November 5-7, 2025
Sheraton Koury Convention Center
3121 W. Gate City Blvd.
Greensboro, NC 27407
We look forward to having you join us at the North Carolina School Counselor Association Conference!
We hope to see you next year!
Lead Presenter: Allison Fears
With more attention being brought to antiracist school counseling practices and being encouraged ethically by ASCA, there is a significant need to prepare and inform school counselors on how to implement these practices in rural settings. This session will provide a review of research on the experiences and issues faced by rural school counselors seeking to implement antiracist practices, effective practices, and implications for school counselors.
Lead Presenter: Rachel Wolf
Learn how a middle school counseling team and assistant principal used data to address academic and attendance gaps among LatinX students. After starting with academic supports and college visits, they launched a LatinX Student Association to foster belonging and cultural pride. This session offers practical strategies for data use, collaboration, and creating student-led initiatives that support equity and inclusion.
Lead Presenter: TaRael Kee
School counseling programs must account for the rapidly changing school demographics. Students from multiple backgrounds have a variety of needs that standardized school counseling programs cannot address. Learn how school counselors can practice cross-cultural communication skills, utilize ASCA’s National Model from an equitable lens, identify student needs from an MTSS perspective, and use data to identify and remove equity barriers.
After attending this workshop, you should be able to:
Lead Presenter: Amy Schroeder
Join us for a look at the modernized National Career Clusters® Framework—now 14 Clusters—launching nationwide. Learn how this update bridges education and careers, supports high-quality programs, and what it means for NC. Perfect for school counselors guiding students in a changing world of work. Leave this session with an understanding of the updated structure, key definitions, and what these changes mean for NC’s CTE implementation in the school year 2026–27 and beyond.
Lead Presenter: Elishia Basner
Learn how to better manage and diffuse a crisis with De-escalation Strategies 101. In this session, you’ll gain an understanding of why students lose control of their emotions and the best strategies for addressing difficult situations. You’ll also learn proactive skills to help children of all ages develop regulation and coping skills to prevent future crises. With these tools, you’ll be better equipped to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in the classroom.
Lead Presenter: Sarah Case
There’s no ONE way to do a career day! We will provide plans, templates, communication examples for FOUR career day scenarios that we implemented. You’ll leave with a wealth of tools from which to pick and choose for your setting. Also, we’ll share tips and tricks for involving the staff and pulling off a future-focused experience for students that everyone can get behind.
Lead Presenter: Deirdra Williams
What does it take to create and maintain a Comprehensive School Counseling Program in your building? Are you not sure where to begin? Are you curious to see if you are on the right track? Is there more that you should be doing to document your work with your students and families to ensure that they are participating in your Comprehensive School Counseling Program? If you answered “YES” to any of these questions, this is the session for you! Come hear where to begin, how to edit what you are currently doing, and how to invite your administration in to see just “how your students are different because of their School Counselor”.
Lead Presenter: Franciene Sabens
School counselors have a unique and ethically obligated role in facilitating collaborative relationships with parents/guardians. This session will focus on the school counselor’s ethical responsibility to parents/guardians, as outlined by the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors. Specific examples and best practices to help school counselors navigate the legal and inherent rights of parents/guardians to be the guiding voice in their children’s lives and creative ways to foster collaborative relationships with parents/guardians will be discussed.
Lead Presenter: Makenzie Perkins
Whether you are a school counselor overwhelmed with the mental health needs of your caseload, or a parent wondering how on earth you can help your child navigate the ever-changing world we live in, this session is for you. Participants will gain a better understanding of current mental health trends, how to recognize declining mental wellness, and hands on techniques to support students experiencing a variety of mental health challenges.
Lead Presenter: Tambryme Hamilton-Simmons
This session invites school counselors and administrators to “Plug Into Your Power” by strengthening collaborative leadership. Participants will explore how School Counselor-Principal partnerships enhance student achievement, social/emotional wellness, and post-secondary success. Grounded in the ASCA 5th Edition and NC Standards, attendees will gain strategies and tools to clarify roles, demonstrate impact with data, and advocate for comprehensive counseling programs.
