S25 SHARP Framework Workshop Series: Day 1

Wendy Shaia, EdD, MSW Related Seminars and Products

SSW

Dr. Wendy Shaia (she/they) is a Clinical Associate Professor and Executive Director of The Center for Restorative Change at the University of Maryland School of Social Work (formerly SWCOS), where she earned her Master of Social Work degree. Wendy obtained her Doctor of Education in Human and Organizational Learning from The George Washington University. She has more than 30 years of experience developing, implementing, and leading organizations and programs. In New York, she developed and operated a shelter for unhoused pregnant and parenting young women in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and built transitional and affordable housing in East New York, Brooklyn. Most recently, Wendy worked as a strategic planner for the Department of Defense, where she led change management efforts and developed strategies around Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity. Wendy is also the founder of the Positive Schools Center at the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Her work focuses on creating positive school climates and reducing the disproportionate suspensions and expulsions of children of color and children with disabilities from Maryland schools. She also developed the SHARP framework for providing services to people who have experienced poverty and oppression. She enjoys gardening, dancing swing, and writing fiction. Her first novel, The Black Cell, a work of Afro-futurism, was recently released.

Chris Beegle, LCSW-C Related Seminars and Products

Christopher S. Beegle, MSW, LCSW-C is the Director of Clinical Services at The Center for Restorative Change, directly leading and overseeing community-based, in-home services with children and families at Family Connections Baltimore. Direct and supervise clinicians implementing evidence-based model of Family Connections and adaptations of Grandparent Family Connections and Trauma-Adapted Family Connections. Co-facilitator in training and replication of Trauma-Adapted Family Connections. Prior to becoming the Director he was a counselor at the University of Maryland, School of Social Work, Family Connections program.  He provided in-home, family-based services, with caregivers and children participating in Family Connections, Trauma Adapted-Family Connections and Grandparent Family Connections.  Prior to Family Connections, he served as a social worker in Prince George’s County Department of Social Services providing clinical services to families and youth with plans of reunification, adoption, and reunification and independent living.  Trained in Family Finding, he assisted and helped children construct timelines in efforts to locate relatives, neighbors, and friends to serve as supports. Mr. Beegle facilitated family meetings to support family members’ efforts in re-establishing relationships with youth in foster care. He supported the implementation of Family Finding in Prince George’s County Department of Social Services and represented his jurisdiction, contributing to the state level implementation and intervention strategies.

Mr. Beegle is trained and a certified therapist in Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), The Road to Recovery Toolkit: Supporting Children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities who have Experienced Trauma, PracticeWise Managing and Adapting Practice (MAP), and Youth Mental Health First Aid. He is a certified facilitator in Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma (CCCT) with National Child Traumatic Stress Network, training providers and graduate level Interns on the core concepts influencing children and families when experiencing trauma. In his current role, Mr. Beegle provides clinical supervision to social workers in multiple settings including community-based family-centered services and school systems.  As a Faculty Field Instructor, he facilitates trainings, seminars, group supervision and individual supervision for graduate-level social work interns incorporating both macro and micro-level frameworks into their practices.

Mr. Beegle is currently a trainer and curriculum developer for the SHARP framework, participating in a Category II SAMHSA Grant, implementing anti-racist and anti-oppressive framework in human services. Mr. Beegle remains very interested in evolving human service systems approaches in addressing the safety and well-being of children and families, providing trauma-informed services with an antiracist and racial equity framework. 

A. Adar Ayira Related Seminars and Products

A. Adar Ayira is Director of Contract Services at Baltimore Racial Justice Action (BRJA). A Founding Member of BRJA, she has been on staff since September 2020. Adar has more than 30 years of management and organizational development,  membership, and fundraising experience gained through her tenure in both locally- and  nationally focused nonprofit, community-based, social justice organizations. She received  degrees in Public Communications and Sociology from American University in Washington,  DC. 

Prior to her tenure with BRJA, Adar was on the senior leadership team at a Baltimore public  foundation. Prior to that, she was Founder and Principal Consultant of Core Concepts, a  nonprofit specialist consulting firm that provided skills development; strategic planning; technical assistance; organizational, board, and program development; and project  management for nonprofit organizations. Adar also has experience as an Interim Executive  Director (IED) in the field of Interim Executive Leadership, working with grassroots organizations to provide effective leadership during times of organizational transitions.

Since 2020, Adar has operated as Principal Consultant of Ayira Core Concepts LLC, a boutique consulting firm, that  has expanded the services offered by the original Core Concepts.

Dana Polson Related Seminars and Products

Dana Polson is an anti-racism/anti-oppression facilitator, executive coach, and client project manager at Baltimore Racial Justice Action. With a 20-year background in public education as a teacher and administrator, she has a strong interest in helping individuals and organizations combine learning, self-reflection, and new practices into transformative change. She earned her PhD in 2012 from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County from the Language, Literacy, and Culture Program. Her dissertation Longing for Theory focused on the ways that Black Baltimore students were using theory from Black studies to transform their participation in the formerly
white-dominated space of policy debate.

She continues to use the theoretical background in Black studies as a resource in her work at BRJA as it provides both an explanatory look at our white supremacist, anti-Black society and an imaginative look towards racial justice.

Rebecca Hade Pobee Related Seminars and Products

Rebecca Hade Pobee is an antiracism/anti-oppression facilitator, executive coach, and client project manager. She has been working at Baltimore Racial Justice Action for five years and is passionate about working with individuals and organizations on seeing the historical and structural landscape of racism surrounding and impacting them and deconstructing the ways their individual actions and institutional policies, practices, procedures, and cultures can uphold racism or promote inclusion.
Prior to joining the staff at BRJA, Rebecca spent a decade working as a social studies curriculum developer of K-12 content. She brings this expertise to her work at BRJA, developing new activities and learning experiences for BRJA facilitators. Rebecca also brings her history background into her facilitation and coaching, contextualizing her
facilitation with the 400 plus years history of racism, white supremacy and anti-Blackness in the United States. As a white woman, she uses her experience to illuminate ways that whiteness shows up in individuals and organizations and to support and challenge white people in various places in their anti-racism journeys.

University of Maryland School of Social Work 3E08