SCRR’s Spring 2024 Network of Practice
A Spring Festival of Learning
The 2023-2024 SCRR Leadership Fellows’ Capstone Project Symposium
April 25, 2024
11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. CT / 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. ET
This event has passed.
In 2023, we excitedly launched the inaugural School Crisis Recovery & Renewal Project’s Leadership Fellowship, an 8 month long program that provides intensive training, coaching, and peer consultation to school crisis leaders nationwide committed to recovery & renewal.
The fellowship is an invitation to not only receive learning but also co-construct recovery and renewal approaches to school trauma and grief, expand the school crisis continuum of care and contribute to the broader field.
On April 25, 2024 we came together this spring, to learn about their capstone projects, a demonstration of the SCRR Fellow’s vision of recovery and renewal to fill a need in their community or to the broader field (e.g., a guide to student-led crisis policy, a workshop on healing after a natural disaster, a video on creating memorials, etc).
2023-2024 Fellow Capstones
- LGBTQ Providers of School-Based Crisis & Mental Health Services: Balancing Vulnerability, Presence & Courageous Leadership – Camden Webb, (Listening Circle & Interactive Workshop)
- Strategic Partnerships for Staff Wellbeing: Reflections from Toltecalli High School and SCRR – Mariela Diocares (Written Reflective Product)
- Wholeness where there is a hole: How do we make space for grieving and healing in the classroom and in ourselves? A workshop for educators – Roberta Marguerite Chávez (Interactive Workshop)
- Reflections on My School Community – Feeling Safe at School – Klark Swan (Alumni Survey and Data Analysis)
- Pass the Mic: A Youth-Led Approach to School-based Grief Support Programming – Samira Moosavi (Student Engagement Effort)
- Grounded Growth: Nurturing Connections for Resilience, Recovery, and Renewal – Shietel Chhana (Professional Development Workshop)
- Through the Gateway of Healing & Repair – Angelica Posadas (Professional Development Workshop)
- What Helped and What Harmed? Life After Loss: Reflections from WAVE Students– Lauren Keough (What Helped? What Harmed? Listening Session)
- Explore, Integrate, Evolve: A facilitated reflection session for school staff supporting crisis response – Lucina Armstrong Michaud (Educator Healing/ Reflection Workshop)
- When the Professional is Personal: Navigating Dual Crises – Amy Castellanos, Cynthia Vega and Matthew Reddam (Educator Interviews & Written Product)
- He Emerged from Deep Within the Rabbit Hole – Robert Franklin (Written Reflection Product)
- Heal the Healers – Cathann Dragone-Gutierrez (Staff PD Series)
- Teachers Have More Power Than They Realize – Cherry Melissa Price (Staff Resource Guide)
- Filling your Cup- Comprehensive Self-Care Strategies – Wendy Wolff (Professional Development Workshop)
- Honoring life through storytelling with youth voices – Krysta Broeker and William DeSantis (Training)
- What is Your Superpower? – Jose Rodriguez (Daylong Youth Retreat)
- Voices of Experience: What Was Helpful, What Was Harmful, and What Was Missing during and after the Crisis? – Launa-Rae Linaker (What Helped? What Harmed? Listening Session)
- My Soul Looks Back and Wonders – Beverly Canady (Youth-Centered Activity)
- Using Social Media as a Tool for School Crisis Recovery – Michelle Fortunado-Kewin (Took Kit)
- HealthPartners Off the Charts: Examining the Health Equity Emergency Podcast: Growing Through Grief – Nicole Barnes (Podcast)
- Collective Grief, Collective Transformation – Canada Taylor Parker (Model to explore grief)
- Courage and Renewal, Debriefing and Healing: Holding Space for Yourself through Boundaries, Sharing and Integration – Christine Ewing and Kirsta Colley (Asynchronous Training)
Symposium Materials
- SCRR’s Spring 2024 Network of Practice – Main Slide Deck – view the slides shared in our opening, transitions between rooms and closing spaces
- SCRR Spring 2024 Fellow Capstone Presentations – view all capstone presentation slides from our fellows organized by room and in presentation order
- Fellow Handouts & Supporting Documents – view handouts and supporting documents shared by some fellows which are also linked with their presentations below
Symposium Recordings
During our Symposium, we had two rounds of Fellow Capstone presentations. In each round, there were four ‘Rooms’ where two – three capstone presentations were shared.
View our “Opening and Welcome,” as well as our “Introductions to Round 1 Peer Presentations” below. Then click the + signs on the Peer Presentation Rounds below to navigate to each room’s recording.
View our “Integration & Closing” for the Symposium below.