Lead Presenter: Dr. Kisha Bryant
Come learn about the latest updates impacting and connecting to the work of school counselors from the state level and how to be prepared to address them in your school and district!
Lead Presenter: Tyreeka Williams
In 2017, 70% of school counselors were white women, while only 11% identified as Black (Data USA, 2017). With the growing number of children of color in K-12 and the disproportionate number of diverse educators, Black School Counselors are integral to ensuring a level playing field for students. The presenters will share results from an ongoing qualitative study examining the impact of HBCU counseling programs on the retention and professional identity development of Black school counselors.
Lead Presenter: Ashley Wright
In today’s ever-changing and challenging world, resilience is a key ingredient for success, especially in academic and social settings. As school counselors, we have a responsibility to foster resilience in our students, and be intentional with measuring their success with the tools/strategies we provide. It is important that your counseling lessons are designed to collaborate with students, staff, and parents. Discover how data-driven strategies can positively impact all students, closing achievement gaps and creating resilient learners who excel academically and socially. This session will equip you with practical tools and techniques to integrate resilience-building activities into your counseling sessions and empower your students to overcome adversity.
Lead Presenter: Keyoshia Liverman
Chronic absenteeism is a growing challenge in schools, impacting academic performance, social/emotional well-being, and student success. This interactive session will equip school counselors and administrators with innovative strategies to develop and implement a “Never Been Absent” intervention. Attendees will explore evidence-based tools, engage in real-world case studies, and leave with actionable steps to improve student attendance in their schools.
Lead Presenter: Krisi Font
School counselors are especially vulnerable to burnout due to the emotional demands and systemic pressures of the role. In this interactive session, explore the biology of burnout, identify personal and professional triggers, and learn actionable strategies to recover and prevent burnout—without guilt. Walk away with tools to reconnect to your purpose, protect your peace, and sustain your impact.
Lead Presenter: Crystal Laws
Ready to turn your counseling ideas into digital magic? Whether you’re a digital newbie or a design ninja, you’ll leave with ready-to-use templates, fresh ideas, and the confidence to take your counseling program to the next level. We’ll unlock the creative power of tech tools that help you communicate, connect, and counsel like a pro. Come ready to click, create, and connect! Make sure to bring your computer—we’ll be working directly in Canva to create real-time resources you can use!
Lead Presenter: Elishia Basner
Learn how to better manage and diffuse a crisis with De-escalation Strategies 101. In this session, you’ll gain an understanding of why students lose control of their emotions and the best strategies for addressing difficult situations. You’ll also learn proactive skills to help children of all ages develop regulation and coping skills to prevent future crises. With these tools, you’ll be better equipped to ensure the safety and well-being of everyone in the classroom.
Lead Presenter: Dr. Kisha Bryant
This session is for district school counselor leadership only. We will have a collaborative session to discuss successes and challenges happening in our school districts and share best practices of how to address these challenges.
Lead Presenter: Nicole E. Ballance
The Infinite Campus Early Warning System is a powerful, machine-learning-driven tool designed to evaluate student data to predict their likelihood of successful grade promotion and graduation across K-12. By analyzing a vast array of data points from multiple years and past student outcomes, the system provides a quick, effective way to identify at-risk students in various categories. With its interactive, and user-friendly interface, this tool offers valuable insights and features tailored to support multiple stakeholder roles in promoting student success.
Lead Presenter: Gina Montague
This session will guide participants in how to implement several practical and innovative ways to collect and track school counseling program data and then share it with stakeholders. This session will also connect data to action steps for the school counseling program and social/emotional learning implementation in the school at large. The goal is to empower school counselors to serve as leaders in data and social/emotional learning and to advocate for the school counseling role.
Lead Presenter: Dejanell Mittman
Collaboration between administrators and school counselors is vital to the creation and maintenance of supportive school environments, comprehensive counseling programs, and student success. This presentation will feature best practices and practical strategies for building and maintaining strong relationships with administrators through an emphasis on role understanding, communication, and collaborative decision-making.
