Creating Home-Grown School-Based Behavioral Health Graduate Programs with Ayada Bonilla

As the United States contends with a mental health crisis, schools have been actively working to hire, train and retain school mental health professionals. To support this process, one of NCSSLE’s School Based Mental Health Services grantees, funded in 2020, the Hawaii Department of Education, in collaboration with Chaminade University, created an Education Psychology doctoral program as well as the state’s first ever School Psychology program to start a pipeline of trained mental health professionals for their state’s schools. 
 

On this episode of “In Session,” we talk to Ayada Bonilla from the Hawaii Department of Education about the state’s homegrown educational psychology doctoral and school psychology programs. This conversation is guided by NCSSLE’s Annie Knowles and Brianna Cunniff. To learn more about the programs, read Hawaii’s Grantee Highlight.

Time Stamp 

Question / Topic Discussed 
0:45About Ayada and Hawaii 
3:55Creating the Doctoral Programs to Address Student Needs
7:37Impact of the Programs
8:40Recruitment & Retention
10:19Lessons Learned and Challenges
14:05Virtual Learning Opportunity 
14:55Future Plans & Sustainability
17:28Using Data to Improve
20:30Dissertations as System Research
21:48Closing

For all questions or feedback, you can email ncssle@air.org. Thanks for listening!

View Episode Transcript Here


Please note, the contents of this podcast do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the U.S. Department of Education, nor does it imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education.

Listen Here

American Institutes for Research

U.S. Department of Education

The contents of the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments Web site were assembled under contracts from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Supportive Schools to the American Institutes for Research (AIR), Contract Number  91990021A0020.

This Web site is operated and maintained by AIR. The contents of this Web site do not necessarily represent the policy or views of the U.S. Department of Education nor do they imply endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education.

©2025 American Institutes for Research — Disclaimer   |   Privacy Policy   |   Accessibility Statement