Award based on Townshend’s work with VTPBIS and The BEST Project
Cassandra Townshend EdD ’21, has been named a Vermont Children’s Mental Health Champion for the 2022-2023 school year by the Association of University Centers on Disability (AUCD) and the the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDD) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Townshend becomes one of only 10 such awardees nationwide.
The award, which comes with AUCD and CDC funding, will support a workplan for expanding mental health supports for students throughout the current school year. The annual award process is highly competitive, open only to personnel connected with one of AUCD’s network centers. Organizations are specifically invited to apply based on a review of data relating to each center’s work in the area of supporting children’s mental health.
This year’s competition was especially fierce, but the award is a direct result of Townshend’s previous and ongoing work in supporting student mental health across Vermont. This includes social, emotional, and behavioral learning with students.
Townshend is co-director of the Building Effective Supports for Teaching (BEST) project at the UVM Center on Disability & Community Inclusion (CDCI). BEST provides training and support for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) for schools across Vermont.
Jesse C. Suter, CDCI’s executive director, said of the award, “I want to extend my sincere congratulations to Cassandra and to the BEST project, for this recognition and for your continued leadership. CDCI is excited to see the impact of Cassandra’s work grow through this important national recognition and opportunity.”
Townshend plans to strengthen partnerships between PBIS schools, supervisory unions and districts, with families and caregivers and local mental health agencies. For the work connected with this award to get underway, Townshend will submit a workplan to the AUCD and CDC, outlining ways in which mental health support for students will be expanded as a result of the award. The award additionally comes with support for work extending into the following school year.
