Community Circles

Megan Trcka & Vanessa Lazon

In this episode, I speak with two amazing women who support multicultural families and multilingual learners in the Nashville area. Megan Trcka manages the Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE) Program where she serves over 300 students that represent 10 different home countries. Vanessa Lazon works for the Office of English Learners as the EL Family & Community Specialist where she advocates for immigrants and refugees by connecting them to appropriate resources and supporting them as they navigate existing systems.

Paula Rampulla

In this episode, I engage with Dr. Paula Rampulla who is a bilingual licensed clinical psychologist. She is a psychotherapist for Family and Children's Services where she focuses on victims of trauma in the Hispanic community.

Community Circles

Community circles are an accessible and flexible trauma-informed practice that can be utilized with any grade level. This episode includes the guidelines, flow, and an example of a community circle, with special 5 and 6 year old guests.

Chris DaSilva

In this episode, I engage with my Graduate Program Director, Dr. Chris DaSilva. She specializes in language, literacy, and cultural studies where her research is centered on the teaching and learning of linguistically/culturally/racially diverse students. Her work is also centered around understanding family and community resources in diverse urban in-and-out of school contexts, and emphasizing educational opportunity and equity.

Ellen Montgomery

In this episode, I discuss equity centered trauma-informed practices with Ellen Montgomery. Ellen is a Trauma-Informed Specialist for MNPS. She is dedicated to advocating for humanizing pedagogy and a mindset shift in education.