Schedule & Sessions: 2022 FLE Summit
The 2022 Family Life Education Summit is scheduled for Friday, June 24, 2022. This will be a virtual event to focus solely on family practitioners at all experience levels working with and for families.
The summit is approved for up to 14 CFLE contact hours of continuing education credit.
Schedule & Sessions
All sessions will be recorded and available for viewing by registrants after the event. All times listed are in Central Daylight Time (CT).
Opening Remarks
Dorothy Berglund, Ph.D., CFLE
Keynote Address: 10:00 – 11:15 a.m. CT
101 - Evolving Best Practices in Family Life Education amid the Pandemic’s New Normal
Judith A. Myers-Walls, Ph.D., CFLE
How have the events of 2020-2021 and beyond shaped the expectations and practices of families, family life educators, and the environment in which we do our work? This presentation will look at the roles of grief and resilience as processes both to be used by the educators themselves and to be applied in educational settings with families. Full keynote details.
Judith A. Myers-Walls, Ph.D., is an NCFR Fellow and CFLE Emeritus. She has been a faculty member at Purdue University in human development and family studies for 31 years, working with Cooperative Extension, teaching in and outside the classroom, and training other family professionals. Dr. Myers-Walls' teaching and research pursuits include Family Life Education and educational program delivery strategies, cultural contexts of families and parents, talking to children about difficult topics, and online education for at-risk families—especially related to divorce/separation or abuse/neglect. Read full bio.
Morning Break: 11:15 – 11:30 a.m. CT
Concurrent Sessions: 11:30 a.m. – 12:45 p.m. CT
201 - When Words Fail: Working with Children and Families who have Experienced Trauma
Elizabeth Ramsey, Ph.D., CFLE
When people experience a traumatic event, they are often left with an inability to verbalize what happened to them (Van Der Kolk, 2014). Moreover, children are often at a bigger verbal deficit because of their developing verbal skills (Steele and Malchiodi, 2012; Van Der Kolk, 2014). Because trauma is often remembered through sensations and images and not easily verbalized, trauma is best resolved through a whole-body approach (Steele and Malchiodi, 2012), and using imagery, activities, and sensory experiences (Steele and Malchiodi, 2012). This presentation will help everyday FLE providers implement strategies for a trauma informed approach, learn how to avoid triggers, and how to deescalate individuals when working with families and children.
By the end of this presentation, the learner will be able to:
- identify common responses of individuals who have experienced trauma
- review various strategies for working with individuals who have experienced trauma
- identify ways to deescalate a person who has been triggered.
Elizabeth Ramsey, Ph.D., CFLE, is a Professor at Tennessee Technological University in Human Ecology. She leads the concentration of Family and Consumer Science Education along with contributing to the concentration of Child Development and Family Relations. Additionally, Dr. Ramsey is a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) and a Rule 31 Family Mediator. She is a dual licensed educator in Tennessee carrying endorsements in both Kindergarten through sixth grade and Family and Consumer Sciences Education. She is a master trainer in Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Trauma Informed Care. Dr. Ramsey’s research and project interests include: the training and education of foster parents, social health education in public school systems, implementation of Trauma Informed Care in helping professions, the mitigation and prevention of ACEs, and building resilience in children and families who have experienced ACEs and/or trauma. Dr. Ramsey is a published author in several academic journals and is currently under contract writing a textbook titled Family and Consumer Sciences: Preventative and Restorative Education. Dr. Ramsey resides in Cookeville with her husband, Paul. They have four children, and two grandchildren. She enjoys spending time on the lake and traveling with her family.
202 - Integrating Reflective Practice into Family Life Education Professional Identity
Angie Walston, M.S., CFLE
As professionals who work with families, we are often focused on the programmatic outcomes, participant experiences, and day-to-day challenges, leaving little time to consider our own feelings and thoughts around providing services. In the midst of these pressures, we are likely absorbing stresses and concerns from the families we work alongside, some which might trigger our own experiences, past and present. Many social services professionals report not having space for healthy reflection. This workshop will explore the importance of metacognition and reflective processes for family professionals. Creating space for and learning strategies to process positively impacts our professional growth and our personal health. Reflective practitioners can bring awareness and model the importance of thoughtful processing for our clients and community members, making reflection an emerging aspect of FLE professional identity and an important skill FLEs can provide to families.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Define Metacognition and Reflective Practice and explore its application within the field of Family Life Education
- Consider and share how personal experiences both past and present impact our work as FLEs and how reflective practice could address these stressors;
- Participate in reflective activities that could be applied into FLE practice and professional development.
