Building a trauma-responsive organization can serve as the backbone to providing compassionate, collaborative programming for clients, and supporting a happy, healthy, and resilient workforce. The Pathways Learning Network convened on April 10, 2023 to learn more about actionable steps to make your organization more trauma-responsive. Click here to read key takeaways from the event.

The journey to becoming trauma-responsive starts with all of us: direct care providers, support staff, program and executive leadership, program designers, and policymakers. As organizations create more trauma-responsive, healing-focused policies and programs for individuals they serve, some organizations are implementing trauma-informed principles within their own workplace.

“A trauma-Informed program, organization, or system is one that realizes the widespread impact of trauma and understands potential paths for healing; recognizes the signs and symptoms of trauma in clients, families, staff, and others; responds by fully integrating knowledge about trauma into policies, procedures, and practices; and actively resists re-traumatization” (SAMHSA, 2014). Trauma-responsive organizations support clients and families, as well as their staff who are critical to their success. Individuals who work within systems that respond to trauma carry a high risk for secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma.

Meet the Speakers

Justin Brown

Secretary of Oklahoma Human Services 

In June 2019, Governor J. Kevin Stitt appointed Justin B. Brown as Director of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, the state’s largest agency by workforce. In March 2020, the governor additionally appointed Brown as Cabinet Secretary of Human Services, serving thirty-three agencies, boards, and commissions in the human services space. In August of 2022, after more than three years of service, Brown stepped down from the first appointment as Agency Director, focusing exclusively on his role as Secretary.

While at Oklahoma Human Services, Brown introduced a grassroots strategic planning effort and human services operating system known as the ‘True North.’ Because of this transformational approach, OKDHS was able to remain focused on the agency’s long-term strategies during the pandemic, instead of assuming a defensive posture during this time of dramatic disruption. As a strong relationship builder, Brown built a culture of true collaboration with state and federal agencies, local non-profits, philanthropic foundations, legislators and with the communities that the agency serves, aligning stakeholders in a common vision and with connected definitions of success.
In 2022, Secretary Brown was nominated to serve as Chairman of the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) Leadership Council and as a member of the Governing Board of Directors. In addition to his public service, Secretary Brown has built a passion for serving seniors and children through non-profit organizations including the Alzheimer’s Association, Children’s Hospital Foundation, YMCA, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, among others.

Vickie Choitz

Director, Trauma and Resilience Team, Corporation for a Skilled Workforce

As Director of CSW’s Trauma and Resilience at Work Team, Vickie works to advance workplaces and workforces that are culturally responsive, trauma-informed, resilience-building, and supportive of mental well-being. She works with partners and stakeholders to reduce the stigma of trauma and mental health in workforce development and the workplace; educate employees at all levels within organizations on trauma, resilience, and mental health; advance trauma-informed, resilience-building, and mental health supportive organizations and companies; and promote policies and systems that codify and sustain this work.

Prior to joining CSW, Vickie was a national consultant, working with CSW, Jobs for the Future, American Council on Education, and others to improve economic opportunity for low-income people. Over the last 20 years, her content focus has been on workforce development, adult education, postsecondary education, and improving the quality of jobs. Vickie has worked at national nonprofit organizations in Washington, DC, Boston, and Chicago, including the Aspen Institute, the Center for Law and Social Policy, Jobs for the Future, the Council for Adult and Experiential Education, and FutureWorks. Vickie has a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Secondary Education from Kansas State University.

Audrey Smolkin

Executive Director, Center on Child Wellbeing and Trauma

Smolkin oversees the management of the Center on Child Wellbeing & Trauma, a partnership between Commonwealth Medicine and the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate, and identifies and develops new resources and tools to support child wellbeing. The Center launched in 2021 and serves as a hub of information, trainings, and support toward building a more trauma-informed and responsive Massachusetts. Audrey also develops new programs, research, and evidence-based policy initiatives related to children and families. This work includes partnering with the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families on medical care for children in the care of the department as well as management related to a statewide network of Family Resource Centers.

As the former Director of Child and Family Policy at ForHealth Consulting, Audrey was instrumental in planning for and launching the Center in 2021, which serves as a hub of information, trainings, and technical assistance for Massachusetts child-serving organizations seeking to become more trauma-informed and responsive.Prior to that role, Audrey was the director of strategic planning in ForHealth Consulting’s health policy and research practice, where she analyzed state health policy developed, implemented, and evaluated policy programs, and the director of research and policy analysis at the former Center for Adoption Research at UMass Chan Medical School. She was the lead evaluator of a major grant that the Administration for Children and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded to the Center for Adoption, and she oversaw the statewide Adoption Attitudes Survey.

Before coming to UMass Chan Medical School, Audrey served as a senior legislative analyst at the Administration for Children and Families. In that capacity, she worked on estimating the federal costs of various welfare and child welfare legislation. She also served as the lead budget and policy analyst on a major childcare expansion under the leadership of the Clinton Administration.

Audrey received her master’s degree in public policy from the University of Chicago and earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is an instructor with the Department of Pediatrics at UMass Chan.

Event Info

  • Location: Virtual
  • Date: April 10, 2023
  • Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm ET
  • Phone: