Educational Trauma and Health Equity: Building Bridges Between Public Health and Education

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 7:45 am - Gold 3

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

This symposium explores the intersection of educational trauma and health inequities, especially as experienced by Black girls and other marginalized youth. Through interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars in education, public health, and youth advocacy, we interrogate how schooling environments function as sites of both harm and potential healing. Panelists draw from critical race theory, social determinants of health, and trauma-informed frameworks to share research on chronic stress, allostatic load, culturally sustaining interventions, and abolitionist education. Together, we seek to reframe schools as public health infrastructures and advocate for systemic reforms that prioritize healing and justice. The session aims to catalyze cross-sector collaboration and generate research, policy, and practice agendas for addressing trauma through an equity-focused public health lens.

Sub Unit

• Division I - Education in the Professions

Chair

• Courtney Thomas Tobin, University of California - Los Angeles

Papers

• Our Bodies Remember: Educational Trauma and the Weathering of Black Girls - Sonya Brooks, University of California - Los Angeles

• Schools as Sites of Risk and Resilience: Public Health Pathways to Educational Equity - Josiah Beharry, University of California - Merced

• Healing through Cultural Practice: Ritual, Rest, and Resistance in the Classroom - Angelica Bradley, University of California - Los Angeles

• Abolitionist Health Justice: Reimagining Educational Policy through a Public Health Lens - Patriccia Ordoñez-Kim, University of California - Riverside

Session Organizer

• Sonya Brooks, University of California - Los Angeles

Discussant

• Kia Skrine Jeffers, University of California - Los Angeles