Faculty
Lead Faculty: Leora Wolf-Prusan Ed.D, SCRR Project Director (she/her)
Leora Wolf-Prusan serves as the Project Director for the School Crisis Recovery & Renewal project and as the School Mental Health field director for the Pacific Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC), in addition to many other facilitation projects. Leora is dedicated to work focused on educator mental health, wellness, and trauma-informed approaches to education and operates through a framework in which public health, social work, and education intersect. Her research examined the impact of student death on teachers, what factors contribute to teachers building resiliency, and what supports teachers need from the school system in the event of a student homicide or other traumas. She received a BA in international relations and a BA in Spanish with a minor in Social & Ethnic Relations from the University of California, Davis; a teaching credential from Mills College; and an EdD in educational leadership from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Her work in school crisis recovery and renewal is motivated by and dedicated to educators and youth who envision schools as a platform for community and connection.
Niki Magtoto, SCRR Senior Project Manager (she/her)
Niki Magtoto is the Senior Project Manager for the School Crisis Recovery & Renewal Project. She has a background in supporting public school districts through equity-centered and antiracist facilitation. She has worked in policy implementation as well as design and improvement projects focused on engaging all levels of stakeholders to transform systems. She is dedicated to building new realities for young people. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College and a Master of Arts in Education: Equity & Social Justice from San Francisco State University.
Her work in school crisis recovery and renewal is motivated by and dedicated to Andréa, Matthew & Kendrick.
Leadership Fellow Peer Presenters
Amy Castellanos (she/her)
B.S., Founder, Moving the Soul LLC, Phoenix, AZ
Amy Castellanos has dedicated her career to youth who are searching for a lifeline in the adults that serve them. This focus has led her to provide professional development, technical assistance and facilitation services to systems leaders in the public health, education and behavioral health arenas. The purpose of these services is to hold space for transition and to provide a compass for cultural and systemic change. The mission is that every young person has one adult that can deeply care for and support their unique purpose. Amy has started her own LLC, but previously served as a Leadership Development and Board Support Specialist for the Arizona School Board Association. Her educational background includes lived experience, a bachelor’s degree in public health, and certifications in resilience strategies, trauma informed approaches and development of healing centered environments.
Angelica Posadas (she/her)
M.A., PPSC, Director of Counseling, Gateway High School, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco born and bred, true and through! Loyal to her soil and the roots that raised her. Angelica is committed to providing a safe space for all San Francisco youth to engage in critical dialogue to become their true authentic self. Her work supports BIPOC students, educators, and school counselors, to highlight the importance of mental health and anti-racist practices. She is a Mama-scholar to Ava & Ayson whom she credits to being the best version of herself!
Beverly Canady (she/her)
M.A., Director/Therapist, The Bridge/Imani Center, Irvington, NJ
Beverly is the Site Director for The Bridge/Irvington School Based Program where we provide a plethora of services to middle and high school scholars to ensure they are equip academically, physically and mentally for their life journey. Beverly also volunteer with the county Traumatic Loss Coalition that travels to various schools when assistance is requested to assist youth and adults with personal and professional losses. She is also a mental health consultant for a locate headstart program in the county. Beverly live and serve from a “WE” perspective We as humans have the power to create, reframe, heal, and uplift the next generation. To construct this structure of resilience compassion, empathy, and kindness must be present. Each one of us will need to pause, breath, rest, and honor the truth, so when the next storm of trauma, hate or pain surface “WE” will be able to hold on and continue forward.
Camden Webb (he/him)
M.A., Clinical Services Director, Solano County Office of Education, Fairfield, CA
Camden currently serves as the Clinical Services Director for the Solano County Office of Education. Within this role, he supports numerous mental health and wellness initiatives that focus on school communities in Solano. Additionally, he has a private practice where he specializes in providing therapy to LGBTQ-identified youth. Camden has years of experience in providing trauma-informed, attachment focused, culturally responsive counseling to individuals from diverse backgrounds. His passion is providing leadership to clinical teams who conduct intensive mental health work in high-need communities. Recognizing the reality of vicarious trauma and burnout, he leads with compassion, understanding, and a growth mindset that encourages personal and professional development of staff within the mental health field.
Canada Taylor Parker (she/her)
B.A., Suicide Prevention Coordinator and Postvention Response Lead, Multnomah County Health Department/5 Oak Portland, OR
Since 2005 Canada has worked in behavioral health care serving youth and adults, with 6 years focused in deathcare, helping families navigate grief, loss, and trauma, amidst crisis. Relational, restorative, and transformative approaches are key underpinnings to Canada’s holistic, integrative philosophy to creating change and healing for all. Currently she is the Suicide Prevention Coordinator for the Multnomah County Health Department and serves as Postvention Lead for her county. Canada was honored with the Trillium Health Mental Health Hero award in 2021 for her work in grief and suicide prevention. Grounding spaces in humor, authenticity, and vulnerability are essential to Canada’s professional and personal life, and especially her work in suicide prevention.
