Date and Time: Thursday, July 29, 2021;  7:30 pm EST / 6:30 pm CST

Duration: 1 hour 30 minutes

Hosted by: NAAAP Boston, NAAAP Chicago, NAAAP New York, NAAAP Toronto

In this seminar, participants will get an opportunity to cultivate a sense of resilience at a time that is challenging, emotionally activating, and troubling.  Through various healing and mental wellness frameworks, Dr. Ramirez will review tools, strategies, and content that are aimed at supporting AAPI folx impacted by the increased rates of violence, racism and xenophobia towards our community.  Together, we will review relational strategies to develop courage, identify a true north to support in emotional and behavioral stuckness, and trauma-informed and healing centered tools to help ground folx when distressed and find empowerment in professional and personal collectives.

Special guest speaker:

Dr. Noel Ramirez is the son of two beautifully resilient Filipino immigrants and grew up in Jersey City, NJ.  He is a clinical social worker dedicated to creating opportunities for folx and communities to find a home within themselves.  Dr. Ramirez is the director and owner of Mango Tree Counseling and Consulting, a group practice and mental health resource center for Asian American/Pacific Islanders (AAPI) folx in the state of Pennsylvania. Outside of Mango Tree, Dr. Ramirez is involved in varying community health and empowerment initiatives, specifically in working as a behavioral health consultant at a local federally qualified health center, teaching graduate social work practice on intersectionality and healing-centered practices at Columbia University and West Chester University, and social empowerment programming with Philadelphia Asian and Queer.  He received his doctorate degree in Behavioral Health from Arizona State University, graduate degree in public health from Drexel University, and his MSW from the University of Pennsylvania.