KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Monday, February 1, 2021

Keynote Speaker


Kris Mohandie, PhD, ABPP

The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Worldwide Catastrophic Event and Global Reset

This presentation/keynote address will address the psychological and general fallout from the Covid-19 Pandemic. Mental health workers, and society alike, have been faced with a worldwide catastrophic event unlike any other. Contextually, this has created and exacerbated trauma on a massive scale. It is critical to identify the myriad of variables impacting the well-being of those we serve, and the complicated context in which services are delivered by caregivers who themselves are impacted. Unique characteristics of these traumas and related variables will be discussed, including the nature of biohazard threat, interpersonal isolation and alienation, direct and vicarious traumatization, developmental derailment, and economic and systemic disruption and loss. However, within this worldwide disaster, the positive opportunities for global reset will be identified, including opportunities for enhanced human connection, and to address long-ignored health, economic, and systemic variables affecting global well-being.

                                                                Bio 

Dr. Kris Mohandie is a clinical, police, and forensic psychologist with over thirty years of experience in the assessment and management of violent behavior.  He has extensive experience in the arena of human and natural trauma.  He is licensed as a psychologist in several states including California, Alaska, New York, Nevada, and Utah.  He is Board Certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) in Police and Public Safety Psychology. 

He has consulted in field responses and case investigations for local, state, and federal law enforcement organizations including LAPD’s Threat Management Unit, SWAT/Crisis Negotiation Team, and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Program.  He responded on-scene to the O.J. Simpson barricade and the North Hollywood Bank Robbery Shootout.  Dr. Mohandie has consulted to, and testified in numerous extreme violence and homicide cases, including single, mass, and serial homicide cases. Dr. Mohandie, along with several others, has participated in two scientific studies of mass murder, including those perpetrated by adults and adolescents.  He has several coauthored chapters which appear in the 2014 book, International Handbook of Threat Assessment.

Dr. Mohandie has conducted extensive trial pending and prison interviews of violent offenders, including a number of stalkers, hostage takers, workplace and school violence perpetrators, serial, and multiple murderers.

Dr. Mohandie’s work has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, and LA Times, and he has appeared in the news programs of CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC, and Fox, as well as programs on Investigative Discovery, A&E, History, and the Discovery Channel.  He was the host and a producer on the Investigative Discovery show, Most Evil, and the 2018 series Breaking Homicide.  His true crime book, Evil Thoughts: Wicked Deeds was released November 5, 2019.

He regularly consults on matters of risk and threat management to the private and public sector, including the entertainment industry.

 

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Keynote Speaker


Audra Langley, PhD

 Working Together to Create Trauma-Responsive and

Resilience Building Schools

This presentation is intended to elevate understanding of childhood trauma, its prevalence and potential impact on children’s brain development, learning, and emotional wellbeing. It will include discussion of what a culturally-responsive, trauma and resiliency informed lens can look like in schools with an introduction to concrete trauma sensitive strategies for educators and school-based trauma interventions for mental health providers. 

                                                              Bio

Audra Langley, Ph.D., is the Director of Training for the LAUSD/UCLA/RAND Trauma Services Adaptation Center for Schools and is chair of the NCTSN Trauma Services Adaptation Center for Resiliency, Hope and Wellness in Schools. She is a professor at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and UCLA Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Langley’s body of work has sought to increase access to quality mental health interventions for underserved populations of children, including those in schools and involved with the child welfare system.  She is also Director of UCLA TIES for Families, an innovative interdisciplinary program for children in foster care or adopted through foster care (ages birth to 21) and their families in Los Angeles County. Dr. Langley works in close partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services and Department of Mental Health to optimize development and reduce barriers to permanency for children in foster care. She is the Co-Director of the UCLA Pritzker Center for Strengthening Children and Families.

Dr. Langley is a researcher and clinician who specializes in cognitive behavioral treatment for children and adolescents with PTSD, anxiety, and related disorders, and her work seeks to make evidence-based interventions available to all children in accessible settings, such as schools. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Child Psychology from Virginia Tech and went on to specialize in CBT with children and adolescents during her internship at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute. She was the recipient of an NIMH-funded National Research Service Award to further her postdoctoral research training in the clinical evaluation of evidence-based treatments for childhood anxiety disorders through the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program, where she continues as a faculty member. Dr. Langley has served as investigator, trainer, clinician, and clinical supervisor on several clinic and school-based studies and trials treating ethnically and socioeconomically diverse children and adolescents with PTSD, anxiety, and OCD and has presented and published research papers on her work.

Nationally and locally, Dr. Langley provides training and consultation related to trauma and resiliency-informed care. She is the author of five treatment programs, including Bounce Back: Elementary School Intervention for Childhood Trauma, Support for Students Exposed to Trauma (SSET), ADAPT: Adoption-Specific Therapy to Help Adopted Children and their Families Thrive, and the recently released 2nd version of Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS).


American Council for School Social Work

Official Webpage  • http://www.SchoolSocialWorkNOW.org

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