Cathann Dragone-Gutierrez (she/her)
M.A., Chair, Counseling and Human Development Department, Albuquerque Academy, Albuquerque, NM
Cathann is the Chair of the Counseling and Human Development department at Albuquerque Academy, a prestigious independent school of the southwest. She leads a team of five talented mental health professionals who work with the 1150+ students in grades 6-12. Prior to this position she was a Clinical Director at a local agency where she specialized in working with very young children and their caregivers as an Infant Mental Health Specialist. She is an endorsed Child Parent Psychotherapist and supervisor. Cathann has spent over 20 years as a mental health provider in schools because of her love for implementing programs which foster the development of emotional wellbeing and resilience in her school communities.
Cherry Melissa Price (she/her)
M.A., Crisis Intervention Resource Teacher, Prince George’s County Public Schools – Thurgood Marshall Middle School, Lanham, MD
I am Cherry Melissa Price. I have been an educator in Maryland for 27 years. I taught high school social studies for the 1st ten years of my career. Since then I have held a variety of other educational positions in my school district. The covid pandemic drastically changed my views about education and since 2020, trauma-informed education has become my passion. As a result, I have taken several steps to expand my knowledge in the field. I became a HOPE facilitator and an ACEs Master Presenter certified by the Maryland Family Tree, in partnership with the Maryland State Department of Education and the Maryland AWARE II grant program. Also, in June of this year I graduated with a Masters in Education in Trauma and Resilience in Educational Settings. My Capstone Project focused on trauma-informed interventions in early childhood classrooms.
Christine Ewing (she/her)
M.S., L.M.F.T., School Counselor, School Crisis Response Program Coordinator and Trainer, Bend Senior High School/East Cascade Counseling Services/With Hope Consulting/ Bend, OR
Christine is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) as well as a credentialed School Counselor (PPS) for grades K-12 in both California and Oregon. After serving in both school and community settings in Southern California for over ten years, she moved to Central Oregon. For the last seven years, in Bend she is currently working to support the community in a variety of facets. Serving as a Marriage & Family Therapist for East Cascades Counseling Services, School Counselor for Bend Senior High School, and Suicide Prevention and Postvention Trainer for Deschutes County and Oregon as a whole. She has served previously as the School Response Program Coordinator for the High Desert Education Services District. In the last three years, Christine has worked to develop training education and consultation to support schools and communities during and after the wake of a crisis. She specializes in working with children, adolescents, and their families and has over thirteen years of experience. Having both personal and professional lived experience with crisis response, Christine takes her story and uses it as a catalyst, a chapter to be read from and learned from. To take those notes of this chapter story and make healing change in the world around her. She believes that HOPE is the only thing stronger than fear, that it can be a choice, a brave act of courage to keep going.
Cynthia Vega (she/her/ella)
M. Ed., Administrator, Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles, CA
As a leader and educator for the last 22 years I have wholeheartedly embraced trauma informed practice as a moral imperative. It is my mission in life to leave a positive legacy centered on sharing practices that allow individuals to thrive and have agency to live a fulfilling and happy life. I am a proud doctoral candidate at LMU and my research focuses on the impact of ACEs on Leadership Journeys.
Jose Rodriguez (he/him/el)
M.A., Dean of Restorative Practices, Roosevelt High School, Chicago, IL
Jose is one of the Deans of Restorative Practice at Roosevelt High School in the Albany Park neighborhood of Chicago. His transformational leadership style is rooted in love. Jose takes pride in building trusting and genuine relationships with the school community. He is dedicated to abolishing discipline systems that harm BIPOC youth through the implementation of restorative justice and healing centered approaches.
Kirsta Colley (she/her)
M.A., Education Advocate, Roseburg, OR
Kirsta has been an elementary, middle and high school teacher and an educational program director. She is committed to developing schools as trauma-informed spaces. Her motivation in serving schools and students is encapsulated by this quote from Our Other Youth of Gig Harbor, Washington: “…for children of poverty school may be their only chance: nothing else in their life provides them with an equal opportunity. Nothing. A classroom can.”
