By Fred L. Jones, Jr.
Eagle Staff Writer
fjones@theoklahomaeagle.net
A well-known family advocate and educator, T’erra Estes is passionate about empowering families and children experiencing adversity, crisis or trauma. As the founder of the Teach Not Punish (TNP) Family Resource Center Inc., Estes motivates and inspires families by showing empathy, compassion, optimism and instilling hope to influence positive behavior change.
Estes’ passion to empower families is derived from personal experiences of adversity and the belief that behavior is learned, therefore behavior can be taught. Similar to the families that she serves, Estes overcame adversity by having access to quality training, education, community support and positive reinforcement from others. The first pivotal decision in her life that ultimately positioned her to influence families alike was that she asked for support when needed and committed to doing her part to reach goals.
Since that point, Estes primarily worked as an educator in public schools as a certified kindergarten (K) – 6th grade teacher and a certified K-12th grade Special Education Teacher with a focus on inclusion services, specialized support and behavior interventions. As an educator, she gained additional experience as a Dyslexic Facilitator, Crisis Prevention Intervention (CPI) Trainer, administered Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) to develop behavior interventions for students on the autism spectrum and participated in numerous special education professional development courses.
The vision to understand people and their rational for behaviors manifested into a movement of empowering parents, teachers and children by focusing on strengths and goal driven actions. Estes’ leadership skills are related to maintaining positive relationships with others and being a life-long learner. The impact that TNP has with Estes’ leadership stimulates growth in individuals, families, communities and has the power of state and global influence.
Estes’ recently accepted a position at the Greenwood Leadership Academy (GLA), a Tulsa Public School partnership school as the Founding Behaviorist. GLA will open Fall 2017, and Estes will work to empower families and children in the Tulsa north community by implementing the School-Wide Positive Behaviors, Interventions and Support (PBIS) project to develop a positive climate and culture for the school and the community. She will also collaborate with behavioral health agencies to support healthy outcomes for students and families by addressing technical and adaptive challenges.
Estes challenges community leaders, authority figures, educators, parents and children to develop a plan that identifies goals, implement goal driven objectives and encourages intentional behaviors to achieve desirable outcomes. She believes that making connections and maintaining positive relationships are imperative in healthy integrated experiences. Estes humbly accepts the responsible to lead.
