Join us for a dynamic 12-minute Lighthouse Talk, designed to showcase bold ideas, innovative practices, and inspiring stories shaping the future of student mental health and wellness. This presentation is one of four featured during this one-hour block. Due to the fast-paced format, there will be no formal Q&A, but we encourage you to connect with the speaker directly after the block to continue the conversation.
Let’s talk about how Unconditional Positive Regard for students and families cultivates a sense of belonging among students. We’ll engage in a collaborative discussion format to explore the ways in which we may provide care and understanding to three historically marginalized communities (Newcomer students and families, Muslim students and families, & LGBTQIA+ students and families) and, in the process, improve student well-being and school culture and climate.
Pupil Personnel Worker, Anne Arundel County Public Schools
My name is Kassie Cardona and I’m a Pupil Personnel Worker in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. I have worked for 20 years as a Mental Health Professional and Educator and I continue to learn as I serve children and families each day. The best way to explain my professional role is... Read More →
Friday September 11, 2026 8:00am - 9:00am PDT 30 E
Join us for a dynamic 12-minute Lighthouse Talk, designed to showcase bold ideas, innovative practices, and inspiring stories shaping the future of student mental health and wellness. This presentation is one of four featured during this one-hour block. Due to the fast-paced format, there will be no formal Q&A, but we encourage you to connect with the speaker directly after the block to continue the conversation.
Join us for a dynamic 12-minute Lighthouse Talk, designed to showcase bold ideas, innovative practices, and inspiring stories shaping the future of student mental health and wellness. This presentation is one of four featured during this one-hour block. Due to the fast-paced format, there will be no formal Q&A, but we encourage you to connect with the speaker directly after the block to continue the conversation.
Communities nationwide face a critical shortage of licensed mental health clinicians—especially in underserved and rural areas—while early career professionals encounter financial, structural, and policy barriers to licensure. This Session shares a multistate, real world solution: the Mental Health Workforce Acceleration Program. Grounded in lived implementation across California and Hawaiʻi, this session will guide participants through a replicable workforce navigation framework that accelerates licensure, centers equity, and strengthens youth serving systems—without losing human connection at the core.
Assistant Professor, California Baptist University
Dr. Kristina West Gordon is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) Program at California Baptist University. She also serves as the Director of the Kaiser Permanente Mental Health Career Accelerator in Southern California, leading efforts to expand... Read More →
Friday September 11, 2026 8:00am - 9:00am PDT 30 E
Join us for a dynamic 12-minute Lighthouse Talk, designed to showcase bold ideas, innovative practices, and inspiring stories shaping the future of student mental health and wellness. This presentation is one of four featured during this one-hour block. Due to the fast-paced format, there will be no formal Q&A, but we encourage you to connect with the speaker directly after the block to continue the conversation.
Generative AI presents a profound challenge to youth mental wellness by tempting students to short-circuit their learning process, subvert their unique voices, and disconnect from their educational communities. To address this urgent issue, this presentation offers an actionable framework grounded in Transformational Leadership and Design Thinking that teaches students how to ethically engage with technology while bringing their authentic selves to their work. Rather than fighting digital trends, attendees will learn how to leverage empathy to understand the underlying pressures driving students toward academic shortcuts, and use innovation to foster safe risk-taking and collaborative problem-solving. The core of this highly interactive session centers on the "AI Sandwich" method—a practical, easily replicable strategy for healthy tech engagement. Participants will discover how to guide students to establish their own ideas and drafts first to build honesty and authenticity (the "Top Bun"), utilize AI strictly as a collaborative brainstorming and refining partner (the "Filling"), and conduct the final edits to retain ultimate ownership and accountability (the "Bottom Bun"). By shifting the focus from digital reliance back to human connection, this evidence-based approach equips educators and clinicians with the immediate tools needed to protect academic integrity, alleviate performance anxiety, and empower the next generation of confident, authentic learners and leaders.
Leadership Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, JESSUP UNIVERSITY
Dave is originally from California and has studied and worked in over 30 countries. Dave has worked in higher education since 2001, completing an Ed.D. in Innovation and Leadership from University of the Pacific. Dave is passionate about developing leaders to produce change and build... Read More →
The Challenge: The "Experience Trap" & Youth Distress College students and recent grads face a frustrating paradox: they are passionate about solving the youth mental health crisis, but entry-level jobs often demand years of clinical experience or expensive master's degrees. Meanwhile, California youth are drowning in stress and isolation, desperately needing relatable, culturally responsive mentors before they reach a clinical crisis point. The Compass: The CWC Role (The Non-Clinical Revolution) The California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) created the Certified Wellness Coach (CWC) role specifically to bridge this chasm. It is a free, non-clinical certification for people with Associate (CWC I) or Bachelor's (CWC II) degrees. It validates your lived experience and field hours, allowing you to get paid to deliver critical preventive care (wellness promotion, screenings, and group support) under supportive supervision.
The Map: The Certification Roadmap A clear, step-by-step framework showing students how to leverage their current classes and practicum hours, navigate the "Registered" status, and step directly into a thriving career in schools or community clinics.
