Nurture: To nurture is not to coddle, but to equip our youth with what they need to meet their potential. Nurturing is not the absence of discipline, but the fulfillment of the original meaning - instruction, not punishment.

Everyday Habits: Youth-serving adults are best equipped when they have strategies that are not reserved for special occasions and milestones, but can become an automatic process in the everyday life such as Dr. John Gottman's "small things often."

Evidence-Based Habits: Children are nurtured best when their caregivers are fluent in regularly delivering supports that have been field-tested with rigorous experimental designs

Whole Children: We can only raise good neighbors if we tend to the whole child: their intellectual, emotional, social, physical, and spiritual development. Anything short of that is only part of the child.

Whole Villages: I believe that we were not designed to do this challenging work alone, but in communities that nurture each other.

Good Neighbors: Being a good neighbor includes, but is not limited to, the five core skills defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL): self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

The MAD - Marginalized, Abused, and Dismissed: I have a special commitment to nurturing traumatized and marginalized youth with emotional-behavioral regulation difficulties. In the words of Bryan Stevenson, “the true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored,... and the condemned."

Trauma-sensitive positive behavior supports and de-escalation techniques

Function-based, individualized positive behavior intervention planning

School-wide/classroom-level positive behavior supports

Classroom management coaching strategies

Developing group contingencies for general and special education settings

Instructional teaming for classroom teachers and paraprofessional educators