Erin Jones received her doctorate in School Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in August 2021. Her dissertation research examined the effects of a brief behavioral activation intervention on the wellbeing, perceived stress, and positive emotions of K-12 teachers suffering from emotional exhaustion. Additionally, Dr. Jones holds a master's degree in School Counseling from Loyola University in Maryland.

During her time at Carolina, Dr. Jones joined CUBE, UNC’s year-long Social Innovation residency that helps UNC students turn their entrepreneurial ideas for social change into scalable businesses through workshops, seed funding, mentorship, and academic instruction. While in CUBE, Erin created TeacherBrain, a web-based platform designed to offer coaching, resources and support to help teachers manage the stresses of their jobs.

Now, Dr. Jones is completing her postdoctoral experience as the Clinic Coordinator at the SUCCEEDS Clinic at the University of Maryland at College Park helping undergraduate students with ADHD who are struggling with academic and/or mental health difficulties. Dr. Jones also teaches child therapy in the School Psychology doctoral program at UMD College Park.

Today, Dr. Jones and I are talking about how her time in CUBE and UNC’s School Psychology program helped shape her interests in ADHD services, the importance of mental health education for teachers and students, and social innovation in the mental health field.

To learn more about the Campus Y, visit https://campusy.unc.edu/. Follow @campusysocialjusticestories on Instagram for updates and new episodes of the podcast.

Music: Scratcher by Blue Dot Sessions

Graphics: Britney Hong

Amrutha Nandam (’23) started Special Needs Special People when she was in high school in order to spread awareness about accessibility differences and promote an inclusive community for people of all abilities. By spreading awareness, Special Needs Special People hopes to educate children about the beauty in accessibility differences and foster inter-abled friendships.

During her second year at Carolina, Amrutha joined CUBE, UNC’s year-long Social Innovation residency that helps UNC students turn their entrepreneurial ideas for social change into scalable businesses through workshops, seed funding, mentorship, and academic instruction. Since joining CUBE, Amrutha has been able to launch SNSP’s inclusive education program, and create an asynchronous version of her talk about accessibility differences in order to reach more students.

To learn more about SNSP, visit their website at https://specialneedsspecia.wixsite.com/website or follow them on Twitter @SpecialNeedsSp2 and on Instagram @specialneedsspecialpeople.

Today, Amrutha and I are talking about her experience growing up with accessibility differences, founding Special Needs Special People, and the importance of starting conversations about accessibility and inclusion in elementary schools.

Music: Scratcher by Blue Dot Sessions

Graphics: Britney Hong

Amber graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012 before going on to Yale University to earn her law degree. During her time at Carolina, Amber was involved in the Campus Y committee formerly known as Criminal Justice Action and Awareness (CJAA), worked with children imprisoned in Scotland and Ghana as a Morehead-Cain Scholar, and started Beauty Gap, a nonprofit organization that distributes dolls of color around the world, free of charge.

After graduating from UNC, Amber explored voting rights litigation and continued her passion for helping and representing incarcerated children. Today, Amber works as a Fried Frank Civil Rights Fellow at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund continuing her fight for racial justice and rights for incarcerated children.

Today, Amber and I are talking about how her time in CJAA influenced her career path, how her current position and work at BeautyGap intersect, and what her global experiences have taught her about what human rights really look like in America.

To learn more about Amber’s work with Beauty Gap or to donate dolls of color to girls across the world, visit http://www.beautygap.org/. You can also watch her TedxUNC talk about Beauty Gap here.

Music: Scratcher by Blue Dot Sessions

Graphics: Britney Hong

Jaki graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2012 with a major in Global Studies and a minor in Entrepreneurship. During her time at UNC, Jaki founded Linking Immigrants to New Communities, which helps ease the transition of recent immigrants through student interaction and awareness-raising in the community, and served on the UNC Emerging Communities Taskforce that established the Carolina Latina/o Collaborative, dedicated to developing a greater awareness of Latina/o issues, cultures and identities.

After graduating from UNC, Jaki stayed at the Campus Y to serve as the director of the Campus Y’s Global Gap Year Fellowship for three years before working for the United Nations in Thailand. Since 2018, Jaki has served as the Innovation Initiatives Coordinator redesigning and managing the development of CUBE, UNC Chapel Hill’s social venture accelerator.

Today, Jaki and I are talking about the power of connection, what it means to come to a halt in the name of mental health, and her experience growing up as a Latina in rural North Carolina.

To learn more about the Campus Y, visit https://campusy.unc.edu/. Follow @campusysocialjusticestories on Instagram for updates and new episodes of the podcast.

Music: Scratcher by Blue Dot Sessions

Graphics: Britney Hong