A skilled DEI practitioner, data driven-strategist, and culturally responsive mental health clinician.

Subject: Strengthening our Culturally Responsive Approach to Healing: The Dire Need for LGBTQ+ and BIPOC Visibility & Representation in Behavioral Health Practitioners

For the past 13 years TaLisa has dedicated herself to cultivating an environment of equity, inclusion, and justice in higher education, health care, government, and community settings. With a background in human behavior, TaLisa has supported several institutions in DEI strategic planning, improving organizational culture, implementing change management, and cultivating a trauma-informed workplace. In 2021, TaLisa was appointed as the inaugural Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Education for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, tasked with providing DEI education and trainings, strategic planning support, and establishing trauma-informed approaches to state government. When TaLisa is not at the state capitol, she serves as mental health therapist in the Central Pennsylvania area. She is a certified clinical trauma professional with a special focus in working with Black, Indigenous, and communities of Color. Her specialties include: identity development, cultural trauma, and intergenerational trauma, to which she utilizes a comprehensive and client centered approach through ancestral healing, internal family systems, and cultural somatics. She applies a holistic approach to de-colonize the therapy space, empowering clients to reclaim what healing looks like in their culture while reconnecting clients to the roots of their identity and the sacred wisdom of their ancestors.