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About Us

Contact

Jeanne Felter, PhD
  • Director
  • Chair, Counseling and Behavioral Health Department
  • Jefferson College of Health Professions
Stephen DiDonato, PhD
  • Senior Director for Strategic Engagements and Innovation
  • Associate Professor
  • Jefferson College of Nursing

Mission & Vision

The mission of Thomas Jefferson University is: We Improve Lives. The work we do in the Jefferson Trauma Education Network extends from that focus:

  • Mission: We improve lives through education, training, and community impact initiatives that promote the health of children, families, communities, and the organizations and systems that serve them.
  • Vision: Reimagining, transforming, and disrupting the ways that people support others to mitigate stress and heal from trauma.
  • Values:
    • Put People First. Service-Minded, Respectful & Embraces Diversity.
    • Be Bold & Think Differently. Innovative, Courageous & Solution-Oriented.
    • Do the Right Thing. Safety-Focused, Integrity & Accountability.

Focus Areas

Our work is centered on three focus areas around which we seek grants to fund the education and workforce development that we do.

  • Trauma-informed education and practice for students across health disciplines
  • Trauma-informed workforce development
  • Trauma responsive community impact and education

Meet the Team

Director
Jeanne Felter, PhD
Chair, Counseling and Behavioral Health Department
College of Health Professions
Jeanne.Felter@jefferson.edu

Dr. Felter is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Counseling and Behavioral Health Department at Thomas Jefferson University. She serves as the Director of Jefferson’s Trauma Education Network (J-TEN), a grant funded initiative aimed at growing a network of trauma-informed providers and communities, improving the quality of care and services delivered, and ultimately improving health and educational outcomes of residents in the Philadelphia region and beyond. Dr. Felter earned a Masters in Counseling and a PhD in Education Psychology from the Catholic University of America. She is a Licensed Professional Counselor in Pennsylvania. She has clinical expertise in the treatment of urban children, adolescents and families who have endured adverse experiences and traumatic stress. She has served as a clinical supervisor, trainer and consultant for many schools, school districts, and organizations regionally. An active participant in the local and national trauma movement, Dr. Felter is a Steering Committee member of the Philadelphia Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Taskforce, a member of the Philadelphia Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS) Prolonged/Complex Trauma Research and Best Practices Thinktank, and a board member for the Campaign for Trauma Informed Policy and Practice.

Senior Director for Strategic Engagements and Innovation
Stephen DiDonato, PhD
Associate Professor
Jefferson College of Nursing
Stephen.DiDonato@jefferson.edu

Stephen DiDonato, PhD, LPC is an Associate Professor in the College of Nursing (JCN) at Thomas Jefferson University and is a psychologist and a licensed professional counselor. Dr. DiDonato holds his PhD in international psychology from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Dr. DiDonato transitioned in July of 2020 from his role as program director of the Community & Trauma Counseling Program at Jefferson to JCN to launch a Dean’s initiative to infuse trauma-informed education across all levels of nursing education.  Dr. DiDonato has spent his career as a clinician, educator, and researcher. Clinically, Dr. DiDonato’s focus has been on children and families who have experienced the intersection and complexity of exposure to trauma and social injustice. Dr. DiDonato’s research focuses on higher education program evaluation and research, best practices in child welfare training and organizational development. Dr. DiDonato is currently collaborating with teams in Philadelphia, USA and Cusco and Ica, Peru to investigate best practices in the development of resource parents and child welfare staff.

Our History

The Jefferson Trauma Education Network (J-TEN) initially served as the training and community intervention arm of the Community and Trauma Counseling (CTC) Program, which resides within the Counseling and Behavioral Health Department in the College of Health Professions. The CTC program is one of few graduate programs nationally to offer a fully integrated trauma-focused curriculum graduating mental health professionals equipped to support the needs of individuals, families and communities influenced by adverse experiences, catastrophic events or traumatic stress.

We realized early on that we needed to do more to bring this critical education and training to professionals, paraprofessionals and community members who might never find their way to our master’s program. Thanks to a 3-year investment from the Thomas Scattergood Foundation, Jefferson Trauma Education Network was launched in 2018.

And yet, we know that those impacted by trauma, adversity and stress are often served by multiple systems simultaneously, or they fail to be served at all. Their needs go unaddressed and are often mislabeled or misinterpreted. We also know that complex needs are best served when interprofessional teams work together. Finally, we believe that trauma is not a specialization.

Having a deep awareness of the broad impact and prevalence of trauma, and the skills and competencies to respond in ways that are healing, are requisite among all health and human service workforces and among all people invested in serving their communities. As such, we evolved to have a deep interprofessional focus, expanding beyond its early behavioral health roots.

To better accomplish this interprofessional aim, Jefferson Trauma Education Network has embraced an interprofessional infrastructure of faculty, staff, and students. Today, we enlist the support of faculty, staff and students across various Jefferson colleges, as well as departments within Jefferson’s clinical pillar.