Wildfire Crisis Response Using the PREPaRE Model

Dr. Stephen E. Brock is a Professor, and the School Psychology Program Coordinator, in the College of Education at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS). A Nationally Certified School Psychologist and Licensed Educational Psychologist, Dr. Brock worked for 18 years as a school psychologist with the Lodi (CA) Unified School District (the last 6 of which included assignment as Lead Psychologist) before joining the CSUS faculty. As a school psychologist he helped to develop the district’s school crisis response protocol, served on an autism specialty team, and specialized in functional behavioral assessment. A member of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) since 1985, Dr. Brock currently serves as a Contributing Editor to the Communiqué (the NASP newsletter), was a founding member of NASP’s School Safety and Crisis Response Committee, current Chair of the Nominations and Elections Committee, and a NASP Past-President. He is the lead editor of the Best Practices in School Crisis Prevention and Intervention (2nd ed.), lead author of School Crisis Prevention and Intervention: The PREPaRE Model, and a lead author of the NASP PREPaRE Crisis Prevention and Intervention Curriculum. Dr. Brock’s academic work has included study of school-based crisis intervention; system level school crisis response; suicide prevention, intervention, and postvention; ADHD; functional behavioral assessment; violence prevention; threat assessment; reading; and autism and other developmental psychopathologies. His curriculum vita lists over 300 publications (including 13 book titles) and over 3 invited or refereed state/national/international conference presentations.

Michele Custer – I may be a long way from my Pennsylvania home, but my professional home has always been within the field of school psychology. My 15-year career has included work in Indiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and now Northern California. I have worked in some fabulous districts and charter systems during my 8 years in CA. I am currently supporting two rural K-8 districts in the beautiful hills of Placer County. This year, I have been fortunate to serve as the CASP Membership Committee Co-Chair. I am also the President-Elect of a new CASP Affiliate in Region 10 – NECASP (Norther Eastern California Association of School Psychologists). Starting last year, I joined the adjunct faculty at Sac State University where they let me share my passion for school psychology with 1st year graduate students in the Cognitive Assessment Lab.

Irene Chang, Ph.D (U.C. Berkeley), LEP, has served more than 20 years as a credentialed school psychologist as well as clinical psychologist in K-12 public schools in California (Bay area and Nevada county) and in Hawaii
Irene has focused on honing her child, adolescent, and family therapeutic skills while at Contra Costa County Mental Health: Child, Family, & Adolescent Services (1998) and while working in Bay Area elementary-high schools from 1995-2007, in Hawaii as a Clinical/School Psychologist for the Department of Education (2007-2013) and as a school psychologist and mental health provider from 2013 until present in Sonoma and Nevada counties. Her role in psychoeducational evaluations is grounded in cognitive neuropsychology, instruction, and learning development, an ability to assess patterns of student interests, strengths and weaknesses and their impact on learning, emotional coping, social skills/relationships, motivation, and engagement in the classroom and school community in order to support students with the most effective interventions and supports specific to their needs.
Irene is passionate about promoting a multi-pronged approach to Educationally Related Mental Health Services. She is a champion of school-based trauma-informed care, social-emotional learning, and teacher professional development. In her capacity as multidisciplinary team player, Irene capitalizes on opportunities to support staff to provide effective instructional supports and interventions to develop students’ social and academic competencies. Specialties include supporting students with autism spectrum disorder, anxiety, depression, attention and executive functioning deficits, and dyslexia.
Irene is also a fire survivor of the California wildfires in 2017, during which she trained in Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR) developed by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the National Center for PTSD help survivors gain skills to manage distress and cope with post-disaster stress and adversity. Irene also has advanced training from the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) to incorporate evidence-based skills in self-awareness, self-care, and self-expression to help bring balance and resilience for healing psychological trauma and stress and Therapist Certification in Individualized Mental Health Intervention for Children with ASD (AIM-HI intervention).
Irene is an active member of NASP and CASP and is a former recipient of CASP’s Nadine M. Lambert Outstanding School Psychologist (OSP) Award for Region 1.