National Resilience Resource Center
National Resilience Resource Expert Voices
Changing hearts and minds frequently depends on encountering a trusted expert teacher, someone with a cutting edge perspective and a good heart.
Reading a study or book is enlightening; meeting an author first hand is ideal. Conversations with experts can touch a chord.
Interviews with the following experts can be eye opening. These leaders summarize the highlights of their work, offer new perspectives and share the personal motivation behind the work they do.
"When selecting a teacher, ask yourself:
Is my teacher a well-balanced person? Is she or he happy? Does my teacher reflect and demonstrate the quality of life I desire?"
-- Sydney Banks, The Missing Link
Bonnie Bernard
Youth prevention speaker, author
Kathy Marshall Emerson
Systems change facilitator, administrator
Roger Mills, Ph. D.
Community empowerment trainer, author
Emmy Werner, Ph. D.
Lifespan resilience scientist, author
Exploring the Black Box of Resilience: Unraveling Mysteries with Bonnie Benard and Kathy Marshall Emerson
"This existential part of the black box of resilience involves, among other things, the spiritual, psychological, mental emotional, and bioneurological dimensions of human nature and development. Some of the most significant answers will surely come from explorations of this formless and historically elusive domain."
"People are already whole and healthy. They already have all the wisdom, well-being and common sense -- the kind of self-respect that they need inside them as a very natural, innate state of mind -- to live a successful, happy life... We see them as healthy and whole already."
"What did surprise me, were the first findings... children who had four or more high risk factors against them. When we looked at them at least in the first 10 and 15 years we found that so many did not have any of the problems that were predicted on the basis of their background. Then what surprised us next is the high proportion of people who had problems in adolescence... who then recovered without any intervention in their 20's and 30's by making use of the things that the community had to offer spontaneously."
"...no matter where we are, no matter where we work with kids, whether it's our families, whether it's our schools, whether it's our communities, after-school programs, what really matters are the relationships we have with kids and part of that relationship is having people working with kids that believe in the kids' innate capacities and innate health."
Spotlight From the Inside: An Interview with Kathy Marshall by A. Danielson
"Resilience is the natural human capacity for navigating life successfully. The opportunity one has to learn to tap resilience from the inside out makes the critical difference and extending essential environmental protective factors such as caring and support, encouraging high expectations, and meaningful opportunities for participation alone are not enough."
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