Angie Walston is the coordinator of the online Bachelors in Human Development and Family Studies at Maryville University. She is a CFLE with over a decade of experience working with children and families in a variety of contexts from the non-profit sector to the university setting. Her passions are training parents and students in reflective practice, child development, proactive parenting strategies and healthy family patterns, as well as facilitating a deeper compassion and insight toward families and the challenges they face in our increasingly complex world.
203 - National Parenting Education Network (NPEN) Parenting Educator Competencies: Resource Documents for Professional and Paraprofessional Parenting Educators
Lorna Durrant, Ph.D., CFLE; Betty L. Cooke, Ph.D., CFLE; Sandra McClintic, Ph.D., CFLE
Participants will be introduced to three resource documents from NPEN; two parenting educator competencies documents, and a manual for recruiting, training, and supervising paraprofessionals. The Professional Parent Educator competencies document provides a broad and comprehensive set of competencies that include key knowledge, skills, and attitudes and dispositions typical of effective parenting educators.
The Paraprofessional Parenting Educator Competencies document identifies competencies for paraprofessionals in parenting education. The recruiting, training, and supervising manual offers guidance and tools for community organizations that utilize paraprofessional parent educators.
The participants will learn of the numerous ways the three resources can be used, as well as those who may benefit from using them, ranging from individual parenting and Family Life Educators to state and national systems or organizations that set standards for parenting education. The audience will also discuss how they can apply the competencies in their role and mode of delivery in parenting and Family Life Education.
By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:
- identify the four domains considered essential to effective parenting education, in the competency framework.
- explain the contents of the three NPEN resource documents.
- discuss at least five potential users and uses of the resource documents.
Lorna Durrant has a Ph.D. in Family Studies and she is also a CFLE. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, and the program coordinator for the Child and Family Studies program in the School of Education. Her research interest includes parenting and interracial families.
Betty Cooke has over 50 years of professional experience working with and for young children and their families as an early childhood educator, parent educator, teacher educator, and administrator of programs for children and families. In 1988 Betty completed a Ph.D. in education with an emphasis on parent and family education at the University of Minnesota. She recently retired from the faculty in Family Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. Prior to that, she spent 15 years in the position of an Early Childhood and Family Education specialist at the Minnesota Department of Education. Betty is a Certified Family Life Educator.
Sandra McClintic, Ph.D., CFLE Emeritus has 40 years of experience in early childhood education and family life education. She has a Doctorate of Philosophy in Child Development, a Master of Science in Family Studies and is a Certified Family Life Educator Emeritus. Dr. McClintic is a retired Assistant Professor at Texas Woman’s University (TWU) where she continues to teach as an adjunct.
204 - Meeting Participants Where They Are: Novel Methods for Recruitment and Retention in Family Life Education
Alisha Hardman, Ph.D., CFLE; Lori Elmore-Stanton, Ph.D.; Izzy Thornton, M.S., Audrey Reid, M.S.; Emily Grubbs, M.S.
In response to challenges presented during the pandemic, our team developed a Family Life Education strategy that overcomes barriers traditionally associated with the administration of educational programming (i.e., challenges related to transportation, access to childcare, scheduling, stigma associated with seeking parent education).
The toolkit model our team developed is a parent education and guidance strategy consisting of a series of parenting toolkits which includes informational materials as well as toys and games to promote child development and family interactions.
We will describe the program and software platforms (i.e., Google Analytics, RedCap, Qualtrics) we have used to recruit participants through social media and community flyers, track participants throughout the course of the program, and retain them over the course of longitudinal data collection using personal interactions via phone, text, and email. We will share program successes as well as lessons learned through the development, implementation, and evaluation of this FLE approach.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- identify at least three best practices for recruiting and/or retaining Family Life Education participants;
- describe how the three software applications (i.e., Google Analytics, RedCap, Qualtrics) can be used to enhance Family Life Education programming;
- recall at least three best practices for collecting evaluation data from Family Life Education programming.
