GETTING TO KNOW JANET

Janet Shriberg’s technical expertise supports projects that expand access to safe and healthy learning environments for vulnerable and/or marginalized children and youth.

Beyond your job title, please explain your role at Creative.

My position at Creative centralizes the education, care and protection of children and those supporting them, including families, teachers and communities. I lead the design, implementation and measurement across our projects to develop new strategies for improving student and teacher health and wellbeing. I provide technical expertise to advance solution sets that are localized and evidence-based, and promote school safety, psychosocial support and community child protection. I am currently working closely with ministry and community leaders in several of our projects to integrate social and emotional skill building in schools and non-formal education centers, and to measure how these skills impact learning and wellbeing outcomes for students and teachers over time.

Do you have a favorite, unique or fascinating story about your work in development?

Early in my career I was working to promote wellbeing for teachers affected by decades of conflict in Liberia, and I was struck by the teachers’ willingness to share their personal and professional stories. They spoke of hardships they faced in their work and homes while demonstrating an unwavering commitment to their students. It was a privilege I’ll never forget. This seeded over ten years of my work in teacher well-being. I went on to research and implement community-based projects globally to support teachers working in crisis and post-conflict settings as well for teachers working with immigrant and refugee students domestically.

• EXPERTISE:

  Psychosocial Support in Educational Settings: Social and Emotional Learning, Student and Teacher Well Being: Disaster Mental Health; Parenting and Caregiver Support

• EDUCATION:

  Doctorate in International Educational Development, Teachers College Columbia University

  Master of Public Health, Maternal and Child Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

  Master of Science, Counseling Psychology, Northeastern University

• DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE:

  Over 20 years of humanitarian and development experience working in West and Southern Africa, the Americas and Southeast Asia; experience working for INGOs, federal (USAID and Peace Corps) and in university settings (Assistant Professor of International Disaster Psychology at the University of Denver)

• LANGUAGES:

  English, Spanish