Sonoma State University

Trauma-Informed Teaching

Trauma-Informed Teaching

Overview

The recently announced cuts at SSU have caused tremendous pain and fear within our community. To help our faculty and staff both process the changes and know how to support our students and other members of our community, CTET and Academic Affairs have invited Dr. Karen Gross, a nationally recognized expert on trauma-informed teaching, to lead a series of conversations and workshops at Sonoma State University. Through these events, Dr. Gross will share her understanding of trauma and its impact on the learning experience, and give participants practical tools with which to address these challenges.

 

Dr. Gross writes:

SSU is experiencing profound changes due to budget cuts, faculty and staff dismissals, and program eliminations, impacting not only those directly affected but also the entire campus community. While classes continue and essential student services remain in place, the emotional and psychological toll is significant. Acknowledging these challenges as a form of trauma, this workshop series – led by an expert in crisis management and trauma’s impact on learning – will provide practical strategies to support faculty, students, and staff. Together, we will explore ways to sustain effective teaching, foster student engagement, and maintain staff well-being during this time.

We also want to remind you of other support resources available to our campus community. Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is available for students at (707) 664-2153, and a Confidential Advocate can be reached at (707) 664-2698. Staff and faculty can access confidential support through the Employee Assistance Program, LifeMatters by Empathia, at 1-800-367-7474 or online via MyLifeMatters (password: "sonoma").

Events

Scheduled events hosted by Dr. Gross include:

Please see our Workshops page for the most up-to-date list of events in our Trauma-Informed Teaching series.

Dr. Karen Gross’ bio

Karen Gross is an educator, author and artist. She specializes in student success across the PreK—20 educational pipeline and focuses her attention on students who are traumatized or otherwise at risk based on socio-economic status, gender, race or ethnicity or religion. She also blogs regularly and speaks to groups and her artwork often appears in these venues. She is regularly quoted in the media and has participated in broadcasts and podcasts on current issues involving education, including PBS, NPR Cross Currents, The New York Times, The Week, Reader's Digest and Thrive Global, all as detailed on her website. 

 

Dr. Gross has worked as a teacher, lawyer, college professor, college president, and Senior Policy Advisor in the U.S. Department of Education. She currently serves as a continuing education instructor at Rutgers School of Social Work, teaching courses on trauma. She has been a visiting professor at several universities including at Bennington College and the University of British Columbia. She also recently taught a course on how to write, illustrate, design and publish children’s books through the Rocky Neck Art Colony and a workshop series for the MA PTA on how to read to children in an animated trauma-responsive way.

 

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 latest book, released by Teachers College Press in 2024, focuses on Pandemic positives and is titled Mending Education: Finding Hope, Creativity and Mental Wellness in Times of Trauma. It is filled with the voices of educators and strategies that can improve educational outcomes in the midst and aftermath of a crisis.

 

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, and first generation students. Her teaching, speaking, books, and art further these goals.

 

Gross currently divides her time between Gloucester, MA. and Washington, DC.  She is a Phi Beta Kappa Cum Laude graduate of Smith College, having spent her junior year at Dartmouth College in its first year of co-education and where she was a Rufus Choate scholar. She graduated cum laude from Temple University School of Law, having spent her third year of law school at the University of Chicago.

She can be emailed at: karengrosscooper@gmail.com. She is active on social media and can be contacted there as well.