Lead Presenter: Sallie Wooten
This train-the-trainer session equips school counselors with the knowledge and tools to understand and support executive functioning skills in students. Participants will explore core EF skills such as impulse control, working memory, and emotional regulation, and examine how these skills impact academic performance and social development. The session provides developmentally appropriate strategies for elementary, middle, and high school students.
Lead Presenter: Cassie Higgs
This session will equip school counselors with evidence-based strategies to support Individual Student Planning and ensure seamless transitions for students as they move from elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, and high school to post-secondary education and the workforce. This presentation will introduce innovative and inclusive interventions that promote student readiness, adaptability, and success at each educational milestone.
Lead Presenter: Franciene Sabens
School counselors have a unique and ethically obligated role in facilitating collaborative relationships with parents/guardians. This session will focus on the school counselor’s ethical responsibility to parents/guardians, as outlined by the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors. Specific examples and best practices to help school counselors navigate the legal and inherent rights of parents/guardians to be the guiding voice in their children’s lives and creative ways to foster collaborative relationships with parents/guardians will be discussed.
Lead Presenter: Makenzie Perkins
Whether you are a school counselor overwhelmed with the mental health needs of your caseload, or a parent wondering how on earth you can help your child navigate the ever-changing world we live in, this session is for you. Participants will gain a better understanding of current mental health trends, how to recognize declining mental wellness, and hands on techniques to support students experiencing a variety of mental health challenges.
Lead Presenter: Kristen Litchfield
Go into the National Board process with clarity and confidence. Attendees will learn about the “big picture” for each of the four components and the key details that need to be addressed. You will be guided through components 1 through 4 and provided with resources to help you plan for successful submission.
Lead Presenter: Yolanda Jarrett
What does it mean for students to truly plug into their purpose—and how can school counselors help them get there? Discover how student-centered career development, SEL, and equity-focused strategies can help students plug into their power and build strong pathways to post-secondary success. This session offers practical tools for supporting career readiness across all grade levels in developmentally appropriate and culturally responsive ways.
Lead Presenter: Sara Nussman
Only 35% of school counseling graduate programs include coursework pertaining to students with disabilities (Goodman-Scott et al., 2019). This can make working with students who have limited verbal and cognitive abilities a real challenge for school counselors. Come learn about meaningful ways to facilitate conversation and interpersonal connection in “counseling sessions” with students with disabilities. We will discuss how to utilize play, language frames, visuals and so much more!
Lead Presenter: Natalie Gwyn
Have you found yourself assisting more and more students experiencing overwhelming anxiety? School counselors are often the first responders when students are experiencing high anxiety during the school day. This session will dive deeper into the research about student anxiety, causes, and ways to help students work through anxiety using proven and effective techniques. Attendees will leave with practical interventions to help students discover their true power.
Lead Presenter: Marshall Nagy
Looking for resources and activities to incorporate with your elementary small group lessons? Join us as we model a variety of methods and resources to make your small group instruction engaging and meaningful for students. We will emphasize methods for fostering connections as we share practical ideas. You will leave with ideas and resources to take back to your school and use immediately!
Lead Presenter: Shana Richards
Join us for an engaging session on FAFSA completion and post-high school planning! Learn data-driven strategies to increase student participation, host impactful FAFSA events, and provide targeted support for families. Discover best practices for maximizing financial aid opportunities and guiding students toward college, career, and beyond. Leave with actionable tools to help students secure the bag and successfully plan their futures!
Lead Presenter: Shannon Kromer
Effectively managing classroom behavior is key to delivering engaging counseling lessons. Disruptions can hinder instruction, making it hard to meet objectives. This interactive session equips school counselors with practical strategies to create a positive, structured learning environment. Attendees will explore proactive management techniques, student engagement strategies, and evidence-based interventions to address common behavioral challenges.
Lead Presenter: Dr. Ashanti Shepherd
NC has seen historical gains in student participation in AP courses AND in qualifying credit scores of 3+. Students, including underserved populations, are thriving on AP exams. School counselors will receive resources showing the college credit value when students earn the achievable scores of 3+; attendees will hear one school’s journey to change student trajectories with AP courses; and the NC AP Partnership will share the free resources provided to AP teachers to strengthen student learning.
