Finding Hope, Creativity, and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma
Friday, December 6, 2024, 1600 - 1800
LOCATION:
University of Toronto Bookstore
214 College St, Toronto, ON M5T 3A1, Canada
Phone: +1 416-640-7900
The author will deliver short remarks about her new book starting at 4:30 pm and she will be available to answer questions as well as sign and personalize books.
The author’s remarks will focus on three non-US centric topics : (1) Why we should care about the educational positives that arose during the Pandemic; (2) How we can facilitate change in the relative near term within educational settings; and (3) What is the role of educational leaders (principals, heads of school, superintendents) in advancing educational improvement from early childhood through adult learning.
Join us in an important and timely conversation that recognizes the omnipresence of challenges facing our educational institutions.
About the Author:
Karen Gross is an educator and an award-winning author and artist. She has written adult and children’s books, many of which are trauma sensitive/ responsive. She specializes in student and organizational success across the educational pipeline and focuses her attention on students who are traumatized or otherwise at risk based on socio-economic status, race or ethnicity.
She has worked all along the educational pipeline -- with early childhood educators and professors and academic leaders as well as students at all ages and stages. Her work has included policy makers, including serving on the Biden Campaign Domestic Policy Committee (focusing on student mental health). She teaches in the continuing education program at Rutgers School of Social Work and serves on the Advisory Council of Rutgers Graduate School of Education’s group on Minority Serving Institutions. Recently, she participated in the Army War College’s National Security Seminar from which she received a Certificate in Leadership Development.
She has a trilogy of adult books on trauma. The initial book, Breakaway Learners, published by Columbia Teachers College Press in 2017, describes and examines a new concept she developed called “lasticity,” a comprehensive approach and process for enabling student success that is distinct from (and an extension of) concepts such as resiliency, grit and mindsets. The next book (also from Teachers College Press 2020), Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door, extends the arguments from Breakaway Learners into settings where lasticity is absent and needs to be advanced and nurtured. The latter book has been used in a variety of settings during the Pandemic to help institutions deal more effectively with the Pandemic induced trauma. It also won the Delta Kappa Gamma Educator Book of the Year Award in 2021. Co-authored with Dr. Edward K.S. Wang, her forthcoming book and the third in the trilogy focuses on Pandemic positives and is titled Mending Education: Finding Hope, Creativity and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma. It was released by Teachers College Press in 2024 and completes the trilogy of books on trauma. The newest book is filled with the voices of educators and strategies that can improve educational outcomes in the midst and aftermath of a crisis.
Gross’ artwork has appeared in online and in-person settings. She has also done art as part of her presentations to both adults and students and has worked on installation art projects. Much of her artwork intersects with her trauma work, creating works that message about trauma and its impacts. She is a recipient of a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council grant to further her trauma art efforts. Her work has been donated to educational institutions in conjunction with workshops she has conducted. Her newest book contains selected of her art and a sampling of her artwork can be seen at www.artpal.com/karengross.
Trauma Expertise and Focus
All of Gross’ professional efforts, now over 40 years, have focused on asset building in low income communities, community economic development, over indebtedness and the success of more vulnerable populations including low income individuals, diverse populations, first generation students.
Her work does not stop with writing. She is regularly engaged with students at all ages and stages. She reads to children of all ages across the US and Canada and Tanzania. She consults with schools and universities and leads faculty/staff development seminars and workshops designed to improve institutional culture and student success.
Several examples of her work in the trauma arena are as follows:
She has assisted advocates for detained children in managing their clients and conducted workshops with teachers and administrators in Las Vegas after a mass shooting. Her books were delivered to children in Puerto Rico following the hurricanes. She has worked with young children and their teachers at an Indian Reservation. She has engaged with and assisted teachers at an Oregon middle school following shooting on their campus.
Category: Arts | Books and Literature | Book Signings
University of Toronto Bookstore
214 College St, Toronto, ON M5T 3A1, Canada
Phone: +1 416-640-7900
The author will deliver short remarks about her new book starting at 4:30 pm and she will be available to answer questions as well as sign and personalize books.