Klark Swan (she/her/hers)
B.A., School Safety Director, Humboldt County Office of Education, Eureka, CA
Klark Swan is the School Safety Director for the Humboldt County Office of Education. While this position is new to the county, Klark is no stranger to working with students and the community as a whole. Growing up in rural California has afforded Klark the opportunity to build connections through working as Day Camp Director, City Wide Event Planner, and a long term substitute teacher for the local extended education program. More recently she has worked for the Humboldt Independent Practice Association in community health. Klark is dedicated to creating best practices for Humboldt’s 32 school districts and improving partnerships and collaboration efforts when it comes to school crisis response.
Krysta Broeker (she/her/hers)
B.S.W., Mental Health Educator, Contact Community Services, Syracuse, NY
Krysta Broeker has dedicated her career thus far to mental health in various settings, from outreaching those experiencing homelessness in Buffalo, NY, to working in an inpatient psychiatric center, Broeker is now a Mental Health Educator for Suicide Safety in Schools at Contact Community Services. Broeker plays an integral role in crisis leadership and management, serving Onondaga County with free suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention training, presentations, and support. Broeker continues her work to support Contact Community Services’ mission to help individuals and organizations create positive personal and social change to improve the quality of lives in Central New York.
Launa Linaker (she/her/hers)
M.B.A., Ph.D., Candidate, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Launa Linaker is a devoted full-time Ph.D. student in Secondary Education at the University of Alberta. Her academic pursuits revolve around exploring the intricate connections between trauma and transformation through the lens of care. Her ongoing research seeks to illuminate the nuanced experiences of educators who have courageously safeguarded students amidst crises and distress. With a rich academic background, Launa previously held a faculty position at MacEwan University’s School of Business, sharing insights on Organizational Behavior, Management, and Entrepreneurship.
Lauren Keough (she/her/hers)
M.S.W., School Social Worker, Washtenaw Alliance for Virtual Education, Ypsilanti, MI
Lauren Keough has dedicated the last 10 years to working with young people from marginalized and underrepresented communities in various settings, including the Washtenaw County Youth Center, the Washtenaw County jail, and most recently, the Washtenaw Alliance for Virtual Education (WAVE), where she currently serves as the school social worker. WAVE is the alternative option for all nine public school districts in Washtenaw County, making it a school community deeply familiar with profound grief and loss. Lauren is committed to continuously learning more about how to effectively, compassionately, and skillfully support youth and families impacted by trauma.
Lucina Armstrong Michaud (she/her)
B.A., SW Oregon School Suicide Prevention & Wellness Coordinator, Lines for Life, Portland, OR
As the director of a community-based alternative school and then as a consultant, Lucina has been creating trauma-informed learning opportunities for youth grounded in anti-racism, equity, social-emotional learning, and community. For the last two years, she has focused on suicide prevention, guiding school districts in Oregon in creating and implementing effective suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention plans. Lucina has also been a midwife, lactation consultant, and parent educator for two decades and continues to support new parents in creating healthy starts for their families.
“Every young person has the right to thrive and deserves equitable systems that value, care for, uplift, and equip them to authentically express themself and build a fulfilling life.”
Mariela Diocares (she/her)
Ed.D, Principal, Toltecalli High School, Tucson, AZ
Dr. Mariela Diocares is a latina High School Principal at Toltecalli High School, an alternative, charter high school. While education is a passion, she has vast experience as a mental health and wellness provide and is an ongoing advocate for self-care. While she has had the opportunity to work with a plethora of diverse communities, her focus is on young adult latinas and the possibility of exceeding expectations.
Matthew Reddam (he/him)
M.S., School and Community Wellness Advisor, Butte County Office of Education, Oroville, CA
Matt Reddam is a licensed therapist and current School and Community Wellness Advisor for the Butte County Office of Education. The former Policy and Practice Coordinator for Trauma Transformed Bay Area, Matt is recognized as a regional expert in traumatic stress and an advocate for marginalized and historically subjugated populations. Beginning his career as a therapist, Matt quickly found that systems and communities often pathologized children’s attempts to survive, leading to misdiagnosis, marginalization, and the robbery of resilience. This led him to shift his work from individual treatment to the consultation and training of large systems.
As a survivor of complex trauma, a student of racial justice, and a father, Matt continues to walk the line of learner, expert, and fierce advocate. After the Camp Fire in 2018, Matt began working primarily within Butte County, and continues to support the health and wellness of the community of Paradise. Matt believes that true systemic and community change comes from discomfort, relationship, and unflinching self-reflection. Matt lives in Chico with his partner and two children, Liam and Caleb, his living examples of resilience and hope.
