Lurena Brubaker

SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGIST | LBRUBAKER@YORK.ORG

Lurena grew up in a very small town in Kansas, where a common response to the stresses of one’s life was to “buck up and get over it!” Words like anxiety, depression, self-harm were not a part of her everyday vocabulary – let alone something she understood – until a set of personal circumstances opened her up to the world of emotional upheaval. In time, the pain from these heart-rending experiences became a gift, as it placed her on a path that became her life’s work: helping others understand, learn, and move through experiences that have stopped them in their tracks. She has a particular affinity to helping students through their adolescent years, as they haven’t lived long enough to fully appreciate that the feelings they are having in the moment are not indicative of things to come.

After college, Lurena earned a master’s degree in School Psychology. Later she obtained a Doctorate in education, with an emphasis in Special Education. She worked as a psychologist in schools where she supported students’ mental health in order to help them not only succeed academically, but also socially, behaviorally, and emotionally. She has a strong history of partnering with families, teachers, school administrators, and other professionals to help create safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments that strengthen connections between home, school, and the community. She later became the Director of Student Services for a school district in Santa Cruz County where she was part of a team that created county-wide prevention and response protocols for suicide and active threat assessments.

Lurena is excited to be a part of the York family where her primary focus will be on the emotional well-being of students and to assist them in obtaining the necessary skill set to navigate this often-complicated path called life.