MOMENTUM @ Mary’s Center Faculty and Community Partners
Tia Marie Brumsted
Clinical Supervisor and Training Faculty
Sweetbay Mental Health and Consulting, LLC
Tia Marie Brumsted, LCSW-C, LICSW, NCSSW (she/hers) is the founder and lead practitioner of Sweetbay Mental Health and Consulting, LLC, a practice dedicated to supporting individual and organizational wellbeing. With 20 years of experience in mental health and K-12 school health administration, she has served as a clinical social worker, school wellness program director, and systems-level education leader in Washington, DC and Maryland. Tia Marie is passionate about integrative mental health and is certified in mindfulness and meditation teaching, restorative yoga, and sound healing. She guides healing-centered classes, workshops, and retreats at her wellbeing studio in Gaithersburg, Maryland, helping individuals and groups live life with balance, clarity, and resilience.
Shamara Howze
Clinical Supervisor and Training Faculty
Howze your Health
Shamara Howze is a dedicated Licensed Professional Counselor and Play Therapist with nearly a decade of experience. Throughout her career, Shamara has focused on serving children and their families, employing the transformative power of play therapy. She believes in the holistic therapy approach, recognizing that working with children often involves supporting the entire family unit, fostering deeper connections in the home, and improved school outcomes.
Georgette Saad
Clinical Supervisor and Training Faculty
GMS Therapy
Dr. Georgette Saad is an experienced psychotherapist with over a decade of dedicated practice. Her extensive background includes evidence-based practice, formalized training programs, advanced supervision, teaching at the graduate level, and specialized training in psychoanalysis. Holding a doctoral degree from Smith College, Dr. Saad is deeply committed to advancing clinical practice and serving diverse communities in community mental health settings. As a bilingual, cisgender woman of color, Dr. Saad’s passion lies in nurturing growth and development in clinicians, empowering them with the skills and insights necessary to make meaningful impacts in their work.
Vanessa León
Clinical Supervisor
Dos Olas Therapy
Vanessa León, LICSW, LCSW-C (she/ella) is the founder and therapist at Dos Olas Therapy PLLC, a mental health practice providing individual therapy and immigration evaluations in English and Spanish for adults in Washington, DC and Maryland. With a decade of experience working with parents, immigrants, and trauma survivors in school and community mental health settings, Vanessa knows how pivotal it is to balance flexibility and sustainability as a helping professional supporting individuals work towards wellness. Vanessa’s clinical and supervisory practice is further informed by her lived experiences as a first-generation daughter of Peruvian immigrants and mother of two. In her downtime, Vanessa enjoys picnic-ing in DC parks, splashing in the nearest body of water, and hanging out on her balcony.
Donna Geraci
Training Faculty
Creative Ways Therapy
Donna is unendingly intrigued by the innate human capacity to heal from emotional pain and trauma. She believes strongly in the transformative powers of mindfulness, play, and sand-tray therapies, and uses these modalities in her work with child, adolescent, and adult clients.
Donna obtained her MSW in 1991 from Howard University, focusing on clinical social work with children and families.Throughout her career, she has worked in the public and private sector of DC’s child welfare system, including serving as the Clinical Director at the
Latin American Youth Center.
As a co-leader of Creative Ways Therapy, Donna challenges the clinical team to explore new perspectives; and brings an energetic, growth-oriented mindset to programmatic pursuits. Donna is a creative thinker, an engaging therapist, and a motivating supervisor.
Donna’s commitment to self-care includes making art from repurposed materials.
Jasmine Stephens
Clinical Supervisor
School Talk
Jasmine Stephens is a passionate mental health professional and program leader dedicated to supporting youth, schools, and communities through trauma-informed, culturally responsive practices. With a Master of Social Work from Howard University and a background in communication from East Carolina University, Jasmine brings a unique blend of clinical insight and strategic leadership to her work.
She currently works as a Restorative Justice Program Specialist, where she provides coaching, training, and strategic support to integrate restorative practices into school communities. Jasmine also serves as a licensed psychotherapist and has held leadership roles in youth development and school-based mental health, with a focus on behavior intervention and social-emotional programming.
Outside of her professional life, Jasmine is a fitness and wellness enthusiast with a love for Solidcore, fresh-pressed juice, and long walks. She’s also a devoted fan of all things beauty, fashion, and reality TV.
Laura Patton
Clinical Supervisor
Laura Patton LICSW, LCSW-C (she/her) is a clinical social worker with over 15 years of experience in the field of mental health. Laura’s practice has spanned across settings; providing therapy services to youth and families in schools and residential treatment facilities. Laura currently serves as a clinical supervisor in a school-based mental health program, where her clinical supervision is grounded in relational work, cultural humility, and strengths-based perspective. Laura earned her BSW from Indiana University and her MSW from Gallaudet University.
Dr. Olga Acosta Price
Training Faculty
The Center for Health and Healthcare in Schools: George Washington Milken Institute of Public Health
Olga Acosta Price is an Associate Professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health. She is also Director of the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools, a national resource and technical assistance center committed to building effective school health programs. A passionate advocate of school-based mental health services, Olga Acosta Price has dedicated her formal training in clinical psychology to improving the lives of young people. “My experiences working with children, youth and families have driven my desire to understand resilience and to approach our work together from a strength-based perspective,” she says. Giving voice to the concerns of young people is an essential priority for her. “I thoroughly enjoy creating opportunities for youth to share their insights. They don’t hesitate to tell those of us who develop systems of care that we are clueless about what the world is really like for them.”
Dr. Mariola Rosser
Training Faculty
The Center for Health and Healthcare in Schools: George Washington Milken Institute of Public Health
Dr. Rosser has 20 years of experience in social learning, system convening, and building communities of practice in education and school behavioral health. She coordinates the DC School Behavioral Health Community of Practice, supporting provider and school readiness in implementing a multi-tiered mental health model. Previously, she worked at NASDSE, NCSI, and the IDEA Partnership, providing technical assistance to states on social-emotional outcomes, graduation rates for students with disabilities, and cross-system capacity building. She holds a Master’s in Therapeutic Pedagogy from Maria Grzegorzewska University and a Doctorate in Special Education from George Washington University.
Jessica Gonzalez
Training Faculty
School Talk
Jessica Gonzalez joined SchoolTalk in 2022 and serves as the director of its InclusiveDC initiative, which supports youth with disabilities and their peers in D.C. schools and community organizations. With a background in special education and multilingual learning, she has worked in Washington, D.C., and New York City since 2012, helping students develop the academic skills needed for success. Jessica was a founding team member at The Sojourner Truth Montessori Public Charter School, where she served as the special education coordinator, and has also worked as a special education and Spanish language teacher for D.C. Public Schools and a middle school liaison at the Flamboyan Foundation. She brings expertise in restorative justice practices and is passionate about language acquisition and global education, serving as a travel ambassador to help students gain international learning experiences. Jessica holds an M.S. in School Leadership and Administration from Trinity Washington University and a B.S. in Special Education with a minor in Romance Languages from Dowling College.
Lisa Shaw
Training Faculty
School Talk
Lisa joined SchoolTalk in 2019 and holds an M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution. As an accomplished Special Projects Manager, she brings over 27 years of experience in senior organizational leadership, specializing in education and community-based initiatives. She is recognized for her expertise in training and developing conflict resolution skills, curriculum design, and facilitating experiential education programs in diverse community settings. In addition to her professional work, Lisa is an active volunteer serving as a keeper-aide at the Smithsonian National Zoo and an Election Officer with the Fairfax Office of Elections in Virginia.
School Leader Lab
School Leader Lab (SLL) is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to developing transformative education leaders who can create inclusive, high-performing learning environments. Founded in 2017, the organization addresses critical educator burnout and retention gaps by supporting the entire instructional leadership pipeline.
Empower ED
EmpowerEd is a Washington, D.C.-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to elevating the voices, well-being, and retention of educators across District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) and charter schools. EmpowerEd works to place teacher voices at the center of the educational policy landscape. By building professional authority and teacher leadership, the organization equips diverse educators with the skills, training, and confidence needed to advocate for systemic equity and justice in D.C. schools.
Dc History CEnter
DC History Center is a community-supported educational non-profit organization located on the second floor of the historic Carnegie Library at Mount Vernon Square in Washington, DC.
Center for Health and Healthcare in Schools at George Washington Milken Institute for Public Health (CHHCS)
The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools (CHHCS) is a nonpartisan policy, applied research, resource and technical assistance center with a history of developing school-connected strategies for better health and education outcomes for children. CHHCS partners with foundations, government health and education agencies, school districts, and providers across the country to support their school-connected initiatives.