Dr. Kira Mauseth is a practicing clinical psychologist who sees patients at Snohomish Psychology Associates in Everett and Edmonds, WA, teaches as an Associate Teaching Professor at Seattle University and serves as a co-lead for the Behavioral Health Strike Team for the WA State Department of Health. She also owns Astrum Health, LLC, and consults with organizations and educational groups about disaster preparedness and resilience building within local communities. 

Dr. Mauseth has provided training to community groups and professionals both regionally and abroad as the co-developer of the Health Support Team© program and has authored “Why Therapy Works: The Psychology of Change”. Her work and research focus on disaster behavioral health, resilience, and recovery from trauma as well as small and large-scale critical incident response and preparation for organizations and leaders. She has worked abroad extensively with disaster survivors and refugees in Haiti, Jordan and Poland, and has trained first responders and health care workers throughout Puget Sound the United States, and currently serves in the adult mental health clinical seat on Washington State’s Disaster Medical Advisory Committee (DMAC).

Dr. Tona L. McGuire is a clinical psychologist working primarily with children and families. She was formerly the Associate Head of the Consultation and Liaison Division at Seattle Children’s Hospital, and was formerly Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington, School of Medicine. She has been involved in disaster preparation and response for 16 years both in her local community as well as internationally, and co-developed the Health Support Team, a disaster behavioral health curriculum and training.

Currently Dr. McGuire is Co- Lead for the Mental Health Group of the Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management (WRAPEM), an ASPR funded pediatric Center for Excellence and sits on the Mental Health Group for the Pediatric Pandemic Network, a national HRSA funded grant comprised of five tertiary care pediatric hospitals. She is Behavioral Health representative for the Disaster Clinical Advisory Committee, which plans for the impact of disasters on the regional Puget Sound healthcare system, as well as the State Disaster Medical Advisory Committee which advises the Secretary of Health during disasters. Dr. McGuire is Co-Lead for Washington State Department of Health’s Behavioral Health Strike Team. 

A critical step in moving past crises and improving emergency response is listening to the people who were directly involved. What went wrong, what went well, why did it happen the way that it did, and what would we change next time?

Conversations about our pandemic experience, personal and work-related, can help us identify lessons learned, collectively process the trauma of the last three years, and inform better emergency operations for the future. 

On Wednesday, February 8th, Drs. Kira Mauseth and Tona McGuire will introduce us to this topic in an event called Recovery: Finding a Way Forward After Crisis. During this session, they will discuss the science of recovery and highlight the lasting benefits that these types of conversations can have for schools, educators, and staff. 

In the context of the pandemic, this means actively listening to those who were “in the trenches,” giving them the space to tell their stories, and drawing out best practices so the community is better prepared for future crises. 

During the Learning Network event, participants will learn how to facilitate these sessions with their schools with a focus on processing personal experiences and moving forward. 

In the weeks following the event, attendees will be invited to join smaller discussions with Drs. Mauseth and McGuire to help them organize and facilitate these sessions with their teams based on their own unique circumstances.

Watch Drs. Mauseth and McGuire in action during our last Learning Network event, Living in Times of Response and Recovery: Communication and Engagement Strategies for Ongoing Pandemic Response.

Lillian Manahan, PhD, is a Surveillance Epidemiologist at the Washington State Department of Health. She is a part of the Special Projects and Data Requests team and manages the weekly COVID-19 Cases in Children and Youth report that is published on the DOH dashboard site weekly. She earned her PhD in spatial epidemiology from the University of Florida. She has been with DOH for 6 years and worked in Environmental Public Health prior to joining the COVID response in 2020.

Kim Sanchez, MIT, is the K-12 Education Engagement Director for the Washington State Department of Health. In this role, she cultivates relationships within and across state and local agencies to advance shared priorities of public health and education for every student in Washington. Prior to joining WSDOH, Kim served as an educator and administrator in SW Washington for over 15 years.

Heather Drummond, MPH, is the Testing Branch Manager, COVID-19 Response at the Washington State Department of Health. She oversees DOH’s COVID-19 testing strategy for Washington State, including initiatives like Say Yes! COVID Test and the Learn to Return program. She earned her Master’s in Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has over a decade of experience as a public health practitioner enhancing health system capacity locally, nationally, and internationally.

Martin Mueller is a Special Assistant to the Washington State Superintendent for Public Instruction. He leads OSPI’s ongoing connection with the Department of Health and participates in multiple pandemic After Action initiatives as Washington shifts into the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the last 30 years, Martin served in leadership positions at multiple state level agencies, an Educational Service District, and as an intervention specialist.

Corina McEntire, MPA, is the Regional COVID Response Coordinator at ESD 112 and a representative of the AESD Network. Corina has led a variety of P-3 education projects and serves as a research consultant at Portland State University. She has over 20 years of experience in program management, curriculum development and facilitating professional learning communities. She earned her Master’s in Public Affairs degree from Washington State University in 2009. Currently she supports school districts in implementing their COVID-19 testing programs and other public health initiatives in the ESD 112 region.

The last L2R Learning Network event of the 2022 school year covered questions like: 

• • • What will testing programs look like next year?
    • What changes to testing supplies are anticipated?
    • How will the labor fund work for us next year?
    • What types of services will external labor partners provide?

The event also featured a curated Q&A with representatives from DOH, OSPI, and HCP to explore these questions and prepare school leaders for relaunching testing in the fall.

L2R has produced an online workbook that helps testing teams create a pre-packaged testing toolkit based on the programs they built over the past two years.

During the Learning Network event, Sarah Sutton (Health Commons Project), provided a tutorial on how to use the online workbook.

You can watch a recording of the event below.

It featured a moderated Q&A with leaders from top state agencies to examine priority issues for schools and their COVID-19 testing programs.

Guest Speakers included:

Lacy Fehrenbach, Deputy Secretary for Prevention, Safety, and Health, Washington State Department of Health

Michaela Miller, Deputy Superintendent, Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction