Michele Courville Feiner

Michele started her career as a classroom teacher teaching Nursery School, 2nd, 3rd and 5th grade, as well as substitute teaching, summer camp counseling and afterschool directing for several years. After time off to raise her first two children (while teaching parent education courses and completing a Master’s Degree in Special Education with a focus on Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities) she worked as a Clinical School Worker where she engaged in therapy, home visiting, case management, advocacy and collaboration with community partners. It was during this time that she also adopted two young girls from the foster care system and subsequently between the two roles became intimately acquainted with trauma in all of its glory. This led her back to school for a second Master’s degree in Social Work, with trauma as a specialty, both in her clinical work as well as teaching trauma-informed strategies to her fellow staff members and within the foster care community.

Michele now works as the Director of Academic Support and TRIO programs for Vermont State University Johnson where she work with young adults (and older adults) helping them thrive in the college setting and obtain college degrees. She is also an Adjunct Faculty Member and teaches Child Development, Intro to Human Services, Infant/Child Mental Health and a course she created entitled Creative Strategies for Working with Trauma Affected Families. In addition Michele is the author of two books including Laugh Before you Cry: Creative Strategies for Raising Attachment Challenged Children, and Keeping It Real: Creative Classroom Techniques for Working With Trauma-Affected Students.

Patricia Kirpan

Patricia has a BA in Elementary Education and an MA in Special Education. She taught 1st grade, Kindergarten and preschool for many years before semi retiring. For the next few years Patricia served as a part time teacher at local daycare centers in Vermont as certified Act 166 teacher. Currently, she continues to work 2 days a week at a rural Pre-kindergarten and after school program. Patricia lives in Vermont, where she and her husband are lifelong parents through birth, foster care, guardianship and adoption in a large, multi-racial family and currently enjoy time with their many grandchildren.

Shareese Nelson

Shareese is lead administrator / vice principal at Cedarbrook Middle School East in Pennsylvania. Shareese came to Cheltenham in 2017 as the administrator for climate and culture at Elkins Park School. In that position, she developed and trained staff on Positive Behavior Intervention Systems; created and maintained programming to support a positive school climate and culture; provided classroom support to teachers in instruction and classroom management; supported students through mentoring and restorative practices; and developed positive and proactive responses to negative student behavior. She went on to serve as vice-principal and interim principal before moving to Cedarbrook Middle School. Prior to coming to Cheltenham, Shareese was a classroom teacher for 11 years, instructing first, second and fifth grades. Shareese is a parent of two young adult children and the author of the children’s book “The Me Inside,” Nelson earned her master’s degree in education from Chestnut Hill College, and a B.A. in communications from Temple University. She completed the Principal Certification program at Delaware Valley University, earned a GPIC Instructional Coach Certification from La Salle University, and has a Pennsylvania Department of Education Level II Teacher Certification.

Cheryl Pyrch

Cheryl Pyrch is the Pastor at Summit Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. She is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in New York City and also has a Master’s in Elementary and Early Childhood Education from the Bank St. College of Education. Before seminary Cheryl taught elementary school for nine years, four years at the Bank Street School for Children and five at Public School 234, both in Manhattan. She also subbed in a number of NYC public schools and became director of Christian Education at Rutgers Presbyterian Church where she directed Sunday School for seven years. She has been active in the movement for LGBTQ welcome and was one of the first “out” lesbians to be ordained in the PC(USA). She was a founding member of Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light and remains active in the work for climate justice through POWER Interfaith. She enjoys birdwatching, reading and cooking.

Amy Shaver

Amy is an early educator, the co-founder and program director of Four-Square Early Learning Center in Lakeville, MN, which she has directed for 13 years. At Four-Square, she created the entire program and policies to reflect and implement the values of pre-school care for children that honors every child, parent, family member and teacher. In April of this year, she changed her role within Four-Square allowing her to focus full time on researching what is working and what isn’t for young children’s educational upbringing. More recently she started an LLC called CONNECTED CARE and is in the process defining all its components to offer consultation, training and other supports to teachers and families.

Author of Chapter Excerpted from Healing Connections: A Community Approach to Childhood Trauma and Attachment

Andrew Vincent, MA

Andrew is a foster, adoptive and biological parent. He holds an MA from Reformed Theological Seminary, where he focused his studies on the intersection of psychology and religion. Andrew is the co-author of Work Life, which has been used by more than 300 organizations across the U.S. to help under-resourced communities. The Work Life program he designed takes a wholistic approach to help adults become economically self-sufficient,

including support for processing grief and trauma, resources to overcome systemic and personal roadblocks, and acquiring both the soft skills and concrete skills necessary to succeed in the workplace. Additionally, he has taught courses in psychology and mental wellness, written social emotional learning curriculum for advisory groups in high-poverty school settings, and trained organizational leaders in areas such as adolescent mental health and trauma-informed pedagogy.