[SAMHSA Sponsored Webinar] Trauma Informed Practices in Schools: Understanding Racial Trauma and Cultivating Wellness
Trauma can lead to a variety of negative cognitive, emotional, and behavioral outcomes that affect student learning and performance. Educational environments that lack racial and ethnic diversity (among students, teachers, and/or administrators) are often unaware of the impact of racial trauma and how different cultures respond to trauma. When administrators and school staff understand the role of systemic oppression in and out of schools, they can create an environment that is healthier for the whole community.
This webinar will explore:
- The importance and benefits of racial trauma-informed classrooms, schools, and districts;
- The core components of a trauma-informed professional development curriculum that has race equity embedded into each module;
- Best practices in cultivating healing and wellness in schools;
- And how to get started on making your own school or district more trauma-informed, equitable, and wellness-centered.
Speakers
- Dr. Jamie Freeny – Director, Center for School Behavioral Health, Mental Health America of Greater Houston
- Dr. Art McCoy – Superintendent of Schools, Jennings School District
Dr. Jamie Freeny is a dedicated public health practitioner with a desire to make a difference for the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents. She earned her doctorate in Public Health with a focus in the Community Health Practice division from the UT Health School Of Public Health. Her areas of research include adverse childhood experiences, adolescent mental health, trauma informed care, and collaborative engagement. Dr. Freeny currently serves as the Director of the Center for School Behavioral Health at Mental Health America of Greater Houston which works collaboratively with school districts, public and nonprofit child-serving organizations, institutions of higher learning, and community stakeholders to develop and implement equitable projects and policies that promote the well-being of school-age children. She has spent the last 15 years working through multiple avenues, including a healthcare system, residential behavioral health center and non-profit organizations, to educate and advocate for adolescent health and has presented on adolescent mental health and wellness and social determinants of health in numerous professional conferences.
Dr. Art McCoy is a trailblazer who has led over 20,000 staff, over 1 million students across the US, and supported 2 million students worldwide within three decades. As a Johns Hopkins University Certified Contact Tracer, Dr. McCoy was the first to reopen schools for in-person learning in St. Louis, Missouri. He has led over 1,200 schools to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic from 800 leaders in the United Arab Emirates to hundreds of school leaders across America. He has served on over 30 boards including to gubernatorial, university, non-profit and for-profit publicly traded boards. Dr. McCoy raised over $20 million for innovative programs in STEAM, workforce development, diversity-inclusion- equity, and mental health/wellness wrap-around services. Under his leadership, Jennings School District had multiple years of 100% graduation, college, and career placement. This is Missouri’s only 90-90-90+ district with over 90% minorities and impoverished and over 90% accreditation achievement and the only district to produce 2 school-based health clinics, 2 homeless shelters, 2 grocery store food hubs, a Healing Engagement with Parent-Child Interaction Therapy.