A groundbreaking book by Tricia Shalka, Cultivating Trauma-Informed Practice in Student Affairs, has been honored with the 2025 NASPA Faculty Council Outstanding Publication Award. The award, presented by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA), recognizes publications that advance the student affairs profession and graduate preparation programs. Shalka, an associate professor in higher education at the Warner School of Education and Human Development, will receive the award at the 2025 NASPA Conference in New Orleans this March.
About the author and her work
A leading expert on trauma among college students, Shalka wrote Cultivating Trauma-Informed Practice in Student Affairs after a decade of research. Her work examines the long-term effects of trauma on student learning and provides best practices for educators and student affairs professionals to create supportive, trauma-informed environments in higher education.
“I wrote this book to bridge the gap between research and practice, offering educators and student affairs practitioners tangible strategies to support students navigating trauma,” says Shalka. “I’m grateful to NASPA for this award that affirms the importance of trauma-informed student affairs work and its impact on student success.”
About the book
Published by Routledge in 2023, Cultivating Trauma-Informed Practice in Student Affairs serves as a valuable resource for student affairs professionals, university administrators, and faculty seeking to foster trauma-informed higher education experiences. The book offers actionable strategies for supporting student survivors, including:
- Fostering empathy and normalizing help-seeking
- Adopting inclusive definitions of trauma
- Honoring privacy and creating supportive communities
- Providing trauma-informed training for educators
- Promoting self-care among faculty and staff
Access additional strategies on trauma-informed student affairs practices.
One of Shalka's nominators shared,
"Dr. Shalka’s book (Cultivating Trauma-Informed Practice in Student Affairs) represents an important contribution to student affairs practice that is advancing the field around a critical and timely topic—student trauma. Dr. Shalka offers 6 guideposts for building a trauma-informed student affairs practice and then unpacks what it looks like to put this into action at the levels of self-work, working with students, and then designing and leading systems. The end goal of engaging in this work, as Dr. Shalka’s book states, is equity-focused systems of wellness and care. This book represents a synthesis of Dr. Shalka’s decade-long research about how trauma impacts college student experiences and integrates that with first-person student narratives as well as trauma research from other fields. The result is an accessible and engaging read that can be used by emerging, mid-level, and senior student affairs officers alike as a go-to guide in crafting and advancing a trauma-informed student affairs practice. Additionally, we as nominators are already aware of many of our colleagues who are integrating this book into coursework they teach in student affairs preparation programs.”
Learn more
The Warner School’s higher education programs prepare aspiring and advancing professionals in student affairs, administration, academic and career counseling, leadership, and other areas of higher education. Explore the master’s and doctoral programs in higher education.
To learn more about NASPA and its Faculty Council Outstanding Award, visit NASPA’s website.