Rural School Social Work Practice

Laura Ainsworth is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Louisiana State University. She is the school's associate director and MSW director. Her primary areas of research are school social work, school mental health, school mental health policy, and community development. Dr. Ainsworth has published her research in peer-reviewed journals such as Children and Schools, Human Behavior in the Social Environment, and School Social Work Journal. Amy Guinn is a school social worker and team leader at Raytown Middle School in Missouri and an adjunct instructor at the University of Kansas. She brings extensive experience in Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions, school-based mental health, trauma-informed practice, and systems-level supports for students and families. Her work centers on translating evidence-based approaches into practical, school-ready interventions, with particular attention to under-resourced and rural-informed contexts. She is committed to bridgingthe gap between research and everyday school social work practice.Rachel Pounders has worked on local, state, and national projects to build stronger social-emotional and mental health-oriented school supports for students in Louisiana. Rachel started her professional career as a middle school teacher, which led her to pursue school social work where she could focus on cultivating safe, supportive environments for students on a larger scale. Her research focuses on providing better supports for students, trauma-informed practices in schools, and the influence of adverse childhood experiences on educational outcome.