Engaging students in building emotional self-awareness
Presented by Mental Health America, Child Trends, and NACDD, join this 60-minute webinar panel discussion to learn about the importance of emotional self-awareness for youth, the different factors that impact how youth identify and manage their emotions, and strategies educators can use to support students in developing self-awareness and emotional regulation.
Participants will be able to:
- Explain the importance of youth mental health literacy to both student and community well-being;
- Understand how personal, social, and cultural identities impact the way in which youth identify and manage emotions; and
- Deploy strategies…
- [for teachers & those working directly with youth] To support students in developing self-awareness and emotion regulation skills.
- [for teachers & those working directly with youth] To support students in developing self-awareness and emotion regulation skills.
Meet the Panelists
Moderated by Denise E. Hildreth, LICSW, PhD, Mental Health Collaborative
Denise has been a licensed clinical social worker for almost 30 years. She earned her Master’s degree in Social Work (MSW) at Boston University where her education and training focused on clinical work with individuals and families, with a concentration on work with children and youth. She later completed her PhD in Social Work at Simmons University which provided her with additional training in clinical work, teaching, and social science research. She has spent her career working in a variety of settings, providing clinical services to children and families and teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels as a faculty member in schools of social work around the state of Massachusetts. For the past 5 years, Denise has been a trainer for Mental Health Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that brings mental health literacy, education, and awareness to communities, schools, and groups. In addition to her work at MHC, Denise maintains a private clinical practice that focuses on providing therapeutic services to individuals and families facing a host of challenges. She has expertise in helping families navigate typical life transitions and to recover from painful life events, significant losses, and mental health challenges. Denise’s work training parents, community members, and educational professionals at MHC integrates her clinical expertise and extensive teaching experience. She has a strong professional commitment to helping people create lives well-lived and believes that mental health literacy is at the heart of this work.
Denise lives in Massachusetts with her husband and is the mother of 2 grown children. She is passionate about fitness and healthy eating and spends much of her free time cooking, traveling, exploring new restaurants, and trying new forms of exercise and movement.
Dr. Art McCoy, Saint Louis University Superintendent-in-Residence
Enlightening, empowering, and engaging people in need, Dr. Art McCoy is a trailblazing educator, Superintendent Emeritus, entrepreneur, and evangelist of the Jesuit Mission as Saint Louis University's first Distinguished Fellow for the School of Education and Superintendent-in-Residence and champion for "Jobs and Justice" as the Regional Business Council STL.works Leader.
At age 19, he became Missouri's youngest certified teacher. He was a principal by 23, District Gifted Director after earning his doctorate at 25, and Ferguson-Florissant's first African-American Superintendent/CEO, and one of Missouri's youngest by age 33, leading Harvard's Pathways to Prosperity grant initiatives selected by Gov. Nixon and Kingian Nonviolence Training by SNCC co-founder and Dr. King Jr.'s National Coordinator, Bernard LaFayette, Jr., and St. Louis Police Captain Charles Alphin. Under his leadership in Jennings, multiple graduating classes achieved 100% graduation, career & college placement featured on Fox, CNN, and ABC. In 2006, he founded SAGES to "Sever Attainment Gaps Existing in Society:" raising over $20 million; advising corporations like Cigna, Mastercard, Daugherty Business Solutions, St. Louis County Police & Fire Departments; creating community homeless shelters, grocery hubs, school health clinics and innovative initiatives in workforce development, mental health, education, diversity/inclusion/equity; supporting over 1 million students in the US, Canada, Dubai, and Kenya.
Dr. McCoy has served on panels and plenaries with Dr. Bernice King and Martin Luther King III and over 35 boards like Mental Health of America in Washington D.C., Commerce Bank, the Urban League, Jobs for America's Graduates-Missouri chaired by Gov. Parson, and BJC St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Dai’ra Deshields, Teacher in Baltimore County Public Schools (Maryland)
Dai’ra Deshields is a Special Educator & Reading Teacher at Pikesville Middle School and is breaking all molds in Baltimore County Public Schools. She has worked extensively in setting up new educators to teach children in a social-emotional learning environment. Dai'ra advocates for student mental health and self-awareness, and strives to educate others on how to ease into adding peace and positivity to life.
Dai'ra holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology & strives to reach higher in the field of Somatic therapy. The Los Angeles native is also a published author with the work titled "1 Am Thoughts, Written By the Girl on the Stoop" - poetry aimed towards adolescents currently dealing with grief and loss, which she herself is familiar with. Dai'ra also owns a holistic service business, dedicated to providing Feng Shui / interior design and other products that aid mental & spiritual wellness.