Susan E. Craig

Dr. Susan Craig is a lifelong student of early trauma and its effects on children’s learning. Her teaching experience, as well as years of on- site training and technical assistance to school districts throughout the country, provides the context for her advocacy for trauma-sensitive educational reform.

Dr. Craig began her writing career in 1992 with an article in Phi Delta Kappan describing the educational needs of children living with violence. This work received special notice in the now famous “purple book” Helping Traumatized Children Learn. Her books Reaching and Teaching Children Who Hurt: Strategies for Your Classroom (2008) and Trauma-Sensitive Schools: Learning Communities Transforming Children’s Lives (2015) are best sellers among teachers and administrators who use them to guide their efforts to make schools more accessible to children with challenging behaviors. In 2013, Dr. Craig was among those interviewed in the Safe Start National Resource Center series profiling women who have made an impact on the issue of children’s exposure to violence.

Dr. Craig is an avid blogger and sought after public speaker. In 2014 she participated in the Attachment & Trauma Network’s first Educating Traumatized Children Summit, and again in 2017, and she serves on ATN’s Advisory Council.