Amy Dickey is a passionate advocate, educator, and consultant committed to empowering families and professionals who support youth with developmental disabilities (I/DD), mental health challenges, and trauma. Drawing from her lived experience as a mother and professional, Arny is dedicated to fostering equitable access to trauma-informed care and advocating for a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Adversity birthed an advocate, and Arny credits her growth and success to lessons learned through hardship. Her transparency and resilience inspire others to embrace a growth mindset and advance trauma-informed practices that promote inclusion, healing and resilience. Arny is a trained Family Partner and certified expert in trauma and resilience, Arny uses her unique blend of personal insights and professional expertise to train caregivers, educators, and community stakeholders on addressing systemic barriers and creating meaningful change. Through her leadership at local, state, and national levels, she champions family-driven decision-making, inclusion, and collaboration to support children with complex needs.
Dr. Tiona Guess Praylow is a Columbia, SC native. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at Duke University and graduated summa cum laude. She received her dual MD, MPH medical degrees from Duke University School of Medicine and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill respectively. She completed residency and fellowship in General and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the UNC Hospitals, and is double-board certified. Dr. Praylow practices from her T-CHIRP framework, Trauma Cognizant Heart Inspired Restorative Practice, focused on cultural humility, holistic healing, and exuberant embodiment in her role as Medical Director at Three Rivers Midlands Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility and her coaching and consulting agency Resiliency Empowerment Strategies (REST). T-CHIRP teaches that recovery from trauma is a holistic mind-body-spirit experience that amplifies all the Colors of Our Song Inside, which is the title of her chil heal. She continues to cultivate strategies for empowering resiliency through Heart Math Biofeedback, the Safe and Sound Protocol, Emotional Freedom Technique, breathwork practices, and neurofeedback. She is passionate about being a voice for youth emerging from traumatic life experiences serving as a subject matter expert for community agencies and schools. She is an innovation igniting speaker who inspires and equips audiences to invest in and cultivate their Mental WELLth, a rich physical, emotional, and spiritual life experience, through simple science-backed, heart inspired strategies.