Improve Mental Health Outcomes: How to Support and Empower Students and Parents

Presented by Stedman Graham, Author, Leadership Expert, and Chairman and CEO, S. Graham & Associates; and ShaKenya Edison, M.Ed., PPS, Director of Student Support Services, Menifee Union School District (CA)
Moderated by Jessica Berlinski, Director of K-12, Ripple Effects

Sponsored by Ripple Effects

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Just four months ago, the U.S. Surgeon General put out a rare public health advisory: Students are in a life or death mental health crisis. Effectively supporting students AND their families is critical to young people’s mental wellness, learning and thriving.

Watch renowned author and leadership expert Stedman Graham and equity leader and Menifee Union School District Student Support Services Director, ShaKenya Edison, to learn practical strategies to support and empower students and parents now.

In this edLeader Panel, viewers learn:

• What is “Identity Leadership” and how to use it to motivate youth, families and staff to overcome the obstacles COVID has exacerbated
• How to support students’ mental health at every MTSS tier without losing instructional minutes
• How to reach and empower parents/caregivers to best support their children
• How to ensure that all staff—regardless of training level—support students through an equity lens

This recorded edLeader Panel is of interest to PreK-12 school and district leaders, teachers, school counselors and social workers, federal program coordinators, and those involved in supporting students’ and families’ mental health.

About the Presenters

Stedman Graham is a leadership expert and the chairman and CEO of S. Graham & Associates, a management and marketing consulting firm. He is the author of 12 books, including two New York Times bestsellers and one Wall Street Journal bestseller. Graham lectures and conducts programs for educational organizations and corporations worldwide on the topic of Identity Leadership, based on the philosophy that one cannot lead anyone else until you first lead yourself. He has delivered Identity Leadership programs in The Netherlands, Germany, China, Canada, the UK, Bermuda and South Africa. His proven Nine Step Success Process® drives his powerful message. This success process is based on the principle that it doesn’t matter how the world defines you, it only matters how you define yourself. Graham is honored as a distinguished visiting professor at colleges and universities throughout the country. He is a former adjunct professor at the Northwestern Kellogg School of Business where he taught the course, The Dynamics of Leadership. Graham’s clients include Gulfstream, Aerospace, Microsoft, Deloitte, Wells Fargo, Lenovo, General Dynamics and the US Department of Labor and Education.

Former East Side Union HSD and current Menifee USD Director of Student Support Services, ShaKenya Edison, is committed to establishing high expectations and shared responsibility in improving the education system and overall outcomes for students. She has served in numerous capacities in education including counselor, after-school program coordinator, safe school coordinator, coordinator of child welfare and attendance, and consultant. She received the 2014 Association of California School Administrators’ Pupil Personnel Administrator of the Year Award for the region, the 2019 Hank Hutchinson Award from the Santa Clara County Alliance of Black Educators, 2019 Tommie Smith/John Carlos Award from the Silicon Valley NAACP, and other recognitions for her dedication to improving the experiences of students and families in systems.

Additionally, in the community, she has served as a steering committee member for the Santa Cruz County’s Youth Violence Prevention Taskforce, a member of the Santa Cruz County Keeping Kids in School Taskforce, an alternate on Santa Clara County’s Juvenile Justice systems Collaborative (JJSC), a member of JJSC’s Prevention and Programs Workgroup, City of San Jose’s Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force, a member of the advisory council for the Office of Cultural Competency, and a member of the Santa Clara County Public Health’s PEACE Partnership.

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.

Learn more about viewing the live presentation and the recording, earning your CE certificate, and using our new accessibility features.

Join the Creating a Positive School Climate community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.

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.)