Prof. Sandra Chafouleas is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Neag Endowed Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology within the Neag School of Education. She also serves as the founder and Co-Director of the UConn Collaboratory on School and Child Health (CSCH). She has authored over 150 publications, and regularly serves as a national presenter and invited speaker. She is a fellow in both the American Psychological Association and Association for Psychological Science, and is and Invited Member and Past-President of the Society for the Study of School Psychology. Prof. Chafouleas’s work on trauma-informed education are amongst the most highly cited scholarly works in the field. Prof Chafouleas and her team’s recent publication, ‘Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): Translation into Action in K12 Education Settings’ highlights the challenges and future areas of enquiry in the area of trauma informed education.

Dr Michael Gaskell is the Principal of Hammarskjold Middle School in East Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. Michael writes extensively on school culture, trauma, and educational leadership, he is a mentor to new principals through the New Jersey Leaders to Leaders program and regularly presents on topics relevant to today’s educators. Michael has written two books, Microstrategy Magic and just published in September this year, his second book titled Leading Schools Through Trauma A Data-Driven Approach to Helping Children Heal.

Joanna Schwartz holds a Master of Education, and a Master of Counseling with a concentration in holistic studies. Joanna is the founder of Toolbox for Teachers an organization that provides workshops on the topics of mental health in schools, social and emotional learning, trauma informed education and mindfulness. Joanna’s interest in providing professional development for educators comes from her experiences as a K-8 teacher in Philadelphia, her years of mindfulness practice, and experience as a child and family therapist. Joanna has written a new book, to be published in August this year 2021 called The Teacher Toolbox for a Calm and Connected Classroom: Teacher-friendly Mental Health Strategies to Help You and Your Students Thrive.

A Relationship-Based Approach to Supporting Students with Deni Melim by Dr. Kay Ayre

Louise Michelle Bombèr is qualified as both a specialist teacher, a therapist and a Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) certified practitioner. She has worked with individual pupils, classes, whole school settings, local authorities, teachers and support staff across both the primary and secondary phases. She has provided consultations and training for education, social services and health. She has set up TouchBase™ Brighton and TouchBase™ Bristol. Louise and her team offer a range of services supporting children and young people who have experienced significant relational traumas and losses. She is the author of several best-selling books, including ‘Inside I’m Hurting’, ‘Knew Me to Teach Me’ and ‘Settling Troubled Pupils to Learn: Why Relationships Matter in School’.

Bearing witness to the emotional pain and challenges of students can take its toll on educators. Under pressure to support students, teachers may be forced to confront their own social and emotional challenges. The social neuroscience of education shed light on experiences and needs linked to the common humanity we share with our students. In this episode, we speak to Megan Marcus. Megan holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master’s degree in Psychology from Pepperdine University. While at Pepperdine, Megan studied under Dr. Louis Cozolino and served as the lead researcher for his book, The Social Neuroscience of Education.

The call for trauma-informed education is growing as the profound impact trauma has on the children’s ability to learn in traditional classrooms is recognized. For children who have experienced abuse and neglect their behaviour is often highly reactive, aggressive, withdrawn or unmotivated. They struggle to learn, to make positive relationships or be influenced positively by teachers and school staff. Teachers become more and more frustrated and discouraged as they attempt to teach this vulnerable group of students. Dr. Sian Philips. Dr Phillips is an Adjunct Professor at Queens University and is currently involved in helping her local school boards develop trauma-informed classrooms and schools using Dan Hughes's model of Dyadic Developmental Practice. She is also a clinical psychologist in private practice in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She specialises in working with children in foster care and their foster and adoptive parents. Dr. Philips is the co-author of the book ‘Belonging: A relationship-based approach for trauma-informed education.

Some students find it difficult to engage in their learning. Emotional and cognitive difficulties can affect a student’s motivation to learn and may make it difficult for them to participate in class-based educational activities. Music is a unique medium of engagement and creative communication. There is a growing body of research has emerged that sheds new light on intriguing links between music and a variety of cognitive functions, including temporal order learning, attention and auditory verbal memory Today we have the privilege of speaking with, Dr. Karen Salvador. Dr. Salvador is an Assistant Professor of Music Education at Michigan State University’s College of Music, where she teaches courses regarding music in early childhood and elementary general music as well as graduate seminars in music education psychology and research. Her research is focused on ability-responsive music instruction, and aligning culturally responsive and trauma informed pedagogies in music teaching. Dr. Salvador is joined by her PhD student, Rebecca DeWan. Rebecca earned a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting and a bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Southern Maine. She taught music in Maine for 13 years before beginning her doctoral work. Through her research, she is exploring anti-racist education and working to incorporate trauma-informed practices into the music classroom.

Despite trauma-informed education gaining credibility and popularity, educational leaders continue to battle systems to implement innovative and evidence-informed practices. The relentless advocacy for staff and students pushes principals to grow – both professionally and personally. So how do leaders sustain this work? In the third and final episode of this three-part series on trauma-informed leadership, we speak with Elizabeth Verstappen. Elizabeth was previously the principal of the Sadadeen State Primary School in Alice Springs, Australia. In this episode, Elizabeth shares how trauma-informed practices have influenced her beliefs and practice in education, and how leaders looking to embark on implementing trauma pedagogy can traverse the challenges they may face.

The implementation of trauma-informed practices in schools requires leaders to attend to the safety and wellbeing of their staff, just as much as they attend to these needs in their students. So how can trauma-informed practices help with caring for teachers, and maintaining group cohesion amongst staff? In the second episode of this three-part series on trauma-informed leadership, we speak with Elizabeth Verstappen. Elizabeth was previously the principal of the Sadadeen State Primary School in Alice Springs, Australia. In this episode, Elizabeth discusses practices that help teachers build skills in relational pedagogy, and support both the personal and professional growth of her staff.

Implementation of trauma-informed practices in schools requires a whole of school approach, endorsed and reinforced by leaders at the school. In part one of this three-part series on trauma-informed education leadership, we speak with Elizabeth Verstappen - former principal of Sadadeen Primary School in Australia. The school has implemented the Trauma-Informed Behaviour Support program over a four-year period and has been the pilot site for the evaluation of the program.