Bios

Chris Aland began his career as an elementary school teacher before transitioning into school counseling at Folsom High School. His passion for supporting students and improving educational systems led him to serve as a Vice Principal and later as a Principal within the Folsom Cordova Unified School District.

For the past ten years, Chris has worked with the Sacramento County Office of Education, first as the Director of Court and Community Schools, then overseeing Reentry Programs. Currently, he serves as the Director of the Counseling Network, where he leads a community of practitioners dedicated to enhancing school counseling programs through professional development and consultation. His work focuses on equipping schools and districts with the tools and strategies needed to foster student success and well-being across the region.

 Lyndsay Morris, M.Ed. teaches the skills of being human—how to focus, how to calm, how to connect, and how to thrive. A former teacher and school counselor, she founded Generation Wellness to bring simple, brain-based, trauma-informed practices into schools, families, and communities around the world.

Lyndsay has trained over 500,000 educators, students, and parents in practical tools that strengthen learning, relationships, and well-being. Her Regulate, Connect, Reflect Framework makes neuroscience easy to understand and apply, helping people reduce stress, build resilience, and foster genuine connection in less than five minutes a day.

Featured in MSN, TES Magazine, and Newsful, Lyndsay is known for turning complex science into simple, actionable strategies that create more peaceful and connected schools.

As Senior Director of Professional Learning for Hatching Results, Terri Tchorzynski leads a team of nationally recognized trainers and consultants who work with school counselors and administrators across the country to develop comprehensive, data-informed programs that are centered on supporting the needs of ALL students. Prior to Terri’s current role with Hatching Results, she served 18 years in education as both a high school English teacher and school counselor. As a practicing school counselor, she led her department in becoming one of the first schools in the state of Michigan to become a Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) and was named by the American School Counselor Association as the 2017 National School Counselor of the Year. As Terri travels the country to support the development of comprehensive school counseling programs, she continues to fuel her passions for both career development and the state of school counseling in Michigan as most recently having served as an Advisory Panel Member for the US Department of Education Office of Career and Technical Education, as well as the President of the Michigan School Counselor Association.

Dr. Loretta Whitson is a trailblazing force in education, known for her visionary leadership and relentless advocacy for school counselors. As the founder and executive director of the California Association of School Counselors (CASC), the nation’s largest state school counseling organization, she has transformed the profession in California.

Dr. Whitson’s leadership has been instrumental in doubling the number of K-12 school counselors in the state, reducing student caseloads from an overwhelming 1,000-to-1 ratio to just over 400-to-1. Her work has strengthened the profession’s role in student success, forging crucial connections with legislators and decision-makers to expand school-based mental health services and college and career readiness programs.

Before her tenure at CASC, Dr. Whitson spent 25 years in Monrovia Unified School District as a school counselor and district administrator, pioneering innovative programs that integrated school and community mental health services. She also shaped future educators as an Assistant Professor and Chair of the Educational Counseling Program at the University of La Verne.

A respected voice in California politics, Dr. Whitson continues to influence education policy, ensuring school counselors are recognized as essential to student achievement. Her legacy is one of empowerment—elevating the profession and improving outcomes for students across California.