Workforce Well-Being and Resilience During Times of Change

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 28 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 Institute, leveraging the latest advances in neurosciences and trauma-informed approaches across sectors and at the practice, policy, and systems levels. She oversees the Texas Change in Mind Learning Collaborative, through which 10 organizations from multiple sectors across Southeast Texas are working to embed brain science and equity principles with the goal of improving outcomes for children and families, as well as their organizational cultures and ability to collaborate with partners.

During her five-and-a-half years on the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s trauma-informed services team, and year-and-a-half as an independent consultant, Johnson trained and consulted with organizations, systems, and communities striving to strengthen their workforce and advance trauma-informed, resilience-oriented approaches. She worked in various roles in the treatment foster care department and led and developed community-based programs during her 19 years at Wellpoint Care Network in Milwaukee. Johnson combines the newest advances around adversity, relational health, and resilience to infuse hope and connection into our work.

Kelly Martin is the director of practice excellence at Social Current, with an emphasis on applied developmental psychology, healing-centered approaches, educational success, antiracism, workforce well-being, policy, and advocacy. In this role, she collaborates with stakeholders across the network to advance systems change through policy and advocacy efforts, and to build the capacities of leaders through networking, knowledge, and solutions. She has experience facilitating design sessions and learning opportunities with a wide variety of human service and education stakeholders which includes classroom teachers to frontline staff to executive leaders.

Prior to this role, Kelly was with the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities (Alliance), supporting internal and external efforts to advance equity, leading evaluation and research projects, and working closely with educational success stakeholders. Before joining the Alliance in 2016, Kelly was a researcher in the Developmental and Educational Psychology Departments at the University of Pittsburgh. She spent her time connecting with young people, families, and educators across the city of Pittsburgh, as well as collaborating with multi-sector leaders to infuse developmental theory, research, and best practices into local and state initiatives.  She was an adjunct instructor during her years at Pitt, teaching a graduate course in developmental psychology.

Kelly holds a master’s in applied developmental psychology, and a bachelor’s in psychology and sociology from the University of Pittsburgh. She is currently working toward the completion of Yoga Roots on Location® Certified Yoga Teacher Training, an anti-racist and social justice Raja Yoga teacher training offered through the Yoga Alliance’s 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) Certification.

Robena Spangler is an innovative senior executive with over 30 years of experience in behavioral health, human services, and advancing equity and inclusion work. The majority of her career has been dedicated to systems improvement within the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Spangler held several leadership roles in the public and private sectors. She has provided professional coaching and leadership development for teams and individuals on a national level.

In addition to her public and private sector work, she is an adjunct instructor at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania in the School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS), responsible for facilitating accelerated programs in human services for adult learners. Her current role, as an EDI and leadership strategist, is to design and manage all aspects of Social Current’s leadership and organizational excellence portfolio. Spangler holds a bachelor’s in sociology and human services along with a master’s in leadership and professional advancement.