Dr Judith Howard is a senior lecturer from the Queensland University of Technology who has an extensive career history with schooling in Queensland. Dr Howard has a keen focus on concerns of school students from complex trauma histories. She promotes a neuroscience-informed approach – to which she believes every educator in every school needs access. Dr Howard oversees pre-service/post-graduate teacher education in trauma-aware education and is the coordinator for the Master of Education: School Guidance and Counselling Course. She is the author of the popular book: “Distressed or Deliberately Defiant: Managing Challenging Student Behaviour due to Trauma and Disorganised Attachment”, is principal organiser of the biennial “Trauma-Aware Schooling” conference, has developed online courses that are reaching thousands nationally and internationally and continues to research, write, speak and train on this topic.

Dr Howard will be discussing outcomes from recent research into Trauma-Aware Schooling that is impacting practice across the country and overseas and will share training resources being developed by QUT to support this growing work in schools.