Lead Presenter: Dr. Zakiyyah Omar
How do you turn school data into real student impact? Dive into this interactive escape-room-inspired session to unlock the secrets of aligning NC Student Success Standards with student needs. You’ll leave with tools to create meaningful, measurable program goals that hit the mark. Whether you’re new to goal setting or ready to level up, this session is your key to intentional, data-driven impact.
Lead Presenter: Angela Poovey
School counselors face unprecedented challenges in 2025 due to ongoing staff vacancies, high student needs and lack of resources. We must adopt innovative and strategic approaches to maintain and strengthen our programs. Explore actionable strategies to maximize school counseling impact during times of uncertainty, including prioritizing student needs, identifying skill-based topics, leveraging partnerships, utilizing technology, integrating a team approach, and advocacy.
Lead Presenter: Lauren Mena
Discover how purposeful movement boosts learning through embodied cognition—the idea that body and brain work together. Movement enhances memory, reduces stress, regulates mood, and improves comprehension. Participants will walk away with practical strategies to integrate movement into academic settings and support whole-child development.
Lead Presenter: Veronica Edge
This session highlights the impact of wraparound services through strong school, family, and community partnerships—all aligned with the ASCA National Model. Learn practical strategies, explore real examples, and discover how working together can support every part of a student’s growth. When we wrap around students with care and connection, everyone wins!
Lead Presenter: Emily Costa
Struggling with chronic absenteeism in your elementary school? It’s time to plug into your power as a school counselor and explore strategies to promote consistent attendance, strengthen school climate, and foster family partnerships. Learn how to use school data, build effective interventions, and implement incentives that work for young learners. Walk away with ready-to-use tools and renewed confidence as an attendance advocate.
Lead Presenter: Patrick Cunningham
More than 5000 students have a suicide attempt every day, and more than two million required an ER visit due to suicidal crises last year alone. This session will provide a framework for re-entry that includes concrete and specific strategies for school counselors. Participants will learn how to develop and implement a plan for re-entry and reintegration that prioritizes student safety and learning, communication and collaboration with families, and clarity of roles.
Lead Presenter: Quinandria Lee
This interactive workshop explores strategies to help children and adolescents recognize, understand, and manage their emotions effectively. Participants will gain practical tools rooted in cognitive behavioral techniques, mindfulness, and trauma-informed practices. Ideal for educators, school counselors, and mental health professionals, this session will offer real-world applications to support emotional resilience in school and therapeutic settings.
Lead Presenter: Hilary Lucas
Join us for an insightful session that highlights the powerful partnership between Craven Early College High School and Craven Community College Career Programs. Discover the strategies that have fueled this successful collaboration, boosted student enrollment, and paved the way for students to thrive after earning their certificates or degrees. We’ll share best practices, real-world examples, and key takeaways for successful educational partnerships!
Lead Presenter: James Kuhn
Learn how ASCA behavior standards can help students identify, develop and implement effective learning strategies to increase their self-efficacy.
Lead Presenter: Bethany White
Expressive arts, including visual arts, music, dance, drama, and writing, offer students a safe outlet to explore emotions and thoughts. In this session, you will learn strategies to integrate expressive arts into counseling for students of all needs and abilities. Leave with a toolkit of ready-to-use activities and resources that enhance your school counseling program and support student growth through creativity.
Lead Presenter: Stephanie Nelson
Whether you are a school counselor or school counseling district leader, learn how you can team up to go through the RAMP® process successfully. Learn to share and articulate strategies to district leaders, especially if there is currently minimal or no support in place. Discover tangible strategies to support your schools through real examples of how collaborative efforts, timelines and district-wide support activities led to earning RAMP® recognition. Get on track to RAMP®!
Lead Presenter: Ponsella Brown
Explore the exciting world of college! Learn how building dreams and adventures starts now. Fifth graders are embarking on a new venture transitioning into middle school. Show them that they have the world in their hands with plans, achieving goals, and execution of good habits and character. Step into their future and show them pathway possibilities!
