Equity-Driven SEL That Works: Next Gen Ed Leaders Share Best Practices

Presented by Jasmine Lamitte, Director of Mental Health & Support Services, KIPP SoCal Public Schools (CA); and Lydia Lower, Director of Educational Services, Mariposa County Unified School District and Mariposa County Office of Education (CA)
Moderated by Jessica Berlinski, Director of K-12, Ripple Effects

Sponsored by Ripple Effects

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Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation. Get a CE Certificate for this edWebinar Learn more.

Watch two of the next generation of female education leaders as they share how they have leveraged innovative policies, platforms, and programs to create trauma-informed schools and districts, and effectively support students’ SEL and mental health.

In this recorded edWebinar, the presenters share:

• How to implement trauma-informed SEL across MTSS tiers so that it addresses each student’s unique barriers to learning
• How to leverage new platforms and policies to reach and help more students and their families
• How to bring an equity lens to trauma-informed SEL work—in both urban and rural environments
• Why, how and which digital SEL tools motivate and engage students to ensure efficacy and sustainability
• What students’ self-direction in their mental health and SEL learning looks like and how it builds student agency

School and district administrators, teachers and school support staff will learn concrete steps they can take to ensure their schools and districts are trauma informed across tiers, and that their students’ SEL and mental health are meaningfully supported as they continue to grapple with the challenges and repercussions of COVID-19.

This recorded edWebinar will be of interest to preK-12 school and district leaders, teachers, school counselors and social workers, federal program coordinators, and those involved in supporting student mental and behavioral health. 

About the Presenters

Jasmine Lamitte is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the director of mental health for KIPP SoCal Public Schools. She graduated from Pomona College with her bachelor’s degree in psychology and Africana studies and received her master’s degree in social work from the University of Chicago. Since 2008, she has worked with children and adolescents in Chicago and Los Angeles schools and communities of color. She is especially passionate about reducing the stigma of mental health in Black and Latinx communities and establishing mental health interventions and supports in schools. Her specialties include treating trauma, depression, and anxiety in children and adolescents and trauma-informed, resilience-focused schools’ development and implementation. She recently launched an Instagram page, @socialworksage, where she shares tips and inspiration about student mental health and social and emotional wellness for school social workers, counselors, psychologists, teachers, and caregivers.

Lydia Lower currently serves as Director of Educational Services for both a district and county office of education, providing leadership in the areas of student services and mental health, instructional services, assessment of student achievement, and curriculum development. A former elementary school principal, she believes in educating the whole child and strengths-based development. Originally from Los Angeles, she moved to the small rural community of Mariposa, CA six years ago.

About the Moderator

Jessica Berlinski is the director of K-12 for Ripple Effects, an innovative social-change enterprise focused on leveraging personalized SEL to improve students’ behavior and academics and achieve educational equity. She brings over a decade of experience leading organizations dedicated to supporting the “whole child” through academic and SEL tools and programs to her work. Jessica co-founded and served as Chief Impact Officer of SEL tech start-ups, If You Can and Centervention (formerly Personalized Learning Games). In these roles, she commercialized the first evidence-based SEL assessment and learning game for K-12, and the first SEL iPad game for the consumer marketplace. Previously, she served as Managing Director of GameDesk, a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded non-profit focused on innovative learning models, and as National Director of Character Counts. Jessica speaks on technology and SEL at education and social-change conferences nationally, and her work has been featured on National Public Radio, and in Forbes and Newsweek. She graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in philosophy, with a focus on ethics and philosophy of religion.

Closed captioning will be added to the recording within 2 weeks of the live presentation.

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Ripple Effects is the only digital SEL and mental health program for students and staff that is proven to improve student behavior, academics and SEL skills, and reduce drop-out rates and depression scores. The CASEL aligned Ripple Effects program empowers K-12 learners to build resiliency assets around their personal needs and traumas via over 400 interactive lessons (e.g. anxiety, loneliness, getting help, unplanned change, substance abuse.)