2025 MSSWA Fall Conference

2025 Fall Conference
September 22 & 23

Are You Ready to Feel Inspired, Equipped, and Recharged?

The MSSWA Fall Conference is the premier gathering of school social workers, mental health professionals, and student support leaders across Minnesota—and this year promises to be bigger, bolder, and more impactful than ever.

Whether you're a seasoned school social worker or just starting out, this is where passion meets purpose.

Why You Should Be There:

✅ Powerful Keynotes – Hear from expert voices in education, mental health, DEI, and trauma-informed practices.

✅ Tailored Breakouts – Choose from dynamic sessions that meet the real-world challenges you're facing in schools today.

✅ Practical Tools You Can Use – Walk away with evidence-based strategies you can implement immediately.

✅ Earn CEUs – Professional development that counts.

✅ Grow Your Network – Connect with hundreds of professionals who get it. These are your people.

✅ Feel Valued & Rejuvenated – This conference puts you at the center. Your wellness. Your impact. Your professional growth.

NEW VENUE!

Mystic Lake Event Center

2400 Mystic Lake Blvd NW
Prior Lake, MN 55372

We are moving the Fall Conference to Mystic Lake Event Center.
This beautiful facility will allow us to have more vendors and more breakouts!

If you need a room - we have a block of 15 rooms available at the Mystic Hotel.

Rooms are $139/night and are first come, first serve. 

To reserve your room at the conference hotel, call 1-800-262-7799 and follow the prompts to get to reservations. 

Please inform them you are with a group and your Group Code is 2509MNNES.

Registration is OPEN! 

We have put together a PDF to help outline all of the items we'll need from you when you register. 

All the breakout sessions are clearly labeled (and some have requirements) - this way you can see what the breakout sessions are, how many CEUs they are, and what category they fall under.

The PDF also has information on the Tuesday lunch.
We are providing boxed lunches for everyone this year and your choices are in the packet as well. 

Lastly, there are a couple pages that help you figure out how to 'whitelist' the MSSWA emails in your emails so you hopefully won't miss any of the exciting updates as we send them out.

Click here to view the PDF before you register! 

Keynote speakers

Monday:  Dr. Lori Desautels

Our Journey Through the Developing Nervous System as

We Rewire Our Perceptions of Discipline 

In this presentation, we will explore how our nervous systems are impacted by adversity, trauma, and experiences of resiliency through deepened connections and sensory regulation.

Behaviors are only signals or indicators that the brain and body are struggling in survival states of functioning. In our time together, we will explore how we get out in front of the behavior through our procedures, routines, and transitions. 

We will begin to share practices that reach the nervous system integrating steadiness and play. We will also explore the differences between co-regulation and coercive regulation which is the foundation of discipline practices that move us through challenging moments while attending to our emotional, social, and physiological health.

 

Tuesday:  Dr. Clay Cook

 Low-Burden, High-Impact Mental Health Services

In this keynote, we will explore the critical importance of selecting mental health practices that are both low-burden and high-impact, ensuring that they are practical for implementation while yielding significant benefits.

We'll discuss how high-burden practices, despite their potential effectiveness, often prove too cumbersome for consistent application, while low-impact practices fail to deliver a meaningful return on investment. Attendees will learn how to strategically choose and implement low-burden, high-impact practices within a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS), with a focus on tangible, actionable strategies at each tier.

This session will empower participants to optimize mental health services in their schools or organizations, resulting in better outcomes for both students and staff.

