The Atlanta Trauma Alliance (ATA) includes a large interprofessional team of educators who are passionate and dedicated to training and mentoring in the areas of compassionate trauma informed practice, trauma informed scholarship, and trauma informed advocacy. Our values in diversity, equity, and inclusion inform our teaching and mentoring and we include regular didactics and experiential practice to promote cultural humility and culturally responsiveness in our trainees, staff, and faculty. Our faculty team trains students across multiple schools and departments from within Emory University and across numerous institutions throughout Georgia including Spelman College, Morehouse College, Georgia State University, University of Georgia, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Mercer University. We provide unique educational opportunities in activities across clinical, scholarship, and advocacy domains to trainees at varied levels including undergraduate and graduate students (e.g., PhD, PsyD, MPH, MSW, MSN), medical students, and residents and fellows.
Within the ATA, we support training and mentoring of more than 40 undergraduate students, 8-10 PhD/PsyD practicum students, 2-3 discovery project medical students, and 4-5 postdoctoral residents and fellows. Active studies within ATA offer exposure to both basic science and clinical intervention projects and are led by experts in the field of traumatic stress. Students have opportunities to co-author manuscripts, present at conferences, and apply for early career funding mechanisms. The varied and rich training environment of ATA is invaluable in helping students achieve their professional goals and in training the next generation of trauma-informed and culturally responsive clinicians and researchers. Our trainees have moved on to pursue diverse fields of work in medicine, clinical psychology, neuroscience, business administration, public health, education, social work, and psychiatric nursing. In these roles, they pay-forward what they learned through their time with ATA and help widen our reach to facilitate healing and recovery in trauma survivors and ensure health equity in this process.