Pamela A Black, MA, MEd
With over thirty-five years of experience in the community and workforce as a volunteer, employee, supervisor, administrator and consultant, Pamela Black has experienced the challenges of the workplace. Most recently as a district administrator and then consultant for trauma, she addresses the needs of all individuals employed in educational institutions. One area of focus has been all school employees’ resilience. This work can be found on the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction trauma sensitive webpage as well as on the National Center for School Safety site in the Trauma-Informed Resilience-Oriented Toolkit. As an external consultant for the National Council on Mental Wellness, Pamela has worked with teams across the country to align their programs and practices with trauma informed, fair practices, primarily focusing on the needs of a weary workforce. Her experiences with teams overwhelmed by challenges including staff shortages led her to Courageous Workforce and the creation of a process to address staff needs at all levels.
Peggy Schofield, MS
Peggy Schofield has worked in various roles, from retail to advocacy to education; she has worked on the front lines and as a leader. She has been a lifelong learner, with the focus on helping others be successful. Peggy has functioned as a practioner, consultant, and a trainer. After supporting individuals she supervised and colleagues experiencing significant burnout and then experiencing it herself, she adjusted her job and time requirements, learning to set boundaries that were lacking. Peggy used her skills to simplify processes and procedures to help people be able to complete requested tasks with less confusion. This led her to research how leaders can effectively support their teams. Since that time, Peggy has committed herself to learning and sharing best practices for building resilience in the workplace through Courageous Workforce.
Karen Johnson, MSW, LCSW
Karen Johnson brings knowledge of the advancing science around resilience, brain development, adversity, toxic stress, equity, and trauma-informed approaches to the complex challenges we face. This expertise, coupled with her 31 years of experience in child welfare, behavioral health, and community
services, enables her to successfully partner with leaders, staff, community members, and participants across numerous settings to promote individual and organizational resilience.
Johnson leads the development of Social Current’s Change in Mind, which partners with organizations across sectors to embed brain science and equity principles in their work with children, families, communities, and staff, with the goals of improving outcomes for children and families and strengthening organizational cultures.
During her 5½ years on the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s trauma-informed services team, and 1½ years as an independent consultant, Karen trained and consulted with 200+ organizations, systems and communities striving to advance trauma-informed, resilience-oriented approaches. She also led and developed community-based programs and treatment foster care services during her 19 years of service at Wellpoint Care Network in Milwaukee, WI.
Johnson is a licensed clinical social worker trained in Dr. Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead and in Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics.