Trauma-informed colleges begin with trauma-informed leaders

From the COVID-19 pandemic to the global impacts of climate change and the continued battle for racial justice in the United States, higher education leaders are now more than ever faced with challenges that will reshape the campus landscape. Recent ACE survey reports show that the mental health of students, staff, and faculty are a top concern for presidents as institutions contend with this evolving environment. Drilling down to the individual campus level, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last month that 73 percent of employee respondents at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee disclosed experiencing at least one symptom of traumatic stress. To meet these challenges head-on, leaders must adopt new approaches and reimagine what it means to serve the institutional stakeholders in their charge.