Center For Wellbeing

In School Environments

WISE Center - MedStar Georgetown University Hospital

Supporting schools with comprehensive approaches for mental wellness.

Educator Wellbeing: Teacher WISE Website

View Our Annual Report 2023-2024

Recent Outcomes 2023-2024

Our Mission

WISE’s mission is to serve the DC community and beyond by uplifting the social, emotional, and mental wellbeing of students, families, educators, and schools. With the spirit of cultural humility, we partner with schools and we promote the power of people to recognize and be liberated from, historical, social and educational pain and suffering. We believe that people exist in social contexts, and we actively work to reduce the unnecessary and harmful stress imposed on our community partners by resisting systems that oppress. We believe that mental wellbeing is a community responsibility where everyone plays a role, and it starts with acknowledging the humanity in each individual. We foster increased access to care supported by science and passionately practice systems-based support. We believe that relationships have the ability to heal.

Our Work in DC Schools

Our team provides multi-tiered support to DC schools through five primary services.

Component 1: School-Based Mental Health Treatment Services

Our team of highly-qualified child clinical psychologists, child psychiatrists, social workers, and doctoral trainees provide diagnostic evaluations, psychotherapy, and medication management for students and families in the school setting to improve accessibility.

Component 2: Professional Development Training

School staff receives foundational evidence-based pedagogy and concrete skill acquisition around the neurobiological impacts of stress and trauma, as well as relational and responsive strategies that reduce classroom behavioral issues, to increase staff’s feelings of efficacy and confidence.

Component 3: Classroom Coaching

Capacity building for teachers in integrating universal classroom-wide trauma-sensitive instructional approaches and individualized behavioral strategies for children with individual emotional and behavioral health needs.

Component 4: Consultation With School Leaders & Support Staff

Our team consults with school leadership and mental health team to ensure that mental health treatment services, classroom coaching, and professional development are uniquely tailored to fit the school’s culture, strengths, and needs. Consultation is provided for school-wide efforts related to culture change, policy development, and crisis support.

Component 5: Teacher Wellbeing Initiatives

Our team is equally as committed to taking care of the mental wellbeing of adults, so they can best support their students. We lead the citywide and school-based initiatives to decrease teacher burnout and turnover through school wellness programming, self-care training, and individual staff support.

Download the Teacher Wellbeing Workbook

What People Are Saying

“As a result of our work with The MedStar Georgetown WISE Center, our school has turned students who have presented severe behavior challenges into the successful students the school and their families know they can be."

— School Leader, Washington DC

“The WISE Center meets weekly with me, my vice principals, and our school social worker to provide ongoing advisement around school, classroom, and individual student behavioral health needs. The advice and training they provide is invaluable, has improved confidence among school’s faculty, and has strengthened the emotional and academic success of our students.”

— School Leader, Washington DC

“Since collaborating with The MedStar Georgetown WISE Center, I have seen teachers handling classroom difficulties more effectively, parents being more open to mental health support for their children and themselves, and students feeling happier and better prepared to learn.”