Lead Presenter: Nia Robinson
This presentation examines the impact of social/emotional learning (SEL) interventions on student behavior and school climate within a Title I High School. Attendees will review data trends, explore evidence-based practices, and analyze the systemic challenges and opportunities of embedding SEL into the fabric of a Title I High School. This session is designed for attendees seeking to understand how SEL functions as both a behavioral intervention and a lever for equity and student success.
Lead Presenter: Ashleigh Arceo
This session will provide essential knowledge, effective strategies, and tools to support students and families through the complexities of college admissions. Gain insights into current trends, help students build strong applications, and guide families with clarity and confidence. This session focuses on practical, student-centered approaches that counselors can implement immediately, with key takeaways for all, including resources for supporting under-represented students.
Lead Presenter: Dalayna Gardner
Without strategic planning, college visits can lack impact. This session equips counselors with tools to design meaningful, personalized tours that support students from diverse backgrounds, including under-represented and first-generation students. Participants will learn strategies to address how demographics affect tour experiences, enhance collaboration with admissions offices, and boost student engagement during campus visits.
Lead Presenter: LaQuita Lipscomb
The PIVOT Program was created to intervene early, re-engage struggling students, and promote growth in academic performance, emotional wellness, and self-worth. This counselor-led initiative targets students who are slipping through the cracks by offering monthly small group sessions, individualized goal setting, skill-building activities, and intentional relationship-building practices rooted in positive psychology.
Lead Presenter: Megan Demolina
School counselors are pivotal in fostering students’ academic, career, and social/emotional success and must have a seat at the leadership table. Their specialized knowledge in student development and well-being is vital for informed decision-making. This presentation will equip participants with practical strategies to advocate for their indispensable role within leadership teams, ensuring that policies and initiatives holistically support all students and promote an inclusive school culture.
Lead Presenter: Ashley Sherman
School counselors play a critical leadership role in building restorative school communities, but we can’t do it alone. This interactive session will equip counselors with practical strategies to coach educators in restorative practices (RP) to build relationships, repair harm when it occurs, and support student belonging. Participants will explore real-world coaching scenarios and gain ready-to-use tools to lead schoolwide RP implementation. Prior familiarity with RP is recommended.
Lead Presenter: Maggie Leviner
An effective Professional Learning Community (PLC) can transform your Student Services team, improving collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and advocacy efforts. In this session, we will explore what a PLC looks like in Student Services, establish key team non-negotiables, learn how to utilize data effectively, and discover ways to advocate for your department and role. Join us to gain practical strategies that will enhance your team’s impact and drive meaningful change!
Lead Presenter: Dr. Cherice Artis
Ready to level up your impact? This interactive workshop is for new and veteran school counselors looking to build stronger student support teams. Learn practical tools, shared interventions, and real-world strategies to support students and families facing tough challenges. Walk away empowered and equipped to collaborate more effectively with school social workers—because when we work together, students win.
Lead Presenter: Karen Evans
This session explores how school counselors can effectively support behavior interventions. Learn to analyze data, select appropriate Tier 2 supports or interventions, and monitor progress. We’ll also discuss aligning interventions with NC Student Success Standards. Participants will leave with practical strategies and tools you can apply immediately at your school.
Lead Presenter: Stephanie Bruce
There is an art AND a science to forming counseling groups. Does a student need a Tier 2 intervention for coping skills because the discipline data shows a need? Does a student display teacher pleasing behaviors, but you know they have anxiety and could benefit from learning the same coping skills? Herein lies the art and the science–what we see in data, but what we know as professionals. Let’s learn how these two can come together in a Multi-Tiered System of Supports.
Lead Presenter: Sam Woodrum
Our students (and all of us) constantly engage in story when reflecting on the events of our lives and thinking about who we are. Learn some basics of the craft of storytelling as well as specific individual and group techniques that use story to empower growth through the development of positive self-concept and self-efficacy. The presenters bring their experience in school counseling, resilience and trauma-informed education, and storytelling events to create a fun and practical session.
