Health at New Harmony High School in New Orleans, Louisiana. New Harmony is a growing charter school with a mission to "Foster an interconnectedness of people, land, air, and water that prepares students for college, careers, and beyond." And part of that interconnectedness, as Christine explains, is " the in...

We've talked about the concept of the "trauma-informed school" several times during this series. But how can educators go about establishing the right caring environment to maximize student learning? As our guest, Godwin Higa , a consultant for trauma-informed and restorative justice practices, and a former teacher and principal of the year in the SDUSD explains, it starts with the educator's hear...

One of the stakeholders in the larger community that is seeking to alleviate student trauma plays a huge role — perhaps the biggest role: parents. In this episode, we'll hear from Ruth Freeman , a licensed social worker, and the CEO and Founder of Peace at Home Parenting Solutions. Peace at Home's mission is to help parents raise confident, resilient children from prenatal development through youn...

The essential theme underlying this series is highlighted right in the podcast's subtitle: a whole community approach. That means, to effectively identify and lessen the impact of student trauma requires mental health practitioners, faculty members, parents, and community members to work together. Brooke O'Drobinak , an administrator, teacher, and instructional coach, and Beth Kelley , a trauma in...