Meet the Team
(Team members are listed alphabetically by first name)
Jessica Nixon
Jessica Nixon has been an educator in Chicago for the past 10 years. After earning her Masters in Teaching from the University of Chicago Urban Teacher Education Program, she taught middle school Language Arts and Social Studies on both the West and South sides of Chicago. Her passion for improving education for all students in the classroom led her to pursue roles in school reform with the University of Chicago working with schools on college and career readiness and then trauma responsiveness. In addition to her work with CARE, she coaches beginning teachers in the alternative licensure program at Dominican University. Throughout her various roles, she has supported over 20 schools in the Chicago area and uses this unique perspective to help schools maximize their existing strengths. When she is not working, Jessica enjoys spending time with her husband and two kiddos as well as honing her photography skills.
Lisa Pintado-Vertner
Lisa Pintado-Vertner began her career working with teens in the non-profit setting in Northern California. She became an elementary school teacher over 10 years ago teaching mostly in Oakland public schools. After moving to the Chicagoland she worked in various roles as an educator both in and outside the school as well as leading various organizing efforts in and around Oak Park and Chicago. She has over 20 years of organizational leadership experience. Lisa is also mother to two amazing teenagers and spends her free time creating quilts, crochet projects and various other arts and crafts.
Stacy Williams
Stacy Williams is an experienced educator and practitioner in the field of trauma and resilience whose work spans institutions in both K-12 and higher education. Driven by a commitment to educational equity and justice, she brings her experience to bear at the intersection of science and practice as a researcher and practitioner guiding institutions to develop trauma-informed educational practices and pedagogy. Her research interests include exploring the opportunities for educational institutions to bring a healing-centered engagement with trauma into their educational practices, applying an antiracist analysis of the ways systemic racism and oppression contribute to on-going traumatic experiences particularly for BIPOC people and a community engagement with trauma and healing at the individual, collective and historical levels.