I'm Kim Lee, Senior Director of Operations at Wellness Together. I oversee HR, IT, and internal communications for the organization. Talk to me about what it's actually like to work here, whether you're curious about joining the team as a Mental Health Specialist, becoming a Certified... Read More →
Learn about the latest updates and impacts of California’s new Certified Wellness Coach (CWC) profession from the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI), a workforce helping schools expand prevention and early intervention support for children and youth. In this informational session, HCAI will share recent developments, early outcomes, and hear insights from a local employer who has integrated CWCs into their system to strengthen school-based care teams and promote the overall health and well-being of children and youth.
Learning Objectives:
* Understand the purpose and scope of the Certified Wellness Coach profession in California. * Learn about early implementation outcomes and emerging impact on school-based behavioral health support. * Hear directly from a local employer about practical approaches for integrating CWCs into existing care teams. * Identify opportunities for leveraging CWCs to enhance prevention and early intervention services for children and youth.
Health Program Specialist, California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI)
Samantha Sadler is a Health Program Specialist with the Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) Office of Health Workforce Development (OHWD) in the Behavioral Health and Policy Branch. She brings experience in behavioral health, community organizing, and public policy... Read More →
Audit Preparedness:Guidance on compliance requirements and strategies to ensure audit readiness.
Navigating Medical Necessity: Recommendations for establishing and documenting medical necessity within school-based settings.
ORP Responsibilities: Practical guidance on Ordering, Referring, and Prescribing (ORP) requirements.
Rural & Universal Toolkits: New resources designed to address rural implementation challenges while offering blueprints that can support all districts statewide.
The presentation will begin by showing our brief media clips, including our CBS special, as well as some overall adolescent youth and mental health statistics. I will then go into what our specific group of 27 girls did.
The presentation will break down the specifics and details with regard to their 30 day digital detox, including (and especially) their before and after questionnaires and assessments. I will also be including real life statements and video clips from some of the girls but my daughter will actually be with me and available for Q&A. I will go into my daughter‘s pre and post detox scans and computer assessments and scores, via the Amen Clinic. I will also touch on my son’s screen free and gaming detoxes and his academic and mental health scores.
I will address quite a few parental concerns centered around fear and their children being left out, as well as adolescent and youth concerns with regard to “FOMO." I will open this topic up for discussion. I have a unique and powerful (never-before-seen) video, specifically to address parent guilt and youth fomo concerns. All of this will lead to me introducing an adolescent boy and an adolescent girl on screen. I will tell the audience their daughter, son, niece, nephew, student, etc., just starting hanging out with them and then describe their characteristics as being that of a codependent narcissist. Then, thanks to the wonders of graphic technology, both that boy and that girl, will morph into smartphones and the connection to codependency will be made. From here, I will give the withdrawal statistics and experiences from our group of 27 girls, as well as my son, which are quite profound, as they are the exact same as those of a drug addict or alcoholic.
As California districts implement CYBHI, many are looking for ways to expand behavioral health capacity without adding operational burden to school staff.
Join TadHealth and Wellness Together on Friday, September 11th at 9:15am PST to see how the CBO model can support a more connected approach to implementation. Panelists will cover:
How clinical services, CBO support, and billing work together
What implementation looks like in practice, including wellness coach services, consent, and insurance capture
Lessons from our pilots with Corona-Norco USD, San Marcos USD, and Alvord USD.
TadHealth is a school-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) designed for K-12 mental health professionals and student support teams. Trusted by districts across California, TadHealth simplifies documentation, care coordination, and CYBHI reimbursement workflows to help schools sustainably... Read More →
Students' mental health is a concern. It can look like chronic absenteeism, disruptive behavior, isolation, poor or failing grades, and so much more. While the state has invested an unprecedented number of resources in addressing this matter, challenges with implementation, access, and feasibility remain. Two counties in Northern CA have formed partnerships with local Community Health Centers (FQHCs) helps build sustainable funding by integrating the health and education systems creating a durable funding model for providing lasting mental health supports in schools. Come hear from county office leaders, CHC executives, and managed care organization leadership how they have built these partnerships, what makes it especially durable, and how you can replicate the model.
Join us for a dynamic 12-minute Lighthouse Talk, designed to showcase bold ideas, innovative practices, and inspiring stories shaping the future of student mental health and wellness. This presentation is one of four featured during this one-hour block. Due to the fast-paced format, there will be no formal Q&A, but we encourage you to connect with the speaker directly after the block to continue the conversation.
At a time when conversations about youth mental health are largely focused on problems and limitations, we want to zero in on a creative and accessible opportunity hiding in plain sight: sport.
In this session, participants will examine sport through a “brain-based” lens to draw clear connections between neurodevelopment and three inherent properties of sport - movement, connection, and manageable stress. With a deeper understanding of how the brain and nervous system develop, participants will begin to see how intentionally designed sport experiences can act as a powerful tool to support youth mental health and wellbeing.