Lead Presenter: Tiffany McQueen
Discover how intentional collaboration between administrators, teachers, and student services staff drives student success. This session offers actionable strategies to align goals, improve communication, and coordinate efforts through a shared vision. Participants will leave with a customizable framework to build stronger partnerships and create impactful, data-informed support systems.
Lead Presenter: Marianna Bowden
Each school year has it’s challenges and losses. This session will provide tools to help school counselors create a plan to help their school community during a time of crisis. This plan will consist of how information will be shared, how and what community supports will be offered, how the school will meet the mental health needs of students and staff, and how future events will be addressed. Staff well-being during a crisis will also be addressed.
Lead Presenter: Robin Heyward
Not every student chooses college, but every student deserves a future-ready plan. As AI transforms the workforce, some jobs disappear while new opportunities emerge. This session explores how AI impacts industries that employ non-college-bound students and offers strategies counselors can use to guide them toward meaningful, sustainable careers. Leave with tools, talking points, and inspiration to champion all learners in an AI-powered world.
Lead Presenter: Julia Cook
In Julia’s presentation, Books That Make a Positive Difference, she leads an entertaining discussion on the use of storybooks to offer children and adults a fun way to learn important people skills. Teach your students to become lifelong problem solvers! Julia will demonstrate humorous and effective ways to use books on such subjects as anger control, grief, following instructions, tattling, bullying, personal space, interrupting, and personal safety. The writing and publishing process will also be explained – learn to become a published author!
Lead Presenter: Rotisha Hall
Black school counselors are more than educators, we are leaders, advocates, and change-makers shaping the future of student success. This powerful session explores how passion, leadership, unity, and growth drive our impact in schools. Through real-world insights, research, and storytelling, we’ll examine representation, advocacy, and self-care in a system that often overlooks our contributions. Attendees will leave empowered to lead, uplift, and transform their schools and communities.
Lead Presenter: Jeffrey Warren
Academic and mental health challenges persist in K–12 schools, with school counselors often hindered by high caseloads and role ambiguity, while emerging research highlights gaps in program implementation. This presentation explores how implementation science and generative AI can support school counselors in delivering effective, data-driven services. Case examples will illustrate how prompt engineering and AI output can guide intervention planning. Implications for practice will be discussed.
Lead Presenter: Patrick Cunningham
Family engagement in education is critical to student success, and we play a critical role when it comes to fostering effective school-family partnerships. Unfortunately, there are common misconceptions about what family engagement can and should look like. This presentation will provide novel ways to think about effective school-family partnerships. It will also highlight model family engagement, and participants will walk away equipped to develop a plan to apply these strategies.
Lead Presenter: Megan Tajlili
This session offers practical, developmentally appropriate job search strategies for counselors-in-training. Attendees will explore activities to support resume-building, networking, interviewing, and identifying values-aligned positions, all while addressing common job search anxiety and self-doubt.
Lead Presenter: Adrian Hammonds
High School Student: “You Mean I Have to Ask Someone”? A barrier to student opportunities is the inability to communicate to others. Networking is an untaught skill in middle/high school. Networking skills can lead to greater opportunities. Use these tactics and best practices to insert networking skills into your counseling practice. Teach your students networking skills and they don’t even know you are doing it!
Lead Presenter: Camille Wilson
Our proposal outlines a comprehensive presentation aimed at school counselors, focusing on a review of freely available resources to aid in college preparation for students and families. The presentation’s primary objective is to equip counselors with knowledge of various tools that can significantly lighten their workload while enhancing their effectiveness in helping students and families explore college options.
Lead Presenter: Dr. Kisha Bryant
Come learn about the latest updates impacting and connecting to the work of school counselors from the state level and how to be prepared to address them in your school and district!
Lead Presenter: Andrea LeClair
Ready to take your school counseling program to the next level? This session will walk you through the step-by-step process of becoming a Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP). Whether you’re just beginning your RAMP journey or looking to fine-tune your approach, you’ll leave with practical tools, tips, and the confidence to lead a program that gets noticed—and gets results. It’s time to PLUG into the ASCA National Model and RAMP up your comprehensive counseling program!
