Tag Archives: learning

“Lead with love, disrupt the system, and fight like hell!” Join Lara Kain, PACEs Connection Education Consultant, Thursday on History. Culture. Trauma.

August 8, 2026Uncategorizededucation, learning, teachers, teaching, writingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 8/23/223:28 PM

“Sometimes we need to be reminded that we are a powerful movement, and collectively we are making a difference,” says Lara Kain, PACEs Connection education consultant. She joins this week’s History. Culture. Trauma. podcast with fellow educators and hosts, PACEs Connection CEO Ingrid Cockhren, and director of communities, Mathew Portell.

Cockhren and Portell are focused on the start of the 2022-2023 school year, and welcome colleague Kain on Thursday, August 25 at 1 p.m. PT, 4 p.m. ET, when Kain will share her take on what can be done to ensure a better year than the last two.

People who’ve attended Kain’s “Education Disrupted” webinar series know to expect forthright comments from Kain as she, Cockhren and Portell discuss topics including affirmation of LGBTQ students, institutional racism, critical race theory, teacher burnout, and parent’s rights, which have transformed America’s schools into cultural battlegrounds.

An unapologetic advocate for community schools, Kain will likely speak to why community schools are a great model when the objective is minimizing trauma.

“Schools are often the center of our lives, an integral part of a thriving and resilient community. As amplified by the pandemic, our society relies on schools to meet a myriad of basic needs for both students and their families,” says Kain. “Schools have become central in reducing food insecurity, providing access to basic mental health, and health care services, for example.

“But schools cannot do this on their own,” she continues. “They need community partners to achieve this reality. Community schools are a school design framework that I believe has the most promise for achieving equity and creating ecosystems where all children, families, and staff thrive.”

As Kain explains, “Community schools explicitly serve as the ‘hub’ of a community ecosystem. Carefully and purposefully integrating community supports to improve student outcomes (academic, health, and social-emotional) with a ‘whole child’ mindset, they form strategic and aligned partnerships with community organizations to serve the needs of children and families that are part of that school community. They are often open extended hours and on weekends, facilitating access to community services and extended learning opportunities. Community schools empower youth and families through authentic power-sharing as well as placing a high value on youth voice and community wisdom. This integrated focus not only improves student outcomes, it also contributes to building stronger families and healthier communities.”

Kain’s expertise in community schools comes from her work prior to joining PACEs Connection about four years ago.

“In my previous position, I supported the implementation of community schools in Los Angeles. It is a movement near and dear to my heart that align closely with the PACEsConnection values.”

Local Relevance. We believe people and their communities hold the solutions to prevent, address and heal adverse childhood experiences.
Equitable Partners. All levels of society in all sectors—individuals, organizations, communities, and systems—are equitable partners, essential to identifying and implementing solutions.

At the root of the need to focus on trauma-informed education comes the lack of equity experienced by students across the United States.

“We need to focus on equity-centered work, the importance of love and joy, the necessity of disruption, the need for solidarity, the importance of our community, a desire for more humanity in the work, the direct call to action, and the intense feeling of urgency,” Kain says.

“There are a lot of champions out there, and sometimes we need to be reminded that we are a powerful movement, and collectively we are making a difference. Lead with love, disrupt the system, and fight like hell,” she adds.

“Students, teachers, and administrators are experiencing poor mental health outcomes, secondary traumatic stress, and burnout,” says Cockhren. Kain will also discuss the recent Trauma Informed School Leadership Institute, now available as a self-paced study, during which she and other leaders in the trauma-informed education movement shared why trauma-informed education is imperative.

An experienced educator and consultant who speaks nationally on implementing trauma-informed practices in schools and building holistic, trauma-responsive systems, Kain brings over two decades of experience at the local, state, and national levels, including developing programs for integrating trauma-informed practices into community schools in Los Angeles.

Kain has also worked for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction as the state homeless coordinator and practiced her first love, teaching ‘at-risk’ youth.

Kain earned bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a masters’ in public administration from The Evergreen State College. As an example of her understanding of the micro and the macro, Kain’s experience ranges from supporting individual teachers to designing a trauma-informed schools pilot implemented in 20 schools across the country.

As both a teacher and administrator, Kain has put the science of building resilience into practice. A trauma survivor, Kain was herself an ‘at-risk’ youth, and brings this perspective to her understanding of “what schools can and should look like to benefit ALL children.”

The mother of two adopted sons, Kain also brings an understanding of the effects of developmental trauma, and what it takes to overcome it.

Tune in Thursday here for Lara Kain, on the History. Culture. Trauma. podcast, or find the podcast on these carriers:

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Carey Smith Sipp

carey.pacescommunites@gmail.com

Does Trauma Informed “Workforce Development” Live Up to the Hype? Study respondents needed to see how some people turn learning about developmental adversity into transformative action!

August 7, 2026Uncategorizededucation, health, learning, mental-health, teachingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 4/25/232:32 PM

By Krista Goldstine-Cole, EdD, co-principal investigator, Into the Black Box study of developmental adversity, Billings, Montana – April 25, 2023

A team of researchers at the University of Montana School of Public and Community Health Sciences has launched Into the Black Box, an extensive and ground-breaking study of how some adult learners turn information about developmental adversity—the traumas, adversities, and significant stressors that are sufficient to alter the brain, body, or developmental trajectory—into transformative action.

Over the past ten years, community organizations, philanthropy and government have called for workforce development or training as a first and necessary step to achieve trauma-informed practice as well as wholesale systems change. To date, no studies or evaluations have been published examining whether developmental adversity education works as imagined, and if so, for which learners, according to co-principal investigator Krista Goldstine-Cole.

