Please note that spots are limited and will likely fill quickly. Register soon to secure your spot! If spots remain, the registration deadline will be December 12, 2025.

About the Seminar:

This full-day workshop will equip educators, counselors, and student-support professionals with the knowledge and tools to transform trauma into thrivance within learning environments. Participants will explore the science of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), brain development, and nervous system function, with a focus on the unique needs of emerging adults. The session will address the growing challenge of digital addiction, its neurobiological and psychological impacts, and its implications for student engagement and mental health. Through interactive discussion, case studies, and evidence-based practices, participants will gain actionable strategies to create supportive, healing-centered classrooms that promote resilience, connection, and academic success.

Registration

Printable Brochure

 Past Presenters 

About the Speaker

Dr. Stacey Patton is an award-winning journalist, historian, author, college professor, and nationally recognized child advocate.  Her work at the intersections of race, history, education, and child welfare has shaped national conversations and policies.

Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, NewsOne, BBC News, Black Enterprise Magazine, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and other outlets.  A sought-after media expert, she has provided commentary on CNN, MSNBC, ABC News, BBC News, Al Jazeera, Democracy Now, and Fox News.

Dr. Patton is the author of That Mean Old Yesterday, Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won't Save Black America, Not My Cat (a children's book), and the forthcoming books from Beacon Press: Strung Up: How White America Learned to Lynch Black Children, and The Great White Meltdown.

She is a research associate at Morgan State University's Institute for Urban Research and teaches digital journalism at Howard University.  She is also the creator of When You Hit Me, a forthcoming 3D medical animation app educating parents, teachers, clinicians, and child welfare providers about the effects of corporal punishment and other forms of toxic stress on children's development.

For her contributions to child advocacy, Dr. Patton received the 2023 Distinguished Child Advocacy Award from the American Psychological Association, and a distinction from the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.  Through journalism, scholarship, and activism, Dr. Patton remains a leading voice for justice, education, and the protection of marginalized communities and children.