Lead Presenter: Natalie McCurley
This presentation will teach participants how to use a think tank approach to advocate for the elementary school counseling profession as it shifts from the enhancements schedule to the ASCA model. Attendees will learn strategies to promote the proper use of school counselors in supporting students’ academic, social, and emotional growth.
Lead Presenter: Alaina Schrader
ADHD is more than hyperactivity—it’s a different way of experiencing the world! In this lively session, you’ll dive into the ADHD brain, bust myths, explore the science, and learn why traditional methods often fall short. Walk away with real strategies to support students’ organization, emotional regulation, and resilience—plus a few insights for your own life, too. Expect humor, practical tips, and inspiration to better understand and empower neurodivergent learners!
Lead Presenter: Shari Manning Cook
The Student Support Services Team at ECHHS will share it’s unique take on enhancing school culture and community through supporting students’ mental health. We will be sharing the specifics of how we launched and continued to build targeted programming to address the increase in student mental health concerns. Our session topics include: use of small groups, leveraging school/community resources, and how data drives our programming. Participants will walk away with our best practices.
Lead Presenter: Jessalyn Pedone
This session will cover the impact of trauma on students and how to support those in crisis. Participants will learn to recognize signs of trauma, apply trauma-informed strategies, and collaborate with school staff, mental health professionals, and families to provide effective support.
Lead Presenter: Mary McKnight
Ocracoke Island, the southernmost point of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, has one PreK–12 school and one counselor. In 2019, Hurricane Dorian devastated the island, displacing over 50% of residents. This presentation outlines the three-tiered mental health support used at Ocracoke School post-storm. Learn about the trauma survey used, interventions at each tier, and resources leveraged to support students’ mental health and recovery.
Lead Presenter: James Kuhn
Learn how ASCA behavior standards can help students identify, develop and implement effective learning strategies to increase their self-efficacy.
Lead Presenter: Rachel Minick
Aimed at empowering educators, school counselors, and school administrators in their work with neurodivergent elementary-aged students, this presentation will provide insights into foundational supports that promote emotional regulation, sensory safety, and executive functioning within inclusive school environments. This presentation will encourage reflection and equip professionals with actionable tools and insights to foster inclusive, supportive educational experiences for all students.
Lead Presenter: Shavonne Oliver
In this session, participants will learn about youth participatory action research and discuss implications for implementation as a critical and responsive school counseling intervention. Through YPAR, school counselors can encourage student inquiry, advocate for student agency, and empower students to engage in critical inquiry and social justice action projects. YPAR can be a useful tool, strategy, research methodology, pedagogy and intervention for school counseling practitioners.
Lead Presenter: Carlie Wood
Implementing technology into Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) requires a thoughtful approach to ensure it supports students’ emotional growth, interpersonal skills, and self-awareness. Technology should be used to enhance—not replace—human interaction, encouraging meaningful communication and collaboration. Best practices focus on ensuring that technology supports core SEL goals, such as fostering empathy, collaboration, and responsible decision-making.
Lead Presenter: Stephanie Preston
In today’s educational landscape, student success goes far beyond academic achievement. A positive school climate and a culturally responsive environment are essential to students’ overall well-being—and school counselors are uniquely positioned to lead this charge. In this interactive session, LaShana Richards and Stephanie Preston explore how counselors can actively shape school culture to foster inclusion, belonging, and emotional safety.
Lead Presenter: Karen Rankins
Effective communication is the cornerstone of strong relationships—and strong relationships are essential for student success. In this interactive session, participants will explore how school counselors can build meaningful connections with students, families, staff, and community partners using a practical and intentional communication framework. Through real-life scenarios, collaborative discussions, and reflection tools, participants will learn how to apply the C.A.R.E. Framework.
Lead Presenter: Stephanie Nelson
Whether you are a school counselor or school counseling district leader, learn how you can team up to go through the RAMP® process successfully. Learn to share and articulate strategies to district leaders, especially if there is currently minimal or no support in place. Discover tangible strategies to support your schools through real examples of how collaborative efforts, timelines and district-wide support activities led to earning RAMP® recognition. Get on track to RAMP®!
