Tara Brown is president of Learner's Edge Consulting and an award­-winning educator, author and international speaker. She holds a master's degree in administration and supervision and is a nationally certified personal trainer. Known as ‘The Connection Coach’, Tara’s 30-­year professional journey as a teacher and coach has taken her coast to coast from rural Florida to gang territory in California and to one of the largest high schools in Tennessee with over 40 countries represented. She's worked internationally with teachers and youth in Dubai and Beirut.

During the 1990’s, Tara worked with Communities in Schools, the leading nonprofit dropout prevention organization in the nation, and established a successful program at Lindbergh Middle School in Long Beach, California. She worked closely with at-­risk teens, many of whom were entrenched in the gang lifestyle, and helped empower them with leadership and life skills to reshape their view of the future.

In 2005, Tara played a key role in piloting a leadership development program at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee, targeting non­traditional leaders. Because of the success of this program, it expanded to all high schools in Davidson County and earned Tara the Pioneer and Teacher of the Year awards in 2006. Since leaving the classroom, Tara’s passion and humor continue to drive her work with adults around the globe. Her goal is to motivate, inspire and better equip adults with the ability to connect and have meaningful relationships with kids of all ages, so their potential can truly be unleashed.

Brian Coleman is a graduate of Northwestern University and DePaul University. He has served as a school counselor at Jones College Prep since 2014. A former actor, Coleman found his love for education and students while performing with About Face Theatre company and its youth talk-back program. These programs encouraged him to earn his master’s degree in education and pivot into the school counseling field. Coleman recognized that serving as a school counselor would afford him with daily opportunities to “support, validate and affirm the next generation of leaders and change agents.”

As the faculty sponsor to JonesPride, the school’s LGBTQA+ student organization, Coleman became aware of students’ frustration about the lack of resources, relationship support and inclusive language for gender and sexual minorities in the freshman sexual health curriculum. In response, Coleman collaborated with the Student Government Association to spearhead a revised sexual health education program for 377 sophomore students. The program’s success is leading to potential expansion opportunities to freshman, junior and senior students.

Coleman’s holistic approach to school counseling at Jones College Prep includes advocating for expanded education and knowledge for students as well as school staff. According to vice principal Plunkett, in addition to postsecondary planning and academic planning, Coleman has a strong commitment to ensuring the school provides interdisciplinary social/emotional learning supports for all students.

“As a school with college in our name, there tends to be a great deal of focus and energy placed exclusively on students' college and postsecondary planning processes,” Coleman said. “However, we have worked to create a broader awareness that students’ holistic well-being is just as important to their current and future successes.” Coleman, who earned his Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC) designation in 2017, collaborated with the school team to create extensive social/emotional programming at the freshman level as well as enhanced the school community’s awareness of social/emotional learning as an important facet of the high school experience.

At the University of North Florida, Dr. Carolyn Stone teaches and researches legal and ethical issues for school counselors. Prior to becoming a counselor educator in 1995, Carolyn spent 22 years with the Duval County Public Schools in Jacksonville, Florida where she served as a middle school teacher, elementary and high school counselor and Supervisor of Guidance. Carolyn was the 2006 President of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA).

Carolyn has chaired the last three revisions of the American School Counselor’s Ethical Standards and is in her seventeenth year as ASCA’s Ethics Chair. She was awarded the Mary Gerke Lifetime Achievement Award by ASCA in 2010 and in 2012 was awarded the Bob Myrick Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida School Counselor Association. Carolyn has delivered over 600 workshops in all 50 states and 22 countries. She has authored six books, dozens of journal articles and serves the courts as an expert witness in cases involving school counselors.

Dr. Sharon (Shari) Sevier is the Director of Advocacy for the Missouri School Counselor Association (MSCA). Prior to her position with MSCA, Dr. Sevier spent 30 years as a school counselor at every level, including work as adjunct faculty in Counselor Education in both New York State and Missouri.

Dr. Sevier served two terms as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the American School Counselor Association, and held many leadership positions in both New York and Missouri school counseling organizations. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor for the State of Missouri. A native of Central New York, Dr. Sevier earned her Certificate of Advanced Studies degree in Counseling Services from the University of New York at Oswego, and her doctorate in Counselor Education from Syracuse University.