About the Project
The TREP Project was launched in 2016 with a policy brief on the educational consequences of the chronic toxic stress of living in high crime communities. The TREP Project works to develop the individual and organizational capacity of educators and schools serving children growing up in neighborhoods that have high levels of toxic stress, such as violent crime, concentrated poverty, concentrated foster care involvement, and housing instability.
Join our virtual learning community to become a partner educator and receive policy and practice briefs that will increase ...
... your understanding of how traumatic experiences undermine students’ neurobiological development in ways that affect classroom functioning.
... your ability to proactively intervene using evidence-based trauma responsive educational practices.
Join leading educators who are utilizing trauma responsive educational practices to ensure that schools can address the negative psychological, behavioral, and academic impact of traumatic experiences on student development.
TEAM MEMBERS
Founding Project Director
Associate Professor, Dept. of Comparative Human
Development, University of Chicago
Jamilah D. Bowden
TREP School Coach
Jamilah is a practicing Licensed Professional Counselor and Master teacher. She has skillfully taught students from Kindergarten through college-age, focusing on brain-based strategies and best practices. As a mental health counselor and trauma specialist, her most significant work has been with survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and with families in the immediate aftermath of violent loss. She now brings together over 20 years of experience serving children and families in underserved communities.
Jessica Staff-Nixon
TREP Project School Coach
Jessica is a graduate of the University of Chicago's Urban Teacher Education Program where she earned a Master of Arts in Teaching. Her work experiences include teaching a middle school English Language Arts class in the Chicago Public Schools as well as consulting on school improvement initiatives with the Urban Education Institute. She also earned a Bachelor's of Arts degree in sociology from American University in Washington, D.C., where her research focussed on the effects of education policy in historically disadvantaged communities.
Stacy Williams
TREP Project School Coach
Stacy Williams is a career educator who understands children who are hungry, displaced, alone, experiencing loss, or afraid to play outside, have a hard time focusing on reading or math. As a School Coach with the Trauma Responsive Educational Practices team she holds a Professional Educator License, an MAEd in Trauma and Resilience, and draws on over 20 years of experience in K-12 settings to support educators facing this challenge. Prior to joining the TREP team, her career spanned preschool to adults, as an interventionist, classroom teacher, school administrator, district leader, instructional coach, and consulting on school improvement efforts with the Urban Education Institute. Her work and research interests have centered on addressing the needs of students of color and supporting schools to address challenges such as disproportionality in special education, exclusionary discipline, college and career access and becoming trauma responsive.
Alexandra Ehrhardt
Research Assistant
Alexandra's research focus revolves around adolescence experiences in contexts with a specific interest in underlying biological implications. The TREP Project will continue to kindle her curiosity as she continues her education at Wayne State University beginning Fall 2020.
Ebony Hinton
Doctoral Student in the School of Social Service Administration and IES Fellow
Ebony's research interests involve the dynamics of the school-community relationship in urban neighborhoods. She hopes to learn effective ways that schools can be responsive to critical community needs as well as develop partnerships to strengthen and maintain such efforts.
Hilary Tackie
Doctoral Student in Comparative Human Development and IES Fellow
Hilary’s research is centered around a desire to make schools into empowering places for youth of color and ensuring a positive sense of belonging in school. She is interested in how trauma responsive educational
practices can be a method to support teacher-student
trust.
Nicholas Wilkins
Undergraduate Student in Germanic Studies
Nicholas has worked in education policy and organizing in Tennessee. He has also worked as a campaign manager and consultant for school board candidates. He is interested in how trauma responsive practices can benefit lower-income students.
PROJECT FUNDING
This work would not be possible without funding from the following foundations
