2024 Workshop SpeakersChildhood Poverty: Uniting Voices to Empower Tomorrow

Dr. Tina Rice, Psy.D, LP (she/her)

Tina is a clinical neuropsychologist, researcher, public speaker, and professor who specializes in patients with traumatic brain injury, developmental trauma, substance abuse and addiction, and disordered eating. She completed her undergraduate degree in psychology with honors at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. She completed her doctorate in Applied Clinical Psychology at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and was invited to complete a two-year fellowship in clinical neuropsychology. Since completing her fellowship, she has worked primarily in physical rehabilitation hospitals and serves her local Frisco, Texas community in coaching leadership and recovery groups.

Rice will be using this speaking opportunity to educate audiences on the correlation between youth poverty and its effects on brain development. 

Laura Zender (she/her)

A school counselor since 2010, Laura Zender has a bachelor’s degree in family and consumer science and a master’s degree in school counseling. She currently works at South Elementary - home to kindergarten and first graders with Saint Peter Public Schools. Zender is an ASCA U School Counseling Trauma and Crisis Management Specialist. “Being a consistent, supportive part of students’ lives through their highest highs and their lowest lows,” Zender said, is the most rewarding part of being a school counselor.

As a Workshops Speaker, Zender invites conference attendees to consider the realities and consequences of hunger in school.