As a lab, we share a commitment to producing work that informs research, practice, and policy to promote healthy youth development and community vitality in rural Maine.

Student-led SEL
by Lyn Mikel Brown, Catharine Biddle, & Mark Tappan
Educational Leadership

When students have input in their social-emotional learning, the results can be school- and student-transforming.

Letting student voice lead the way
by Catharine Biddle, Lyn Mikel Brown, & Mark Tappan
Educational Leadership

To increase healing and well-being in school, make sure your students are part of the process.

Trauma-responsive schooling: Centering student voice and healing
by Lyn Mikel Brown, Catharine Biddle, & Mark Tappan

This book outlines a novel approach to transforming American schools through student-centered, trauma-responsive practices. This model focuses on whole-school change, encouraging educators to upend traditional classroom power dynamics by listening foremost to student voices, validating student experiences, and promoting student agency.

Schools should make students’ wishes come true: Here’s how
by Catharine Biddle, Mark Tappan, & Lyn Mikel Brown
Ed Week

Rural Maine families need mental health support
by Mark Tappan
Portland Press Herald

Student-empowered curricular change as trauma-informed practice
by Lyn Mikel Brown & Jenny Flaumenhaft
Phi Delta Kappan

Banishing Siberia and student seclusion: Leading trauma-informed systems change in a rural school
by Catharine Biddle & Lyn Mikel Brown
Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership

Partnering with schools for community development: Power imbalances in rural community collaboratives addressing childhood adversity
by Catharine Biddle, Ian Mette, & Andrea Mercado
Community Development

Parochialism or pragmatic resistance? The role of community-engaged leadership, activist scholarship, and vulnerable rural ecologies within school reform.
by Ian Mette, Catharine Biddle, Mark Congdon & Andrea Mercado
Australian and International Journal of Rural Education

Addressing rural, wicked problems through collaboration: Critical reflections on a school-university-community design process
by Catharine Biddle, Ian Mette, Lyn Mikel Brown, Mark Tappan, Brittany Ray, & Sarah Strickland
In R.M. Reardon & J. Leonard (Eds). Making a positive impact in rural places: Change agency in school-university-community collaboration in education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Four ways we can all support students in poverty
by Catharine Biddle
Bangor Daily News