The survey portion of this study is now open online, and researchers are seeking 1,000 respondents.

“It’s a big number,” Goldstine-Cole says. “But we are hoping to hear from the broadest possible group of people. We want to capture variation in who learners are, how and why they are learning, and what they have been learning about—adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), neurobiology, epigenetics, ACEs, and resilience (NEAR) science, trauma-informed practice, toxic stress, and adjacent topics.

“We also want variation in how long people have been involved in developmental adversity education. We want to hear from people in a range of professions as well as those who are learning about developmental adversity (DA) in the context of community,” Goldstine-Cole added.

“The potential to generate greater momentum in the trauma-informed movement.”

Jesse Kohler, executive director of the Campaign for Trauma Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) believes the study findings “have the potential to generate greater momentum in the trauma informed movement and build greater capacity to address the root causes of health and social issues throughout our society.”

“We want to understand “the spark” of DA education,” said co-principal investigator, Siwen Zhang Minero, EdD.

“Through interviews, we have found that some—but not all—learners really catch fire when they start to learn the science of developmental adversity. A few years ago, we did a video project where we asked innovators in the field how their thinking had changed over time. It taught me that learning about developmental adversity can be a source of personal and professional transformation. We want to open up that black box and see how often this kind of transformation happens, for whom, and under what circumstances,” Minero said.

The confidential survey takes 30-40 minutes to complete and can be found at: https://umt.co1.qualtrics.com/…m/SV_3Cy41XUM3x4YQXs.

While the questionnaire can be completed on a small screen, using a tablet or computer will ensure greater access for participants who use screen readers or other accessibility tools. Participation is limited to individuals over the age of 18, who have engaged in some form of developmental adversity learning, and who live or practice in the US.

“Developmental adversity education has grown hand-in-glove with the broader PACE movement,” Goldstine-Cole said.

“…there is an urgent need to equip our early learning and care providers, educators, and school personnel with foundational knowledge…”

Scientists at the US Centers for Disease Control, Kaiser Permanente, the Oregon Health Sciences Center and elsewhere have found that preventing developmental adversity and interrupting the progression of adversity over the life span holds the potential to reduce healthcare, social services, special education, incarceration, and other costs by over $100 billion.

DA education has increasingly been tied to crisis recovery as well. For example, Dr. Diana Ramos, California’s newly appointed surgeon general notes on California.gov “As we begin to recover from the trauma of the pandemic, there is an urgent need to equip our early learning and care providers, educators, and school personnel with foundational knowledge of Adverse Childhood Experiences and trauma- informed principles.”

Goldstine-Cole and Minero met at the Harvard Graduate School of Education while earning doctorates in human development. The two joined the University of Montana in January 2023, and with support from Susan Miller and ANSR and have formed the Developmental Adversity Resilience and Transformation (DART) lab with co-director, James Caringi, PhD.

Into the Black Box is DART’s first study.

Contact Info

Name: Krista Goldstine-Cole, EdD

Email: krista.goldstine-cole@umontana.edu

Org: University of Montana School of Public & Community Health Sciences

Developmental Adversity, Resilience & Transformation Lab

Address: 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59801

Phone: 360-584-6187

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Screen Shot 2023-04-25 at 3.50.54 PM: Krista Goldstine-Cole.

Screen Shot 2023-04-25 at 4.24.23 PM: Jesse Kohler, CTIPP

Screen Shot 2023-04-25 at 3.51.07 PM: Siwen Zhang Minero, EdD

Carey Smith Sipp

carey.pacescommunites@gmail.com

Reducing Stress in Schools with Dr. Tyisha Noise History. Culture. Trauma. Thursday. Sept. 21

August 7, 2026Uncategorizededucation, learning, teachers, teaching, writingcareysipp

Carey Sipp 9/19/232:17 PM

Amidst reports ofincreased stress,mental health problems, absenteeism, depression, anxiety, and suicidality, America’s students are well into the 2023-24 school year. Will schools that have taken a trauma-informed approach to student mental health see their students fare better in the coming year? Does it make a difference to have students in trauma-sensitive schools?

History. Culture. Trauma. podcast hosts Ingrid Cockhren, CEO of PACEs Connection, and Mathew Portell, director of education and outreach, take a look at the importance of trauma-informed or trauma-sensitive schools with Tyisha Noise, D.Ed., episode this Thursday at 1 p.m. PT; 4 p.m. ET.

Together they will dig into the paradigm shifts needed to help students grapple with the stress of the global pandemic, our nation’s racial reckoning, polarized political climate, the increase in school shootings, and more.

“It’s clear that reducing stress in schools is essential for student, staff, and community wellbeing,” said Cockhren. “We’ll delve into many possible solutions, from decreasing class sizes to teaching stress-management techniques that can empower students, and more,” Cockhren added.

Noise is a board member and the chief academic officer of Liberia Forward, a leadership development organization.

An educator from South Central Los Angeles, Noise received her undergraduate degree in urban and regional studies from Cornell University, a master’s degree in clinical psychology from Pepperdine University, and her doctor of education degree in educational leadership from Azusa Pacific University. She also has a master of science in teaching students with disabilities from Pace University.

Noise is the daughter of a teenage mother who says she learned first-hand the value of an education. Although born into poverty and growing up in neighborhoods with gangs and drug abuse all around, school became not just a way for Noise to make her mother proud: it became an adventure and eventually an escape to a new life. Noise’s pursuit of education has taken her across continents from North America to Europe – Italy, France, Greece, UK, the Middle East – Israel and Jordan, Egypt and various islands in the Caribbean.

Tune in here live on Thursday at 1 p.m. PDT; 4 p.m. EDT