REIMAGINE: SPRING SPEAKER SERIES | MAY 2025

To honor Mental Health Awareness Month, this May MyT brings you three visionary conversations with local Maine experts on how to foster youth well-being.

MyT’s Reimagine Speaker Series invites you to join us in reimagining what is possible for youth, their families, and their futures. Now more than ever, we need voices that move us beyond what has been. This series intends to mobilize us to use our resilience today toward building the tomorrow that we need. While holding the multifaceted challenges and uncertainty that young people and caring adults face, this series is meant to help flip the script and embolden us to imagine the future we are longing for so that we can bring it into being.

Thursdays in May 

11-12:30pm on Zoom

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7040215445?omn=87006602811&jst=2

May 1 - Reimagine Social Emotional Learning

Centering Connection, Compassion, and Care

Social-emotional learning (SEL) has been championed and challenged in recent years, so how do we reclaim its heart and reimagine its purpose?

Join SEL/EI Specialist and children’s author, Kellie Doyle Bailey as she shares insights on how we can reimagine SEL to center connection, compassion, and a contagion of care—both for young people and the adults who guide them. Through the lens of neuroscience, emotional intelligence, mindfulness and creative expression, we’ll explore practical ways to nurture resilience, connection and belonging for everyone. 

Drawing on her longtime work in emotional intelligence, neuro-developmental sequences of humans and her children’s book series, including Some Days I Flip My Lid and the Some Days collection, Kellie will highlight how mindfulness and neuroscience can serve as powerful tools for emotional regulation and co-regulation.

May 15 - Reimagine Brain Power

Expanding Our Understanding of Neurodevelopmental Differences 

More awareness has been building around neurodevelopmental differences, but how do we respond in ways that truly support youth and their families? Join public health policy analyst, Michelle Fong in reimagining how we reapproach the conversations on neurodivergence, expand our understanding beyond boxes, and build our collective brain power. When youth with NDD’s and their families are seen, heard, valued, and supported, everyone’s mental health improves.

Michelle Fong is a Public Health Policy Analyst from Maine, mom of two grown children, and co-founder of Navimental which simplifies youth mental health care for families. Her interest and experience in health policy grew from her experiences as a parent. Michelle will help us think about what it means to increase positive childhood experiences for all youth in ways that make our communities stronger.

May 29 - Reimagine Social Connection

Breaking Barriers and Building Bonds through the Arts

Youth report wanting to be more socially connected in ways that increase rather than detract from their mental health. How might the arts be used to increase connection across differences and improve our collective well-being? Join community-based educational leader and Maine-based founder of Spark Inclusive Arts, Michaela Knox in reimagining how youth with and without disabilities can break barriers and build bonds together. This talk will invite participants to engage in core concepts of the DanceAbility method that can be applied to a variety of contexts and situations to foster positive childhood experiences and social connection for young people of all bodies and minds. 

Michaela Knox is passionate about supporting others in the discovery and research of their creative expression. Drawing on her work as a performer, choreographer, and teacher, Michaela will guide us in exploring how we can all take steps to dissolve barriers between people. Her belief that the arts can change the world is contagious - join her in discovering how artistic expression can create a more inclusive and socially connected society.