Dr. Alisha Hardman is an Associate Professor in the School of Human Sciences at Mississippi State University where she teaches Human Development and Family Science courses. She is also a state Extension Family Life and Evaluation Specialist. She has been a Certified Family Life Educator (CFLE) for 15 years. Her teaching and Extension programming has recently centered around training students, parents, and professionals about the impact of trauma on children and their families and equipping these populations with skills to respond in a trauma-informed manner. Dr. Hardman is a co-project director on the TIPPS project. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in family studies and human services at Kansas State University and her doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Lori Elmore-Staton is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Mississippi State University. She received her B. A. degree in Psychology and her Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Auburn University. Dr. Staton has conducted biophysiological research for more than 15 years, with a special emphasis on sleep and emotion regulation of young children in the context of trauma. Her current work focuses on integrating biophysiological health research into education programs for teachers and parents of underserved populations. She is a co-project director for the TIPPS project.
Izzy Thornton is the data manager for the TIPPS program and is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at Mississippi State University. Her research area of emphasis includes children’s agency and the impacts of social inequality. Her background includes more than ten years in applied social sciences in Mississippi, including work with the Social Science Research Center’s Survey Research Laboratory and the Family and Children’s Research Unit at Mississippi State. Izzy holds a B.S. in Sociology, a B.S.W. in Social Work, and an M.S. in Sociology from Mississippi State University.
Audrey Reid serves as an Extension Associate for the TIPPS team. With a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies and an M.S. in Sociology, Audrey brings a wealth of knowledge about community systems and a passion for equity. In her role as the project manager, Audrey develops content about child development, family relationships, and attachment, assists in the development of educational materials, coordinates trainings, and organizes the day-to-day activities of the project.
Emily Grubbs is a Ph.D. student and Graduate Research Assistant at Mississippi State University (MSU) Human Development and Family Science Department (HDFS). She earned a B.S. in Psychology at the University of Central Arkansas in 2017 and her M.S. in HDFS at MSU in 2020. Grubbs became a Certified Family Life Educator (Provisional) in 2021. Her experience in parent education includes teaching an undergraduate Parenting course at MSU, and involvement in the design and implementation of the Trauma-Informed Parenting and Professional Strategies (TIPPS) program. She has created content for the Protect & Connect parenting toolkit outreach and contributed to evaluation efforts of the toolkit program.
Virtual Lunch and Networking: 12:45 – 1:15 p.m. CT
Break: 1:15 – 1:30 p.m. CT
Concurrent Sessions: 1:30 – 2:45 p.m. CT
301- Reflective Dialogue Parent Education: Engaging Parents Through the Power of Video and Reflective Questioning
Heather Cline, Ph.D.; Lisa Krause, M.A., CFLE
Reflective Dialogue Parent Education Design (RDPED) is an innovative approach to promoting change in conceptual thinking and behavior by leveraging the power of video with reflective questions to stimulate reflection and perspective-taking. The purpose of this workshop is to introduce an approach to Family Life Education designed to develop reflective capacity, improve perspective-taking skills, and strengthen parent-child interaction quality. Participants will be guided through a video discussion to experience how RDPED reveals a learner's perspective to themselves while offering alternative perspectives to others. RDPED is ideal for both virtual and in-person settings and lends itself to coaching, home visiting and group educational practice.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Experience and gain exposure to RDPED
- Integrate RDPED philosophy in their current practices
- Identify three different applications for RDPED in their work with parents and families
For more than 15 years, Heather Cline, Ph.D., has been teaching on the Reflective Dialogue Parent Education Design (RDPED). Dr. Cline is a former UMN faculty in parent and family education. Today, Heather is director of Reflective Dialogue Education, which provides the training and resources for educators implementing RDPED.
Lisa Krause M.A., is a Certified Family Life Educator/Coach and a Contract Faculty and Concordia University, where she coordinates the Parent and Family Coaching Program. Through technology and other innovative formats, Lisa enjoys finding creative ways to bring family life education to today's busy parents. Her particular passion is working in the area of Trauma responsive care, resilience, and overindulgence. In addition to teaching, Lisa runs a parent coaching and business where she has done contract work with Children's Hospital Diabetes Clinic in St. Paul and works with court-ordered parents to parent education.
302 - Trauma Informed Youth Mentoring
Jen Krafchick, PhD., CFLE; Toni Zimmerman, Ph.D., LMFT
Traumatic experiences during childhood impact the mental and physical health of individuals throughout their lives. This workshop will highlight how trauma-informed practices can be integrated into youth mentoring programs to reduce the impact of trauma. The session will offer an overview of trauma, how it affects development, and cover principles of trauma-informed practice. Participants will learn how this practice can be applied to mentoring relationships through training and supervision.
This includes ensuring that mentors understand how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) affect cognition and emotional regulation. Trauma-informed mentoring also includes helping mentors develop skills to build safety and trust, offer choices, collaborate, support mentees, and amplify youth voice. Participants will also explore how identity and social position play a significant role on the experience and impact of trauma. We will also explore new ways of thinking about trauma including policies and practices at the organizational level that support a trauma-informed approach.
