04/01/2026
I’ve always had a long-term focus on understanding people — children and adults.
For much of my life, that focus has been shaped by feeling misunderstood. My own AuDHD diagnosis has helped me name something I had long sensed: my desire to see people understood and embraced is deeply connected to lived experience.
That understanding deepened as I supported my own neurodivergent children through recovery from school-related trauma. These experiences reinforced what neuroscience continues to affirm — children’s outcomes are inseparable from the adults, leadership practices, and systems that surround them.
While my work will always be child-focused, I’m increasingly aware that sustainable change doesn’t begin in ‘classrooms’ alone. It begins with leaders and systems.
As James Clear reminds us, “We do not rise to the level of our goals; we fall to the level of our systems.”
My rumblings with all of this led me to undertake further studies in 2025, including a Graduate Certificate in Trauma Aware Education (QUT (Queensland University of Technology) to deepen my understanding of neuroscience and trauma and ensure my leadership approaches are grounded in current research.
Thank you to my incredible husband Michael Denner - my study partner, fellow researcher and greatest cheerleader (who has also completed his Grad Cert too!). I’m so excited for what is in store for you professionally- you are an EXCELLENT, humble, wise, grounded leader with more integrity than anyone I know. Whilst the journey hasn’t been easy, our studies made it clear - the education system needs leaders like YOU who are willing to question and challenge what ‘has always been done’ to find better ways to support all students.
As I reflect on this course, amidst all I learnt, the research that is resoundingly clear is that Trauma-aware practice cannot solely rely on individual effort. We need reform! When transformational leadership and trauma-informed systems support adults well, they shape the environments children experience every day.
I still have much to learn. But I’m increasingly clear on this: when we invest in how we lead, design, and support adults, we create safer, more responsive cultures for children.
It starts with us… Bring on 2026!!!
