ABOUT US

Experience:

Keeping students and schools safe has been the driving force behind Healthy Minds, Safe Schools for the past decade. Inspiring children to trust that a better day is coming has been a daily pursuit for Alison and Katie. Helping children in schools to overcome their past and current traumas has inspired them to work toward finding solutions for students because student well-being and safety depend on it.

Healthy Minds, Safe Schools was birthed from an epidemic of suicidal ideations, suicidal attempts, and threats to others in the trenches of inner-city schools that had limited resources, no proactive preventative care in place, and lacked effective communication procedures among school staff members in times of crises.

Children in School

Alison and Katie have dedicated their careers to supporting students and staff through changing school systems. The result has been the creation of a highly effective, evidence-based mental health model for schools that is easy to implement. In doing so, their goal is to help all children feel part of a supportive, inclusive, and collaborative school culture. Establishing this standard level of care assists to address all students’ needs in order for them to be academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally healthy.

Leadership Team:

Alison Clark is a nationally certified school psychologist currently working in threat assessment and crisis response in one of the largest urban public school districts. She has demonstrated her commitment to improving student well-being and school safety through co-founding the evidence-based program Healthy Minds, Safe Schools, integrating violence prevention and enhanced behavioral health services for school-aged children. Her work focuses on organizational psychology within school systems and the effective implementation of multi-tiered systems of support, which are vital components for creating successful and sustainable positive changes in school settings. Other areas of expertise include educator training and staff development, teacher coaching, classroom management, PBIS, MTSS, threat assessment, crisis response, school-based mental health services, and family engagement. Alison’s contributions to school psychology are evident through her co-authorship of two groundbreaking textbooks. She is an adjunct professor at Nevada State University, writing the curriculum and teaching the pioneering course, Introduction to Multi-Tiered Systems of Support. One of Alison’s greatest honors is being the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the Nevada Association of School Psychologists.

Alison Clark, Co-founder

Dr. Katie Dockweiler

Katie Dockweiler, Co-founder

Dr. Katie Dockweiler, NCSP, is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology at Nevada State University and co-founder of Healthy Minds, Safe Schools. She has a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in policy analysis frameworks. Her research interests include workforce development programs, mental-behavioral MTSS implementation, bilingual psycho-educational assessment, and systems organization using neo-institutional theory. She is the creator of the Active Recruitment, Training, and Educator Retention to serve our Youth (ARTERY) Pipeline Framework for school psychologists and has successfully secured millions in federal grants to support her research. Specifically, funding through the U.S. Department of Education to support the training of mental health providers, and through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to provide mental health evaluative services to students. Dr. Dockweiler actively provides service nationally and to her state community. She is Vice President of the Nevada State Board of Education, Chair of the National Association of School Psychologists Communications Committee, and Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Nevada Association of School Psychologists.

Mary Bier, Director of Client and Culture Relations

Mary Bier

Director of Client and Culture Relations

Lily Chen, Director of Statistics and Learning Sciences

Lily Chen

Director of Statistics and Learning Sciences