DESCRIPTION:

Interview with Rev. Michelle Simpkins, Pastor, Educator, and School System Behavioral Health Intervention Support.

The Reverend Doctor Melissa Sexton is a post-doctoral fellow in the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at the Morehouse School of Medicine and an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. Dr. Sexton is completing a practicum with the Interfaith Health Program as part of her fellowship; as part of that work, she is interviewing those with particular insights into the religious and spiritual dimensions of the COVID-19 outbreak and our responses to it.

The interview begins with Reverend Simpkins talking about the issue of fear in relation to the children during the outbreak. She frames this topic out of her own experiences as an educator. Michelle offers a wealth of examples and actions that parents and other adults caring for children can take to help children not only live in fear but to actually adapt and thrive during this epidemic.