Note: The following may be subject to slight modification

• Mindfulness intro/welcome
• Demystifying "wellness and self-care" for educators and helping professionals
• Application and benefits of the Restorative Resilience Model
• Movement break
• Remembering your Why
• Prioritizing "I"
• Practical skills and take-aways to implement
• Mindfulness closing
  

Following participation in this professional development program, 

1. Participants will be able to describe the Restorative Resilience Model.
2. Participants will understand common myths surrounding wellness and self-care.
3. Participants will practice resilience strategies and explore how they can integrate these into their professional and personal lives.
   

Dr. Susan Branco, LPC (VA), LCPC (MD), NCC, ACS, BC-TMH (she/her/ella)

Dr. Branco is a transracial and transnational adoptee from Colombia, South America. She is an advocate for increased adoption-related research and training within counselor education and is passionate about improving mental health outcomes for transracially adopted persons.

Susan is a practicing counselor and a tenure track assistant professor in the counselor education program at St. Bonaventure University. Her research includes transracial adoption and mental health, Colombian adoption policy, and clinical training and supervision practices for BIPOC counselors.

In addition, she has multiple peer-reviewed publications related to her research interests. Susan’s parents are retired elementary and public middle school teachers in Pennsylvania. Her brother and sister-in-law are high school teachers in public schools in Bogotá, Colombia. Her proximity to teachers instilled value in the profession and an awareness of the challenges they encounter. 

Dr. Jan Gay

Dr. Gay is a visiting professor in the counselor education department at St. Bonaventure University. Her research interest includes anti-racist school counseling, multiculturalism, social justice, and advocacy.

Jan has three years of experience as a professional school counselor and 11 years as a clinical social worker. She has two years of teaching experience as a teaching assistant, co-instructor, instructor of record, guest lecturer, and adjunct faculty across CACREP core and foundational courses.

Dr. Gay has worked in PK-12th grade settings and loves supporting the social emotional development of students and the well-being of staff. Jan comes from a family of educators; her mother is a retired gifted teacher and her sister is a special education teacher.

Dr. Gay serves as the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (ACES) graduate student past representative. She is also member of the American Counseling Association (ACA), Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision (SACES), Florida Counseling Association (FCA), and the New York School Counseling Association (NYSCA).

Dr. Nathaniel Mason (he/him/his)

Dr. Mason is in his second full year as an assistant professor in counselor education at St. Bonaventure University's remote graduate program. He obtained his Ph.D. in counselor education and supervision in 2021 from William and Mary, where he also received his Master's of Education in clinical mental health and addictions counseling.

He currently is a therapist providing individual, couples, and family counseling for individuals impacted by addictions, relational traumas, and other comorbid diagnoses. His research interests include factors that promote successful recovery in LGBTQ+ individuals, theoretical frameworks that can serve historically marginalized clients, and the role of spirituality in understanding addictions broadly.

Nathaniel is a strong believer in a humorous, compassionate, and humanistic way of being to help clients and students live more fulfilling and meaningful lives. 

1. Understanding the critical importance of high-quality teacher induction programs
   High quality induction and mentoring programs reduced attrition by 26% in just two years.” Multiple studies show that beginning teachers who participate in mentoring and induction activities are less likely to change schools and less likely leave the occupation within the first year. Source


2. Shifting the focus from why teachers leave to why effective teachers stay
   We know teachers stay because they love their students and feel like part of the school community. When their voices are valued and heard. When they have opportunities to grow professionally, develop teacher leadership, and be part of the decisions that drive schools forward. Source 


3. Understanding why school leader actions are the key to teacher retention
   The quality of school leadership is cited as a major factor in teachers’ decisions about whether to stay in a school or the profession. Therefore, education leaders perform an important role in the strategies to reduce teacher turnover. Source

Dr. Barbara Holmes

Dr. Barbara Holmes teaches in the leadership education program at Winona State University. She is a professor in the Department of Leadership Studies who developed and launched the first education doctoral program in the College of Education at Winona State. She has remained active as a teacher for over 50 years.

Dr. Holmes worked with several of her former doctoral students to develop the research that resulted in their collaborative article “Rethinking Teacher Retention in Hard-to-Staff Schools.” Her professional focus is mentoring new teachers in the profession and she recently coordinated a statewide mentoring summit on Mentoring Faculty of Color in the Profession.

Dr. DeJuanna Parker

Dr. DeJuanna Parker is an independent dissertation and journal editor. She was a member of the adjunct faculty in the inaugural education doctoral program at Winona State University. She taught in a rural school division as a high school teacher for over 25 years.

Dr. Parker’s dissertation, "Sustaining Teaching Careers: Perceptions of Veteran Teachers in a Rural Mid-Atlantic School Division," focused on ways in which teachers developed the wherewithal to remain in the profession. She continues to study and publish on the issue of teacher retention. Her research and professional foci, in addition to teacher retention, are doctoral student persistence, scholarly writing, and mentoring. 

Dr. Jamel Gibson

Dr. Jamel Gibson has a 17-year career in education, with six as a principal and three as an assistant principal. He is an accomplished education researcher and speaker with over 10 academic journal publications and appearances at multiple education conferences, and puts his theories into action.

During his tenure as principal, his school earned national recognition as a school of distinction for a growth and performance increase of 92. Through weekly instructional focus meetings, one-on-one coaching sessions, and joint walk-through and observation norming, he cultivated and evaluated the leadership skills of all administrators and leaders assigned to his institution.

He provides coaching to school principals, and specializes in developing a school culture that minimizes discipline referrals, and demonstrates the value of teachers’ time by leading productive staff meetings and setting instructional norms.

Dr. Amanda Durnen

Dr. Durnen serves as the principal at Byron Primary School. She obtained an education specialist degree in K-12 administration from Winona State University in 2011 and 10 years later earned an educational doctoral degree in organizational leadership.

Researching preservice teacher preparation programs, including "Grow Your Own" models of strategic practice, is an area of passion for her. Amanda currently supports the Winona State University/Byron Public School internship experience as a graduate instructor and program coordinator.