Postvention

Intro

Colleges and universities are not immune to the occurrence of critical incidents on campus.  Because of the insular nature of a college community, the ripple effects of a student death, particularly by suicide, can increase the risk of negative impacts on the community as a whole. To mitigate this impact, colleges should consider the development of a campus postvention plan.  The goals of this webinar are to:

• Define and describe the major components of an effective campus postvention plan;
• Describe, from a multidisciplinary perspective, the lessons learned by one campus community navigating a student death in the absence of a well-established postvention plan;
• Provide an overview of best practice standards and models of postvention planning;
• Explore the considerations of one campus in the development of a multidisciplinary postvention plan;
• Provide a model and resources that can be used in the development of a postvention plan for one’s own community

Bios

Isabel Moreno-López was born and bred in Europe and she spent her childhood and youth mostly in Spain, Germany, and France. She arrived in the US in 1995 and completed a doctoral degree on Language Literacy and Culture and a master´s degree in Intercultural Communications at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC). Before becoming the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Studies on June 2018, she was a Full Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies and was Center Director for two centers (the Center for Geographies of Justice and Cultures and the Center for Hispanic and Latinx Studies) and she chaired major faculty committees such as Budget & Planning. As the Associate Provost, she supports and counsels students on academic matters; develops and enforces academic policies; determines academic standing; conducts academic appeals; and oversees the Honor Board, the Academic Center for Excellence and the Disability Specialist. She also oversees faculty advising and the First Year Seminars.

Monica Neel, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist who has been on staff at Goucher College since 2010.   Since her appointment as Director of the Student Counseling Center in 2014, Dr. Neel has made efforts to foster and nurture collaborative partnerships with various departments on campus with the goal of expanding the reach of mental health prevention, promotion, and postvention to best serve the campus community.  Her work is informed by the multidisciplinary approaches that were typical within her hospital-based training, as well as a strong foundation in trauma and critical incident stress management models often implemented with military and first-responders.  Dr. Neel obtained her doctoral degree from the Loyola University of Maryland which included a pre-doctoral internship at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Perryville, MD) and subsequent post-doctoral training in the Baltimore Regional Burn Center affiliated with Johns Hopkins Hospital.

David Heffer has been the Director of Public Safety at Goucher College since 2015.  In that role, he is responsible for Public Safety and Emergency Management functions of the college.  David serves on a number of committees including the Threat Assessment and Risk Management committees.  David has developed or assisted in the development of Emergency Response Plans for a number of colleges and conducts exercises around the country for institutions of higher education.  David has been teaching various components of critical incident response since 2003 and is a FEMA certified instructor in ICS.  Prior to Goucher, David worked for the George Washington University Police Department and served on the Threat Assessment Team.  David has his Bachelor’s degree from George Washington University.