Dr. Stacey Pearson-Wharton
Dr. Stacey Pearson-Wharton believes that, with a dose of hope and healing, our world can become a better place for all. She offers a compassionate approach and expertise in diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and belonging education. As a licensed psychologist, Dr. Stacey has worked with individuals and organizations with inequities that can cause stress and distress in communities. Dr. Stacey also gives practical wisdom to mental health challenges including anxiety, loss, and depression in difficult times.
TOPICS
- Black History Month
- Civil Discourse
- Diversity, Equity,& Inclusion
- Health & Wellness
- Mental Health
- Minority Student Mental Health
- Stress Management
KEYNOTES
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Programs
- Don’t Get Cancelled: Healing Relationships in the Wake of Offense
- Being Black in White Spaces
- Can’t We All Just Get Along
Mental Health Programs
Getting to know
Dr. Stacey Pearson-Wharton
Dr. Stacey Pearson-Wharton offers expertise and a positive approach to issues surrounding diversity, social justice, inclusion, and mental health. She works to provide hope and healing in difficult times.
For nearly 30 years, Dr. Stacey Pearson-Wharton (or Dr. Stacey, as her students affectionately call her) has dedicated herself to helping students maximize their learning, health and wellness, and personal growth. Now as a speaker, she’s hitting campuses across the country to inspire and educate students on taking steps for positive change in their lives and for their communities.
Dr. Stacey served the Chief Diversity Officer for the Governing Board of the American College Personnel Association, where she used her expertise and experience to navigate complicated social justice issues. She has significant experience teaching, publishing, and presenting on issues related to college student development. She holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the Pennsylvania State University and a Masters in Counselor Education from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
To help you promote your event with Stacey, CAMPUSPEAK has created promotional templates you can use. In this folder, you will find resources for social media, a promotional poster for printing, and press photos you can use for your event.
Link to Promotional Materials
LOGISTICAL MATERIALS
Below you will find logistical resources for the day of your event with Stacey.
In-Person Event AV Needs (PDF)
Speaking Introduction (PDF)
Discussion Questions (PDF)
SEE WHAT PEOPLE HAVE TO SAY About Dr. Stacey Pearson-Wharton
KEYNOTES
Don’t Get Cancelled: Healing Relationships in the Wake of Offense
When we watch the news, it seems like there’s always a hate bias incident happening on a college campus. These racist, sexist, or homophobic acts need to be addressed, but are we tiptoeing around difficult conversations, too afraid that we might do something wrong or make things worse? Can campuses breathe life into social justice frameworks without stepping in multicultural “poo”? Sowing the seeds of diversity can be challenging.
Dr. Stacey offers workable steps and guidance to you and your campus. This program helps campuses and individuals deal with everything from minor weeds (like microaggressions) to hate bias incidents by teaching tools to heal ruptures, listen without being defensive, apologize unconditionally, and manage fears of saying or doing the wrong thing. Students will gain the skills they need help cultivate a more inclusive and socially just campus community.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- that everyone will someday experience a time when their personal bias negatively impacts someone, else despite their best intentions
- ways to heal ruptures created when well-intentioned people say and do dumb things
- how to hear, listen, and accept someone’s apology if and when they experience a microaggression
- offer windows of hope, healing, and help, despite the complexities and arduous work needed to create an inclusive campus environment
Black Mental Health: Keeping it 100
The mental health of Black people is often put on the back burner because mental health is seen as a luxury for White people. Similar to this, there are many myths about the mental health of BIPOC individuals. In particular, psychology has admittedly been oppressive to Black individuals, resulting in hesitation within the Black community to use mental health services.
This program will explore Black Mental Health and Well-Being. In particular, the signs and symptoms of mental illness and the ways these disorders manifest will be explored from a cultural lens. In addition, participants will explore ways to mediate the impact of race-based stress and other parts of the double pandemic. Dr. Stacey shares practical wisdom to help African Americans bolster their mental health and tips for allies to help do their part to contribute to the emotional well-being of African Americans.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will:
- Learn how to identify signs and symptoms of mental illness
- Self-reflect upon the cultural connections to mental well being
- Learn self-help and other resources available to help them on their journey to mental wellness
Can’t We All Just Get Along
Over the last few years, the art of debate has become pure vitriol in our country. From the national political stage down to discussion in the hallways of college campuses, we are struggling with how to disagree with civility. When people are engaging in disagreement, they often fail to listen and are unwilling to respect the different opinion. Moreover, people are turning to social media and protest as the vehicle to debate without having face to face conversations.
In this program, Dr. Stacey Pearson Wharton gives participants the tools they need to have authentic, healthy conversations about the “scary stuff” like racism, homophobia, sexism, religion and politics. This program helps campuses and individuals by teaching tools to approach difficult topics, listen without being defensive, and manage fears of saying, or doing the wrong thing. Attendees will gain the skills they need to help cultivate a more inclusive and socially just campus.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- how to understand the difference between dialogue and debate
- radical listening skills
- the behaviors that are healthy dialogue instigators
Taming the Dragon: Dealing with Stress and Anxiety
College students are facing more stress and anxiety than ever before, and they are overwhelmed. The stress dragon has taken over – but like any monster, it has weaknesses. This keynote offers tools to help students manage and tame stress. Dr. Stacey’s interactive techniques will reveal the difference between productive motivational stress and problematic anxiety, and offer strategies for training a baby dragon before it becomes a full-blown monster.
The discussion will also challenge the cultural mindset around the virtues of being stressed. Students will become their own mental health champions and learn to support the people they care about who may be facing anxiety. By taming their stress dragons and finding inner peace, students will be on the road to finding “happily ever after.”
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- how to tackle anxiety and develop skills to reduce and manage their stress
- methods to increase their performance in their academics and organizations
- the importance of working together as a community to support and help each other with stress and anxiety
Being Black in White Spaces
Predominately white colleges and universities (PWCUs) have taken many meaningful steps to become more diverse and socially equitable places. But, many students of color experience discrimination, social isolation, and psychological challenges during their educational experience. Given proper tools, students can not only survive, but thrive in these environments. Combining research studies that clearly articulate the challenges and joys of being a student of color in a predominantly white institution, combined with personal stories of success and strategies for growth, this keynote will offer students practical lessons to hone the tools they need to thrive during their college experience and beyond.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- how to be an ally and supporter of groups and individuals that are different from themselves
- ways to help marginalized groups share their story and feel included in the greater community
- tools that can help different communities thrive in an environment where they may not identify with the majority population
#RISE: Getting back up after a failure
Current students are experiencing high levels of anxiety in unprecedented numbers. A huge factor in this experience of anxiety is a fear of making errors or mistakes—in essence, the fear of failure. This keynote will help students face their fear of failure and normalize their reaction to it. Students will learn concrete skills to increase distress tolerance and resiliency that will allow them to “take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.” No one likes the feeling of failure.
Once we are able to acknowledge that this experience is an inevitable, yet temporary, part of our lives, we can begin to alleviate the negative feelings associated with this state and embrace failure as an essential ingredient in achieving success in life. Learning the proven, practical and concrete skills that this program offers will help lower anxiety and feelings of distress, and can be applied in any situation.
Learning Outcomes
As a result of attending this program, students will learn:
- how failure (and learning from it) is the path to success, and is an important (and inevitable) part of life
- how to better understand and analyze a risk, and make rational decisions based on the real pros and cons of a particular situation, without allowing the fear of failure to sabotage the decision-making process
- practical skills to negotiate and mitigate distress and failure
STACEY’S BLOGS
The following are past entries Stacey has written for the CAMPUSPEAK Speaker’s Voice Blog