AASR Live

Please join us for “Your FBA Is a Fantasy: A Discussion with Doris and Rick Bowman About Their New Book.”

Bringing together their combined experience and expertise in the fields of both mental health and education, Rick and Doris Bowman, affectionately known by schools and agencies around the country as “Team Bowman”, provide speaking, training, consultation, and coaching services to both educational organization and mental health agencies on topics of Trauma-Informed Practices/Care, Resilience Practices, Neuro-Affirming Practices, and approaches for intervening with youth with chronic challenging behavior of any cause.

Having lived through the opposite ends of what they view as the “trauma spectrum” in childhood, Rick and Doris bring not only their professional expertise but their lived experience to the work that they do – Rick having grown up in the “hot family” that was marked by violence and abuse as a result of his father’s own PTSD from serving 4 years fighting in the Philippines in WWII and his mother’s mental health diagnosis of schizophrenia, and Doris in the “cold family” where she experienced invalidation of feeling and emotion altogether and the trauma of having had 9 family friends (adults and children) murdered just down the street when she was 7 years old and her family never speaking about what had happened.

Rick & Doris’s credentials include the following:
• M.A. in Clinical Psychology (Rick)
• M.S., Education / Special Education (Doris)
• Advanced Certified Trauma & Resilience Practitioner – Education® (ACTRP-E®)
• Advanced Certified Trauma & Resilience Practitioner – Clinical (ACTRP-C®)
• Certified HeartMath® and “The Coherence Advantage®” Trainer
• Certified “The Resilient Heart” HeartMath Trauma Practitioner
• Certified “Stress & Well-Being Assessment®” Provider (HeartMath Institute)
• Certified Trainer “Collaborative Problem Solving®(Think:Kids, Massachusetts General Hospital)
• K-12 licensed school administrator in the state of Oregon
• PCI Certified Parent Coach®
• Certified special educator & administrator in the state of Oregon
Between them, Rick & Doris have held roles that include:
• Therapist
• Program Director
• Clinical Consultant
• Social Emotional Academic Learning Program Teacher
• Behavior Specialist
• Principal
• Assistant Principal
• Student Services Director

Rick & Doris have been former speakers at the Attachment & Trauma Network’s Creating Trauma-Sensitive Schools Conferences since 2020, and are requested speakers at numerous national and state-wide administrator, educator and child-serving conferences, including special education, annual, and principal-specific conferences. They've been featured speakers at the Innovative Schools Summit's "Differently Wired" (trauma-informed) Conference, ESSDACK’s “Bridging to Resilience” Conference, Chaddock’s “Trauma-Informed Relationship-Focused Schools Conference”, and the Pacific NW Special Education & the Law Conference.

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Please join us for “Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education” with Alex Shevrin Venet.

Alex Shevrin Venet is an educator, author, and professional development facilitator based in Vermont. She teaches graduate teacher education at Vermont State University. Previously, she was a teacher and leader at an alternative therapeutic school, a community college instructor, and an after-school teacher in the upper elementary grades. Alex works with educators around the country to strengthen their trauma-informed education practices, with a focus on empowering teachers to create systemic change. She is the author of the bestselling book Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education, which has been integrated into teacher education programs in several states and has been cited in education research more than 200 times. Her follow-up book, Becoming an Everyday Changemaker: Justice and Healing at School, provides teachers with the tools to implement trauma-informed practices starting where they are.

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Please join us for “Trauma, Healing, and Positive Identity with Dr. Karyn Harvey, PhD.”

Karyn Harvey has worked as a clinician in the field of intellectual disabilities for over 35 years. She has her Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Maryland. She has written three books: Positive Identity Development, Trauma–Informed Behavioral Interventions, and Trauma and Healing. She has a private practice and does therapy with people with intellectual disabilities. In addition, she regularly conducts training on trauma-informed support for people with IDD, trauma-informed leadership, and trauma-informed behavioral interventions for both state and individual organizations throughout the US and Canada. She sees restraints and seclusion as both traumatizing and re-traumatizing to the recipients and is passionate about the elimination of these procedures.

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Please join us for “Shifting from Retribution to Repair: A Discussion with Margaret Thorsborne.”

Margaret Thorsborne is an author, trainer, and facilitator of Restorative Practice with a background in education and counselling. She is a pioneer of Restorative Practice in schools in Australia and New Zealand in the mid-to-late 1990s, and in the UK in the early 2000s. She has since trained restorative practitioners and change makers in education, workplaces, community, police, and justice sectors across Australia, Asia, New Zealand, the UK, the USA, and Canada. She remains involved in this important transformation in schools, particularly around whole school implementation of trauma-informed, relational approaches and culture change. Marg has been awarded an Order of Australia medal for her contribution to education and a Lifetime Achievement award from NACRJ in the USA.

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Please join us for “Creating a Neurodiversity-Affirming Classroom: An Interview with Kara Dymond About Her New Book."

Kara Dymond, OCT, PhD, is a late-diagnosed autistic and ADHD advocate, teacher, author, researcher, and award-winning university lecturer. Kara teaches autistic elementary students who inspired her books, Creating a Neurodiversity-Affirming Classroom (Jessica Kingsley, 2025) and The Autism Lens (Pembroke, 2020). Kara earned the 2024 Award for Excellence in Initial Teacher Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, where she teaches graduate courses on neurodiversity-affirming classrooms. In 2025, she received the King Charles III Coronation Medal, a Governor General Award for service, for her dedication to improving the lives of autistic people and their communities across Canada. She researches intersections of neoliberalism, ableism, racism, classism, and neuronormativity in education; teacher reflexivity; and the transformative potential of neurodiversity-affirming pedagogy, where all are expected and welcomed, and is a co-investigator in a study on Universal Design for Learning and accessibility in teacher education. For fun, Kara co-hosts a podcast called Autistic Tidbits & Tangents, along with autistic psychologist Maja Toudal and autistic composer Bruce Petherick.

