Dr. Franka Atwell-Chin Hong, EdS, PhD, NCSP

Franka has been involved in education for more than 29 years, first as a secondary school teacher of modern foreign languages, then as a school counselor with the Student Support Services Division of the Ministry of Education in Trinidad & Tobago. She practiced privately as a school psychologist in Trinidad & Tobago, providing consultations and psychoeducational evaluations for students in need, while transitioning out of the government teaching service. She is currently training school counselors in the MSc Counselling Psychology program at the University of the Southern Caribbean. Constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic, and State-mandated timelines for evaluations that did not pause due to social distancing, spurred her onto expanding her practice into the virtual space and she now operates well in both face-to-face and virtual evaluation platforms. She enjoys working 1-on-1 with students and giving them an opportunity to show what they can really do. Her training has helped her become a more effective consultant for parents, teachers and administrators in the special education and general education settings. She is currently employed as a school psychologist with a school district in Midwest USA, that is uniquely characterized by its 50% immigrant population. Her professional and research interests include autism spectrum disorders, mathematics anxiety, teacher training, servicing children from culturally and linguistically diverse populations, and professional mentorship. Franka is a member of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and currently holds a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) credential.