Pictured here are Andrea Boland and Susan Guice of Benjamin Franklin High School, preparing to hand out meals to students and caregivers while following COVID-19 mitigation measures.

Working from home gives her more flexibility to focus on a book she plans to publish later this year about her late partner — NFL player Andre Waters — and the effect chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has on a person’s wellbeing.

Dean's List Award Amercian International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) May 2019. The crisis teams will continue working in the fall, and Berckes believes social workers are as prepared as they can be for students who may come in with trauma from losing loved ones to COVID-19.Berckes began her social work career as a child protection investigator and foster care case manager, where she conducted individual and family risk assessment of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, as well as neglect of children.
If we’re not opening our doors, what was that going to mean for food security?”NOLA Public Schools quickly built a coalition with charter management groups to provide meals to families in a grab-and-go style in order to follow physical distancing guidelines. She’s generally stayed home and adhered to guidelines since the pandemic started spreading in Louisiana, because after all, Berckes says, “I’m nothing if I’m not healthy.”Alisha Dean, Secretary at Eleanor McMain Secondary School Alisha Dean, an administrative office worker at Eleanor McMain Secondary School, worries that reopening schools could jeopardize her health if safety measures aren’t enforced.It’s been challenging to cope with her grief and stress from losing loved ones to COVID-19, and her physician recommended that she stay home as much as possible.“I am at an age with chronic health conditions that put me a higher risk,” Dean says. Diagnostics were in short supply at the time, but her doctor eventually conducted an antibody test which indicated her hunch was correct.Robinson recovered, but to this day, she says she suffers from breathing troubles.

“We worked with the [Louisiana Department of Health], so we had a really smooth program.”Aside from one weekend getaway, Delcour spent the entire summer working and planning ahead through all kinds of uncertainties.“We are all working really hard and hours we’re not used to,” she says of school employees.

Man spits in Rusk's face in Uruguay - A 25-year-old man, left, shouting "this in the name of my people," spits in the face of Secretary of State Dean Rusk, right, in Montevideo, Uruguay, today.

“We can’t work from home.” A licensed clinical social worker, Scarlet O’Dell Berckes has worked in both the Jefferson and Orleans Parish school systems for the last 20 years, helping students with everything from coping skills to grief counseling. Around the early 2000s, she switched to the Louisiana school system to help provide crisis intervention and individual and group counseling for at-risk youth and families.Even though social workers are trained to handle traumatic situations, many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder themselves due to their jobs — especially common among social workers who survived Hurricane Katrina.



But with COVID-19, “We don’t have control over it.”In the meantime she is thankful to work in an environment that she believes is prioritizing her safety, and says the students have been especially gracious.Between shifts, she enjoys Facetiming and chatting with her twin daughters, who are 30 years old and live in Texas.

“Students come out with credentials they can use in the workforce, so losing the program would hit the students hard.”Dean’s workload has not decreased since March. She hasn’t been able to visit with them in months, but one of them is getting married next month, and she looks forward to celebrating with them in-person.Even though she misses the daily interaction with students and looks forward to a return to normalcy, she says, “I’m a fortunate one.”

Sherry Glied, PhD: Glied, 59, is dean of the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service in New York City. My life has changed in that I have less personal time. Jim Rash was born on July 15, 1971 in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.


After schools shut down in March, Berckes has faced new challenges and has been forced into new territory, holding virtual counseling with students through Facetime or Zoom sessions.“No day is a typical day,” Berckes says.

In addition to working on a doctorate online in her spare time, she says, “I’ve been going to the campus every day. I go above and beyond with whatever job description I am in at that moment.”A former teacher, she has a natural affinity to nurture children, particularly those with behavioral issues and special needs, and she’s an advocate for the many students who come from troubled and low-income families.Sometimes she spends her own money on buying them clothing, snacks and even haircuts.