Loading Events

Strengthening Human Skills for Student Success: How Districts Can Meet Critical Student Needs

Thursday, February 20, 2025 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm EST

Strengthening Human Skills for Student Success: How Districts Can Meet Critical Student Needs

Presented by Sheridan Doerr, Vice President of Marketing and Client Relations, Committee for Children
Moderated by Joany Higgins, Field Marketing Specialist, Committee for Children

Sponsored by Second Step

Register Here

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

Districts are facing hard decisions about how to invest their limited resources. When facing budget cuts or limitations, district leaders must prioritize essential spending that directly impacts student learning and well-being. Unlike other solutions, there is one comprehensive approach that is easy, accessible, cost effective, and research based that will move the needle on these key district and school priorities simultaneously: building and strengthening human skills.

Recent data shows that participation in research-based life skills curricula can improve students’ social-emotional skills, attitudes, behaviors, school climate, safety, peer relationships, school functioning, and academic achievement. Educators can also see the direct impact on their classroom climate and student behavior. Through training, classroom tools, schoolwide supports, leader resources, and explicit instruction, life skills programming can ensure everyone in the school community is successful.

In this edWebinar, learn how universal school-based human skills development programs can help remediate issues—including chronic absenteeism, school safety, and mental health problems—and how the loss of these supports could translate to increased costs associated with student behavioral issues and readiness to learn. Discover how investing in strengthening students’ human skills can help districts ensure critical student needs are met while also supporting school culture, belonging, and safety, improving academics, increasing educator well-being, and reducing challenging behavior.

This edWebinar will be of interest to teachers, school leaders, and district leaders of all grade levels. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.

Sheridan Doerr

About the Presenter

Sheridan Doerr serves as Committee for Children’s Vice President of Marketing and Client Relations, overseeing strategies in marketing, customer care, and client retention. She has deep expertise in driving go-to-market planning and implementation, driving product growth, and developing strategic partnerships, specifically in the education space. Throughout her 20-year career, Sheridan has held a variety of executive leadership positions in curriculum publishing and distribution, assessment content creation and implementation, and edtech software solutions focused on digital security, safety, and well-being. Like many on their team, Sheridan began her career in the public school system, first as a teacher and later as a learning resource center director.

Sheridan says her SEL superpower is social awareness, which she uses to understand and lead her internal teams and to connect with educators and administrators. Sheridan describes herself as an educator at heart and by trade and a problem-solver who seeks to learn and engage with people to help students have the best educational experiences possible. Sheridan holds a Master of Education (MEd) in education leadership from Oklahoma State University and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in elementary education and mathematics from Northeastern State University.

Joany Higgins

About the Moderator

Through her initial work as an Education Partnerships Manager at Committee for Children, Joany Higgins partnered with school districts across the country to help them positively transform the social-emotional well-being of their students, educators, and school communities through sustainable implementation of high-quality, explicit instruction SEL. As a Field Marketing Specialist, she now uses this insight to help tell the story of Second Step’s positive impact in classrooms across the country. Joany holds a B.A. in political science from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont and a master’s in public administration and a certificate in nonprofit management from Villanova University.

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

Join the Social-Emotional Learning community to network with educators, participate in online discussions, receive invitations to upcoming edWebinars, and view recordings of previous programs to earn CE certificates.


Second Step logoCommittee for Children is a nonprofit on a mission to ensure children everywhere can thrive emotionally, socially, and academically. Today, our social-emotional learning (SEL) and child safety programs reach more than 24.4 million children worldwide. Our Second Step® SEL programs include curricula for Early Learning through Grade 8, with additional offerings for out-of-school time and K–12 staff. These research-based programs are designed to help students and adults strengthen social-emotional skills like empathy, resilience, and managing emotions to build a more positive, supportive school climate.


GIF "I want to make friends" says a girl. "I want to solve problems," says a boy. "I want to be a leader," says another girl. Empower kids for life learn more. Second Step Logo

Back to Top