Dr. Laura Dawson-Fend received her Master of Arts in Community Counseling at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (2008), and her PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision from Texas Tech University (2014). Laura has spent much of her clinical career working in community mental health with underserved populations. She has worked in substance abuse, crisis response and assessment, housing first and integrated care environments. Laura taught at Eastern New Mexico University and New Mexico Highlands University before accepting her current role as an assistant professor at Thomas Jefferson University’s Community and Trauma Counseling program in Philadelphia. Laura is an LPC in Pennsylvania and Texas as well as a Certified School Counselor in New Mexico. Dr. Dawson-Fend’s research interests are in the areas of trauma, crisis, human trafficking, effective models for working with law enforcement and first responders to prevent burnout and PTSD, innovative pedagogical and classroom practices, and closing the gap between what we know about trauma and effective interventions and how we treat and to avoid trauma in the field.