From Creating a Neurodiversity-Affirming Classroom: The world expects the impossible from teachers, with so many young people in our care, all with unique needs. How do we help everyone to thrive?

Imagine a classroom where there is no 'normal' - where all brains are expected and welcomed. Students are taught about neurodiversity, metacognition, and self-advocacy alongside the curriculum and are encouraged to identify their own needs. Learning tools are taught and available to everyone!

This thoughtful guide breaks down the learning process. It's brimming with practical tips, brain-based strategies, and illustrative examples that teachers can implement in the classroom. Stories of real teachers and neurodivergent students help educators envision how to apply neurodiversity-affirming approaches.

This book invites a compassionate lens for teachers and students alike. It's the how-to of forging partnerships with students - our best resources in collaboratively problem-solving pressing classroom concerns and invisible learning needs. Everyone benefits when we plan with accessibility in mind!

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Please join us for “A Data-Driven Analysis of Why Black Students and Students with Disabilities are Arrested Disproportionately in Maryland Public Schools” with Tamara Ward.

Tamara Ward is a 2023 NABJ Pew Youth Justice Fellow. A MDDC Press Association award-winning multi-platform journalist, she is also an accomplished communications professional with over 20 years of experience in various communications disciplines, including journalism, media relations, crisis communications, marketing, social media, and web. However, journalism is Tamara's first love. She has experience covering environment, sports, government, politics, and community news for a variety of platforms, including print, online, and broadcast.

The very first interview she conducted was with Rosa Parks. Decades later, Tamara reported for E&E News on Capitol Hill about environmental and energy policy and politics and where they intersect with the Trump administration, the 2020 Presidential campaign, the House impeachment inquiry, the State of the Union Address, and COVID-19. In 2024, Tamara completed a fellowship with NABJ and The Pew Research Center.

Previously, she covered the Maryland General Assembly, county government, and local and state politics for APG Media. Her articles appeared in a half dozen newspapers in Maryland, including The Calvert Recorder, The Maryland Independent, and The Enterprise.

A Brookings Legis Fellow in the House of Representatives, she managed gun violence prevention, veterans’ issues, voters' rights and more. Currently, she works in a robust press office in the federal government.

A two-time graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, Tamara earned a bachelor's in Speech Communications and, as an Eleanor Merrill Fellow, she obtained a master's in Broadcast Journalism.

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Please join us for 5 Things Every Parent of Neurodivergent Kids Needs to Know with Polina Shkadron.

Polina is a trauma-informed speech-language pathologist, family communication and feeding expert who specializes in autism and ADHD. She uses play to engage with each child’s unique perspective of the world. She earned her Master of Arts degree in Speech-Language Pathology from CUNY Queens College, where she was an adjunct lecturer for seven years. She also has a Master of Science degree in Nutrition Education from American University, which has transformed the feeding therapy aspect of her practice, particularly in the area of ARFID. With additional certifications in trauma and ADHD, Polina is an integrator of information, continuously expanding her knowledge and ensuring effective therapeutic intervention

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Please join us for “Diving into the NeuroRelational Framework: An Interview with Connie Lillas.”

Connie Lillas, Founder and Executive Director of the NeuroRelational Framework (NRF) Institute Research to Resilience (www.NRFcare.org), co-authored the NeuroRelational Framework textbook and later authored the NRF 3 Steps to Resilience Foundations Manual. She oversees the NRF Institute’s ongoing research, focusing on understanding toxic stress across all ages and cultural backgrounds.

The NRF Institute is an innovative social enterprise uniting passionate practitioners worldwide. The institute champions five key paradigm shifts, challenging the limitations of viewing behavior through a compliance vs. non-compliance lens and their long-term hidden costs. By applying assessment and intervention guidelines, we call NeuroRelational Care, the NRF provides customized, collaborative, and coordinated solutions for children and families navigating complex challenges.

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Please join us for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are Still Important in Education: An Interview with Nicole Keler.”

Nicole Keler is a passionate special education leader with nine years of experience working in the public charter school system across Washington, D.C. She is currently a Specialist on the School Equity and Effectiveness team at the D.C. Public Charter School Board. However, she started in the education system as a special education teacher, then transitioned to working as an inclusion manager to support families and students with diverse learning needs on a larger scale. She believes that home-school partnerships are the key to successful student outcomes. Rooted in trauma-informed practices such as Flamboyan and Conscious Discipline, Nicole works tirelessly to engage families throughout the special education process and has created systems to ensure team collaboration during the Tier 1,2,3 process. Her experience inspired her to establish LiveWellEd, with co-founder Angie Zara to bridge school and family best practices.

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Please join us for “A Parent’s Journey: From ABA to a Better Way” with Chantelle Hyde. 

When I think back to about five years ago now, around the time that I first learned of my daughter’s traumatic seclusion incident at school from another parent, I was in a state of shock. After running into one frustrating and upsetting experience after another with the school and district, and even in reviewing provincial education policies, the only thing that I could think to do was to search for the issue of seclusion and restraint online. This is when I found the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint. In this session, I’ll share my journey as a parent from ABA and behaviorism to finding a better way.

 Chantelle Hyde: Chantelle is a dedicated mother and advocate. She became an active advocate against restraint and seclusion after learning that their daughter was being locked in a room at school in rural New Brunswick, Canada. Chantelle’s path to advocacy was paved by her desire to be a part of a community of support for other families. Chantelle hopes to bring positive change to Canadian systems. Chantelle is the lead Canadian volunteer for the Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint and facilitates book study groups for the organization.

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