We are pleased to announce that our 2016 Commencement Speaker is CarmenLeah Ascencio, LICSW, MPH, CPC, RYT.
CarmenLeah Ascencio is a public health social worker, therapist, radical life coach, trauma-sensitive yoga instructor and educator, who specializes in working with survivors of violence and abuse and queer and trans people of color. She has over 14 years of clinical and program management experience working in domestic and international non-profits that address partner abuse, sexual violence, the commercial sexual exploitation of children, refugee resettlement and positive youth development. She has worked for agencies such as GEMS in New York City, the International Rescue Committee, the Center for Global Health and Development at Boston University, Apne Aap Women Worldwide in Delhi, India, the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center, the Violence Recovery Program at Fenway Health and Black Girl Dangerous Media. She is currently a therapist and life coach in private practice, a wellness columnist for Black Girl Dangerous Media, and the creator of Freedom Labor Love, a consultancy business that helps organizations and schools become trauma informed, emotionally healthy and inspired social change environments. CarmenLeah is a Kripalu certified yoga teacher and teaches yoga for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and is trained to facilitate Theatre of the Oppressed. She integrates artistic, spiritual and body centered practices into her therapeutic and transformative work. CarmenLeah is a proud Boricua queer from the urban northeastern U.S.
For more information, visit http://www.smith.edu/ssw/summerguide_commencementspeaker.php