Event schedule

Monday - September 22nd, 2025

Time	Schedule	Speaker	Session Title
7:00 - 7:45am	Registration & Vendors
7:45 - 8:00am	Welcome & Housekeeping
8:00 - 9:30am	Keynote	Lori Desautels
9:30-11:00am	Session 1A	Lori Desautels	Discipline with the Adult Nervous System Leading the Way
9:30-11:00am	Session 1B	Sara Lahti	Coming Out Twice: Supporting LGBTQIA + Autistic Students
9:30-11:00am	Session 1C	Ally Washenesky	Building the Plane While Flying: Creating Impact in Small Rural Schools with Limited Mental Health Support
9:30-11:00am	Session 1D	Cara McGlynn & Jenna French-Greff	Beyond Behavior: Culturally Responsive Trauma Care in Education
11:00 - 12:30	Annual Meeting & Lunch	Lunch Buffet Provided
12:30-12:45pm	Vendor Time
12:45-2:15pm	Session 2A	Abby Rice, Wendy Mathiason, & Megan Lagasse	MDE's School-Based Skills Training based in DBT
12:45-2:15pm	Session 2B	Margo Adams Larsen	Navigating Uncertain Times with a Positive Focus on Self-Care: Do for you what you do for others
12:45-2:15pm	Session 2C	Nic Van Oss	Behavior Intervention Data: Getting It, Using It, and Rocking Your Intervention
12:45-2:15pm	Session 2D	Nicole Barnes & Meredith Kimmerle	PART 1: Creating a Community of Learning and Support through elevating school-based grief sensitivity and response – a yearlong cohort exploring and/or implementing strategic grief support initiative(s) in your school.
2:15-2:30pm	Vendor Time
2:30-4:00pm	Session 3A	Kris Christensen, Marisa Priess, & Todd Harvey	Trauma-Informed IEP Goals/Objectives: A School Social Worker Perspective
2:30-4:00pm	Session 3B	Holly Ryan	K-12 Behavior Threat Assessment and Management
2:30-4:00pm	Session 3C	Emily Thomas & Cara McGlynn	Crafting Resilience: Makerspace for Social-Emotional Growth
2:30-4:00pm	Session 3D	Nicole Barnes & Meredith Kimmerle	PART 2: Creating a Community of Learning and Support through elevating school-based grief sensitivity and response – a yearlong cohort exploring and/or implementing strategic grief support initiative(s) in your school.

Tuesday - September 23rd, 2025

Time	Schedule	Speaker	Session Title
7:00 - 7:45am	Registration
7:45 - 8:00am	Welcome & Housekeeping
8:00 - 9:30am	Keynote	Clay Cook
9:15-9:30am	Vendor Time
9:30-11:00am	Session 1A	Clay Cook	Thinking Functionally About Student Behavior
9:30-11:00am	Session 1B	Megan Lagasse	Supporting Student School Success through Service Coordination
9:30-11:00am	Session 1C	Julia Decker	Eye of the Storm: Immigration Law and Policy Since January 2025
9:30-11:00am	Session 1D	Alicia Garcia, Nicole Other Medicine, Sam Mountain	Social Emotional Learning based on the Ojibwe's Seven Grandfather Teachings
11:00 - 12:00pm	Vendor Time & Lunch	Lunch On Your Own
12:00-1:30pm	Session 2A	Porsha Brown & Cara McGlynn	Fostering Trust: Youth-Adult Relationships & Mental Health
12:00-1:30pm	Session 2B	Julia Messenger	Supervising Mental Health Practitioners Addressing Student Mental Health Symptoms
12:00-1:30pm	Session 2C	Sam Marzouk	From Talking to Action: The Miracle of Resilience and What We Do With It
12:00-1:30pm	Session 2D	Nicole Berning & Erin Farrell	Bridging the Gap: Strengthening Collaboration Between Schools and Community-Based Services
2:00 - 4:00	Closing Keynote	Surprise Special Guest

are you part of a company that might want to sponsor or be a vendor? 

We would love to have you join us as a sponsor or vendor!
Please check out our new options for getting your company more visibility at this year's Fall Conference. 

If you can't find anything that really fits you or what you're able to do this year, please reach out to the contact below. We'll be glad to find something that will work. 

CLICK HERE FOR SPONSORS/VENDORS

We're excited to see you in september! 

Questions?

Contact:
Lindsay Moore
Operations & Event Coordinator
operations@msswa.org