Lead Presenter: Shameka Johnson-Reeves
This session will explore how school counselors can effectively support McKinney-Vento and foster youth by combining trauma-informed care, advocacy, and strategic intervention. Attendees will learn to build systems of support rooted in belonging, connection, and access, turning empathy into action.
Lead Presenter: Noelle Hughes
Behaviors in schools are on the rise, but that doesn’t mean your stress level has to rise with it! In this session, counselors will explore the creation of a sensory circuit to address behavioral “high flyers” at the elementary level. We will discuss the practical application of a sensory circuit and anecdotal information of sensory circuit use with children with significant behavioral needs.
Lead Presenter: Megan Tajlili
This interactive session equips site supervisors and counselors-in-training with communication skills to bridge the gap between research and practice. Using pop culture references and humor, attendees will learn practical strategies to foster open dialogue, make evidence-based concepts accessible, and build stronger supervision relationships.
Lead Presenter: Kristen Litchfield
Go into the National Board process with clarity and confidence. Attendees will learn about the “big picture” for each of the four components and the key details that need to be addressed. You will be guided through components 1 through 4 and provided with resources to help you plan for successful submission.
Lead Presenter: David Martin
The Army National Guard has a lot to offer. It is a great way for students to start their life journey as young adults. The Guard offers education benefits, career building, personal development, financial readiness, and a way to serve their local community and state.
Lead Presenter: Melissa Mecadon-Mann
School counselors often supervise graduate students without formal training in supervision theories or models. This session introduces practical supervision frameworks for school settings, addresses ethical considerations, and connects supervision to leadership development. Participants will gain strategies for structured supervision sessions, effective feedback techniques, and resources to enhance their leadership as mentors shaping the next generation of school counselors.
Lead Presenter: Kelsie Haric
Applying social skills in the real world can be challenging for many children. Utilizing role playing games (RPGs) in a small group counseling setting can be a powerful and engaging tool to teach students how to make and keep friends. Participants will learn what RPGs are developmentally appropriate, how to apply SEL to the game, and see real world examples and results in addition to evidence-based practices that support these techniques. No prior knowledge of RPGs needed!
Lead Presenter: Wes Calbreath
At App State GEAR UP, we have built a virtual tool that encompasses the three major components of post-secondary planning. We call it the C.O.R.E. system(College Options, Research, and Education). C.O.R.E is a website that contains strong practices, tools, and templates that guide student-facing professionals in their post-secondary work. This system yielded post-secondary enrollment rates of 72-78% over 4 years at one rural high school, even during the pandemic.
Lead Presenter: Hannah Green
In this presentation, participants will learn how trauma affects the developing brain and nervous system of children and adolescents and how to best respond to such trauma. Presenters will teach attendees a set of trauma-informed, relationship-building counseling techniques to form connections with students that can lead to improved behaviors and improved classroom engagement. Walk away with an enhanced, trauma-informed understanding of the art of the relationship when working with students.
Lead Presenter: Cynthia Floyd
Are you frustrated by knowing what you need to do to implement a comprehensive school counseling program, but being assigned non-counseling duties and responsibilities that become barriers to delivering the program? In this session, we will discuss common barriers to implementation, how to turn these obstacles into opportunities through advocacy and collaboration, and how to make the most of unavoidable assigned non-counseling duties.
Lead Presenter: Kira Hague
Restorative Circles provide an opportunity for everyone to have their voice heard. A circle may be held to evaluate school programs, to navigate difficult conversations, to solve problems, or to celebrate accomplishments. This will not be your traditional conference session! Attendees will be invited to participate in Restorative Circles while also learning how to become a Circle Keeper themselves. It’s Circle Time!!!!
Lead Presenter: Maggie Latta-Milord
This presentation will provide an overview for how children’s literature can be incorporated into both classroom lessons and group and individual counseling sessions to bridge academic and social/emotional learning goals as well as foster meaningful reflection and communication opportunities. Participants will explore specific picture books and how they can be applied to counseling standards and extended to therapeutic activities such as community building circles, play therapy, and art therapy.
National Center for Youth Issues
ATTN: NCSCA
P.O. Box 22185
Chattanooga, TN 37422-2185
