About the Curriculum Authors
Pamela Vona, MA, MPH
Ms. Vona is the cofounder of the Center for Safe and Resilient Schools and Workplaces. In this capacity, she provides consultation to schools and districts throughout the country to facilitate the development of comprehensive trauma-responsive school environments. Previously, Ms. Vona was the program manager for the Center for Resilience, Hope, and Wellness in Schools. Ms. Vona served as a lead developer of the Trauma Responsive School Implementation Assessment—an online assessment designed to help schools improve their responsiveness to trauma. She is also the lead developer of the Trauma-Informed Skills for Educators (TISE), a curriculum designed to enhance educators’ trauma knowledge and skills. Ms. Vona was previously a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Policy Task Force and Schools Committee. Ms. Vona is completing a doctorate in education and is researching the impact of trauma-informed leadership strategies on organizational culture, climate, wellness, and productivity.
Amanda Meyer
Ms. Meyer is a research assistant at the RAND Corporation and a graduate student in clinical psychology at Miami University. Ms. Meyer’s interests include implementation science and dissemination, trauma-informed schools and school mental health, participatory research and program development, and bridging the research-to-practice gap in school and community settings.
Bradley Stein, MD, PhD
Dr. Stein is a health services and policy researcher at the RAND Corporation and an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. A child and adolescent psychiatrist, he serves as the dissemination director for the Center for Resiliency, Hope, and Wellness in Schools. His major research interests combine child mental health services, improving the quality of mental health care in community settings, school mental health, and trauma services. Dr. Stein is one of the originators of the CBITS program and was a coprincipal investigator in the evaluation of the effectiveness of CBITS in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Dr. Stein has extensive clinical and research experience in the areas of trauma and disaster. He has been involved in the mental health response to multiple disasters and has served as a consultant to schools and government agencies providing crisis intervention services after a disaster. He is a member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Schools Committee and serves on the editorial board of Psychiatric Services and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He previously directed the University of Southern California Division of Child Psychiatry School Consultation Program and served as a psychiatric expert for the LAUSD Mental Health Services Unit.