The author’s remarks will focus on three non-US centric topics : (1) Why we should care about the educational positives that arose during the Pandemic; (2) How we can facilitate change in the relative near term within educational settings; and (3) What is the role of educational leaders (principals, heads of school, superintendents) in advancing educational improvement from early childhood through adult learning.
Join us in an important and timely conversation that recognizes the omnipresence of challenges facing our educational institutions.
About the Author:
Karen Gross is an educator and an award-winning author and artist. She has written adult and children’s books, many of which are trauma sensitive/ responsive. She specializes in student and organizational success across the educational pipeline and focuses her attention on students who are traumatized or otherwise at risk based on socio-economic status, race or ethnicity.
She has worked all along the educational pipeline -- with early childhood educators and professors and academic leaders as well as students at all ages and stages. Her work has included policy makers, including serving on the Biden Campaign Domestic Policy Committee (focusing on student mental health). She teaches in the continuing education program at Rutgers School of Social Work and serves on the Advisory Council of Rutgers Graduate School of Education’s group on Minority Serving Institutions. Recently, she participated in the Army War College’s National Security Seminar from which she received a Certificate in Leadership Development.
She has a trilogy of adult books on trauma. The initial book, Breakaway Learners, published by Columbia Teachers College Press in 2017, describes and examines a new concept she developed called “lasticity,” a comprehensive approach and process for enabling student success that is distinct from (and an extension of) concepts such as resiliency, grit and mindsets. The next book (also from Teachers College Press 2020), Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door, extends the arguments from Breakaway Learners into settings where lasticity is absent and needs to be advanced and nurtured. The latter book has been used in a variety of settings during the Pandemic to help institutions deal more effectively with the Pandemic induced trauma. It also won the Delta Kappa Gamma Educator Book of the Year Award in 2021. Co-authored with Dr. Edward K.S. Wang, her forthcoming book and the third in the trilogy focuses on Pandemic positives and is titled Mending Education: Finding Hope, Creativity and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma. It was released by Teachers College Press in 2024 and completes the trilogy of books on trauma. The newest book is filled with the voices of educators and strategies that can improve educational outcomes in the midst and aftermath of a crisis.
Gross’ artwork has appeared in online and in-person settings. She has also done art as part of her presentations to both adults and students and has worked on installation art projects. Much of her artwork intersects with her trauma work, creating works that message about trauma and its impacts. She is a recipient of a 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council grant to further her trauma art efforts. Her work has been donated to educational institutions in conjunction with workshops she has conducted. Her newest book contains selected of her art and a sampling of her artwork can be seen at www.artpal.com/karengross.
Trauma Expertise and Focus
All of Gross’ professional efforts, now over 40 years, have focused on asset building in low income communities, community economic development, over indebtedness and the success of more vulnerable populations including low income individuals, diverse populations, first generation students.
Her work does not stop with writing. She is regularly engaged with students at all ages and stages. She reads to children of all ages across the US and Canada and Tanzania. She consults with schools and universities and leads faculty/staff development seminars and workshops designed to improve institutional culture and student success.
Several examples of her work in the trauma arena are as follows:
She has assisted advocates for detained children in managing their clients and conducted workshops with teachers and administrators in Las Vegas after a mass shooting. Her books were delivered to children in Puerto Rico following the hurricanes. She has worked with young children and their teachers at an Indian Reservation. She has engaged with and assisted teachers at an Oregon middle school following shooting on their campus.
Category: Arts | Books and Literature | Book Signings
Starting Price Per Person
Free
Other Information
Where
University of Toronto Bookstore
214 College Street
Toronto Ontario M5T 3A1
Canada
( Retail Space - Shop - Mall )
214 College Street
Toronto Ontario M5T 3A1
Canada
( Retail Space - Shop - Mall )
Event Organizer Contact
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Event ID: 243693
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