Michelle Fortunado-Kewin (she/they)
D.S.W, Counselor on Special Assignment – Mental Health, Jefferson Union High School District, Daly City, CA
Dr. Michelle Fortunado-Kewin, DSW, LCSW, PPS is a Filipino-American social worker in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works part-time as a “macro” school social worker and as an adjunct instructor at San Francisco State University, University at Buffalo, and Smith College. Her areas of interest and expertise are suicidality in youth, crisis intervention in schools, clinical supervision and program development, and implementation in educational settings. Her work is motivated by and dedicated to her mentors and the students, families and communities that she’s connected with.
Nicole Barnes (she/hers)
M.S.W., Growing Through Grief Program Manager, Park Nicollet Health Care System, St. Louis Park, MN
Nicole Barnes, LICSW is the Program Manager for the Park Nicollet Foundation Growing Through Grief Program. Growing Through Grief is a school-based grief support program providing peer support groups, individual counseling, and death related crisis support across 16 school districts in the Twin Cities and Western Wisconsin area. Nicole is a 16 year employee of the Park Nicollet Health Care system with a background in Social Work and NonProfit Administration. She finds joy in leading projects that build healthy and strong partnerships between the healthcare system and community.
Robert B. Franklin (he/him/his)
M.A., LPCC-S, Education Coordinator, Lucas County Children Services, Toledo, OH
Robert is an independently licensed professional clinical counselor with a supervision endorsement. Robert has worked in the mental health, prevention, and child protection field throughout his professional career beginning in 1998 after graduating with his Master of Education degree from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Over those 25 years, Robert has been committed to the well being of children and youth especially with those who are BIPOC and impoverished. For the past 8 years, Robert’s primary role has been focusing on the educational well-being and academic success for children and youth who are in the temporary or permanent custody of the local county’s child welfare system. In that role, he attempts to ensure that students in the local foster care system can be as successful academically as possible. In order to accomplish that he will have to educate and advocate to the local school districts about how trauma has affected so many of our students not only from the neglect and abuse they endured prior to coming into foster care, but also how being removed from their families and oftentimes siblings, has on their mental health.
Roberta Marguerite Chávez (she/her/hers)
M.A., Hawk Creek Farm Administrator, Golden Bridges School, San Francisco, CA
Roberta Marguerite Chávez received a BA and MA in History from Stanford University, a graduate-level Certificate in Somatics from Saint Mary’s College of California, and a teaching certificate from Sacramento Waldorf School. She has danced and performed locally and in far-away places across oceans, taught in liberal arts colleges and universities, and most recently served as Faculty Chair at Golden Bridges School in San Francisco, CA. She is passionate about exploring the relationship between our individual and collective freedom.
Samira Moosavi (she/her)
B.S., Regional Clinical Manager, Experience Camps, San Diego, CA
Samira Moosavi is the Regional Clinical Manager at Experience Camps, a national, no-cost program for grieving children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. Samira has dedicated over a decade to providing psychosocial support to children and families. As a Certified Child Life Specialist, she has supported youth in the hospital setting, during natural disasters, and on global medical missions. Serving as staff at a local hospice in their Children’s Bereavement Program, Samira developed a deep passion for grief. Her current role allows her to support children and their families, educate the community about grief and loss, and create inclusive grief-informed programming.
Shietel Chhana (she/her)
Ed.S. & Psy.D, School Psychologist, Roseville Joint Union High School District, Roseville, CA
Shietel Chhana, Psy.D., NCSP is a school psychologist in a high school district located in northern California. She has been working in a high school setting for the past 13 years. While there, her role includes conducting psycho-eductional evaluations, providing mental health support for staff and students, implementing and monitoring behavioral supports, and working with the school crisis and behavior threat assessment teams. Shietel also works privately conducting psychoeducational/neuropsychological evaluations and educational supports.
Wendy Wolff (she/her)
M.P.A., School Counselor, North Shore Community School, Duluth, MN
Wendy Wolff is a Grief Counselor for the Park Nicollet Foundation Growing through Grief Program. Growing Through Grief is a school-based program providing peer support groups, individual counseling, and death related crisis support and staff training. She has worked with students and families for over 20 years and is passionate about using art based modalities, story and healing circles, somatic strategies and mindfulness to support students as they grow and heal through their grief journey.
William DeSantis (he/him)
B.S., Mental Health Educator- Suicide Safety in Schools, Contact Community Services, Manlius, NY
William DeSantis is a Mental Health Educator with the Fayette-Manlius School District thanks to a partnership with Contact Community Services. William has worked for Contact Community Services for over five years serving school communities with evidence based programming, grounded in prevention, intervention and postvention. In his current role, he provides training and educational programming for students, families and staff related to suicide prevention, intervention and postvention. He has supported multiple school communities to cope with the loss of a student with informed compassion and care by promoting standardized protocols and practices designed to protect the most vulnerable members of the community.
