2024 Stanton/Anthony Conversations – Fostering Resilience for Refugee Children
Friday, September 27, 2023
3:30-5:30 PM
Wegmans Hall Room 1400, River Campus
The Susan B Anthony Center is hosting “Fostering Resilience For Refugee Children,” our annual Stanton/Anthony Conversations event, held as part of Meliora Weekend.
The event will focus on trauma-responsive care for refugee children, showcasing insights from our five-year partnership with the NIH-funded TRANSFORM Center. The event will feature a keynote by visiting scholar Baitullah Hameedi, who, after fleeing the Taliban, now serves as a cultural broker in trauma therapy.
A panel discussion featuring key stakeholders will follow the keynote, and conclude with a meet-and-greet, providing an opportunity for deeper engagement with attendees.
Keynote Speaker
Baitullah Hameedi, a Susan B. Anthony Center visiting scholar, fled the Taliban along with 3.6 million
other Afghans. Mr. Hameedi spends two days a week at the Mt. Hope Family Center as a cultural broker
within a trauma therapy team that supports refugee students in upstate New York. He has developed
resources to help families recognize the signs of mental health problems and understand the American
school system and how to navigate it to support their children’s education. He also works with schools
to foster cultural understanding.
Speakers
Maureen Boorum, LMSW, is a mental health therapist specializing in the refugee and immigrant populations at Mt. Hope Family Center, an agency which is part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). Maureen is passionate about serving marginalized populations and works from a human-centered, trauma-focused lens. She is trained in Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees (TST-R), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), and Modular Approach to Therapy for Children with Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, or Conduct Problems (MATCH-ADTC).
Moses Robinson began his law enforcement career in 1985 with the Rochester, New York Police Department. For the past 35 years, he has been a certified School Resource Officer, a Crime Prevention Officer, and is currently the community liaison officer with the Rochester Police Department, working with diverse community residents, particularly youth, to foster relevant relationships between police and community. Mr. Robinson is on the Rochester Police Department’s Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), which helps improves relationships with people in a mental health crisis to ensure officer and community safety.
Katie DeFazio is the Elementary (K-6) Assistant Principal for the Rochester International Academy (RIA), an award-winning program for students in grades K – 12, who are new to the United States and have little to no English acquisition. With a decade of dedicated service in the Rochester City School District, Katie has established herself as a passionate advocate for equitable education and culturally responsive teaching. Katie focuses on creating inclusive and trauma-informed environments that cater to the diverse needs of students and their families.