SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST & PSYCHOLOGY ASSOCIATE

Sha’Nai brings energy, warmth, mindfulness practices, and trauma informed cognitive behavioral therapy interventions to District Kids. Sha’Nai has extensive school based experience and is a practicing school psychologist in the District of Columbia Public Charter Schools, where she assesses students’ cognitive processes and academic, behavioral, and social-emotional strengths and areas of challenge. In addition to her ability to meet kids where they are with her integrative therapeutic approaches, Sha’Nai supports families with cognitive behavioral support strategies to address anxiety and helps parents address challenging behaviors that come up at home. Currently, she is pursuing a doctoral degree in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to provide extensive support and family education within the school and home.

Sha’Nai centers mindfulness and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) to achieve holistic support at home and school. She is a licensed psychology associate in Maryland and the District of Columbia and a certified school psychologist.

SOCIAL COACH

Laura brings energy, joy, and extensive expertise in social coaching and education to District Kids. Laura has been an early childhood and elementary educator for almost 30 years, spending most of her career teaching third grade at Georgetown Day School in Washington, DC, where she also served as the social-emotional liaison between students, faculty and parents. In addition, Laura currently runs after school social groups at area schools.

Laura works with children and adolescents in small groups to support their social learning. When Laura works with children and adolescents, she strives to make the rules of the complicated social world more explicit to increase social awareness and to expand connections with others.

Laura works with children on making and keeping friends, working with others, conversation strategies, flexibility and compromise, problem-solving and perspective-taking. Through this process, Laura seeks to support children in developing increased confidence in social situations.

When working with children from early childhood through middle school, Laura centers the interests and strengths of children she works with. She builds on individual strengths and interests, highlighting them in her lessons to foster strong personal connections and to build on kids many strengths. She is passionate about supporting her clients’ social-emotional growth to help kids and adolescents build connections with others and see their inherent strengths.

Laura earned her BA in Psychology and Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education from Tufts University. She has completed the clinical training in the Social Thinking methodology and serves on the advisory council of Resilience Across Borders.

When not “socializing” with her students, Laura enjoys taking long walks, doing yoga and visiting family in her hometown, San Diego, California.

STRUCTURED LITERACY THERAPIST

Tara brings a love of learning, a commitment to reflective practice that centers identity and sees strength in diverse linguistic backgrounds, and specialized training in several structured literacy programs to District Kids.

Tara provides language-rich, individualized literacy intervention that explicitly supports children's developing executive functioning skills. She meets children where they are, incorporating their strengths and interests in their work together, and celebrating successes so that children can develop the reading, spelling, and writing skills and academic strategies they need to be successful in school and beyond. Through her first-hand experience as a parent and her work in schools, she is also deeply committed to partnering with parents and caregivers so they can effectively collaborate with teachers and other related professionals to support their children’s educational journey.

As the daughter of an Indian immigrant father, who, as a child growing up in Connecticut, was equally fascinated by her mother’s distinct Brooklyn accent, Tara thinks deeply about one’s identity and diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds in her work. Additionally, she has worked as an English as a Second Language reading instructor at Lafayette Elementary School, where she was rated a highly effective teacher.

When not working with children, Tara provides professional development to teachers in the Science of Reading as a facilitator with the AIM Institute for Learning and Research. She has served on the Board of the DC Capital Area Branch of the International Dyslexia Association and is a member of the Reading League DC.

Before her work in literacy, Tara served as an academic and career advisor to J.D. students at Georgetown Law and as a government lawyer. Tara lives in Washington, DC with her partner, two kids, and too many pets to name. When not in motion with her family or pets, Tara loves serving as a Lego sous chef, curling up with a good book including middle-grade fiction, and heading north for the perfect bowl of Rhode Island-style clam chowder.

She received her A.B. from Brown University in history, her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, and an M.A. in special education: learning disabilities from American University. She is a Certified Structured Literacy Classroom Teacher by the Center for Effective Reading Instruction (a subsidiary of the IDA).

CERTIFIED THERAPY DOG

Pru inherently understands that not everything is spoken in words and there is healing power in just being present. Pru has been training for work as a therapy dog since she was a puppy and now is a certified therapy dog through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs. I enjoy lounging, being pet, chewing bones, and long car rides.