By the end of the workshop participants will be able to:
- explain how trauma impacts individuals
- identify what a trauma-informed practice looks like in a youth mentoring program
- conceptualize how mentors can apply trauma informed practices as they work with youth who have experienced adversity.
Jen Krafchick is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) at Colorado State University (CSU)She earned her masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, a graduate certificate in Womens Studies, and Ph.D. in Education at CSU. Jen has won multiple teaching awards at CSU including CSU's Best Teacher Award and Honors Professor of the Year. She is a passionate educator who cares deeply about her students and loves getting to know them.
Toni Schindler Zimmerman, Ph.D., LMFT, is a Professor in the Human Development Family Studies Department at Colorado State University. She is a CSU Distinguished Teaching Scholar and the Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program which is nationally accredited. She is one of the Co-Directors and developers of the award-winning Campus Connections Youth Mentoring program. Dr. Zimmerman’s research centers around mentoring youth and centering diversity, inclusion, equity, and social justice in the practice of Marriage and Family Therapy and mentoring. She has served as faculty and Dean for the Semester at Sea Study Abroad Program. Integrating a global perspective is central to Dr. Zimmerman’s work. She is a dedicated teacher and researcher who brings community and university together in many collaborative ways.
303 - Culturally Responsive Strategies to Increase Mental Health Awareness and Resources Among Immigrant and Refugee Youth and their Families
Angela B. Kim, Ph.D.; Emma Hong
The format of the presentation involves a brief introduction of the presenters and a PowerPoint presentation of their grant activity/program (i.e., health career fair) to increase mental health awareness and to provide various academic, social, and mental health services to disadvantaged African, Latinx, and Southeast Asian American high school students and their parents. The presentation will provide specific strategies to conduct a health career fair and ways to provide in a linguistically and culturally sensitive manner the information and resources for access to education related information, parental involvement and empowerment, community mental health resources, and mentors in the health profession. The culturally sensitive strategies and interventions to increase mental health awareness and services for the success of disadvantaged immigrant and refugee youth and their families presented will help to promote working with these families from a systemic and collaborative perspective.
Participants will be able to:
- list at least two acculturation, socio-economic, and mental health issues of racial and ethnic minority immigrant and refugee youth and their families
- implement at least one culturally responsive strategy and intervention in working with racial and ethnic minority immigrant and refugee youth and their families
- execute an event/program that increases mental awareness and provides necessary resources for immigrant and refugee youth and their families
Angela B. Kim, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Couple and Family Therapy Graduate Program at Alliant International University, San Diego. She is a 4th time grant recipient from the State of California to promote social justice and culturally competent healthcare services for racial/ethnic minority families and marginalized populations.
Break: 2:45 – 3 p.m. CT
Concurrent Sessions: 3 – 4 p.m. CT
401 - Can’t We Write a Grant for That?
Robyn Cenizal, CFLE
While the answer may be “yes”, the grant writing process can be daunting if you’ve never written one. This session will provide a brief overview of the types of grants then take a deeper dive on federal grants with a focus on the actual writing process starting with understanding the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). While the FOA is basically the instruction manual for preparing a grant proposal, these instructions can be as much as 100 pages long! I’ve pulled down over $30 million since writing my first grant 20 years ago. I’ll share tips and tricks for writing a successful proposal including breaking these instructions down into manageable components, organizing proposal content for reviewers and formatting strategies to stay in page limits. We’ll also discuss common writing mistakes that can cost you valuable points as well as the missteps that can get your proposal disqualified even before it’s reviewed.
Objectives
- Identify different grant types and processes;
- Learn strategies for organizing proposal content in accordance with FOA requirements;
- Identify common mistakes and missteps that cost points or disqualify proposals
Robyn Cenizal has over 25 years of project management experience working with governmental, faith and community-based organizations. Her extensive expertise is grounded in research related to family strengthening, child welfare, offender re-entry and poverty reduction. She is a CFLE and has authored numerous publications on promising practices associated with serving high-risk, low-resource and culturally-diverse populations. Her efforts have generated over $30 million in funding.
402 - Practical Tools for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) of Family Life Education Programs
Cynthia Wilson, Ph.D., CFLE; Michaley de Leon, B.S., CFLE
This presentation will include an introduction to the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) framework that is used in prevention programs and will discuss its applicability to Family Life Education. The presenters will provide practical tools for both practitioners and program evaluators, drawing from best practices in conducting CQI. The presenters will use personal examples from their vast experience in evaluating adolescent pregnancy prevention and marriage education programs.
Participants will leave with tangible ideas for improving prevention programs, whether they serve as the practitioner implementing the programs, or when supporting community partners as outside evaluators. Participants will gain an understanding of how to apply CQI principals and best practices throughout the life cycle of the project, all with the end goal of improving program quality and related outcomes.
By the end of the presentations, participants will:
- Understand the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) framework for prevention programs and how this applies to Family Life Education
- Examine best practices for CQI and resulting strategies, drawing from existing research and illustrated from the presenters' personal experience as program evaluators
- Apply practical tools for implementing CQI in their own Family Life Education programs.
Cynthia Wilson, Ph.D., CFLE, is the Executive Director of the Florida Center for Prevention Research at Florida State University, where she has directed and evaluated multiple private, state, and federally-funded projects in the areas of sexual violence prevention, teen pregnancy prevention, alcohol and other drug abuse prevention, and juvenile delinquency prevention.
Michaley de Leon, CFLE, is a Research Assistant at the Florida Center for Prevention Research at Florida State University. She currently leads Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) activities and manages data for a federal Healthy Marriage grant and has also managed data and CQI activities for several federal teen pregnancy prevention grants.
403 - Utilizing Action-Oriented Methods to Systematically Implement a Couple Relationship Education Programs Across a State
Julianne McGill, Ph.D., CFLE; Rachel Odomes, B.S.
Small & Uttal's (2005) description of action-oriented research guides the work of the Alabama Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (AHMRE) Project. The AHMRE project is a university-community partnership that collaboratively works to implement couple relationship education programs, evaluate the efficacy of the program, contribute to the scientific knowledge base, and inform community educators about practical implications to best serve their participants. This presentation will discuss action-oriented methods (Sankaran & Dick, 2015) to manage projects and tasks associated with reaching the project's goals. We will discuss recruitment, implementation, and retention practices for the AHMRE project, how the main project staff and implementation partner sites have worked together to systematically approach each area, and examples of products shared across and within implementation partner sites and the main project staff. These methods were developed during the pandemic and are relevant to contexts and situations that present additional barriers to FLE attendance and retention.
By the end of the presentation, the participants will learn about 3 practices (recruitment, implementation, and retention) to focus on in Family Life Education programming.
After listening to the presentation, participants will be able to:
- create a plan of action to address a specific area of programming with implementation partner
- have at least 1 idea for a tangible product to share with their programming partner to support them in reaching goals.
Julianne McGill, CFLE, is the Project Manager for the Alabama Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Project, as well as a Assistant Clinical Professor at Auburn University. Dr. McGill utilizes a prevention science approach to study community-based education focused on supporting healthy relationships through mindfulness and strengths-based programming.
Rachel Odomes, B.S. is the Partnership Coordinator for the Alabama Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education Project. She has been associated with the AHMRE project for over 10 years. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Adult Education. She enjoys providing support to the initiative’s partners, making connections within the community, and spending time with her daughter, Cora.
404 - Interventions to Mitigate Barriers to Mental Health Services Among Asian American Families
Angela B. Kim, Ph.D.; Emma Hong
The format of the workshop involves a brief introduction of the presenters and an interactive discussion. The presenters will share their grant activity experience working with at-risk Asian Americans and introduce the topic of interventions to mitigate barriers to mental health services among AA immigrant families. The presenters will facilitate a discussion and provide information on three inter-related topical areas: mental health stressors and issues of AA immigrant families; barriers to seeking and receiving culturally responsive mental health services among AA immigrant families; and strategies and interventions to address mental health disparities and needs of AA immigrant families. The workshop will conclude with a summary of key take-home points for promoting mental health and success among AA families.
Participants will be able to:
- list at least two mental health stressors and barriers to mental health services among Asian American immigrant families
- conduct at least one specific activity in the community to address the barriers to mental health services among the Asian American immigrant population
- describe and provide at least one culturally responsive care intervention relevant to working with Asian American families.
Angela B. Kim, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Couple and Family Therapy Graduate Program at Alliant International University, San Diego. She is a 4th time grant recipient from the State of California to promote social justice and culturally competent healthcare services for racial/ethnic minority families and marginalized populations.
Closing Remarks: 4 – 4:15 p.m. CT
Chinatu Gladrich, FLE Summit task force member
