Elsa Ferguson, BA

Digital Content and Graphic Design Specialist
elsakf@uw.edu
Box 354920
  • Biography
  • Projects
  • Publications

Elsa Ferguson is the Digital Content and Graphic Design Specialist for the University of Washington SMART Center. In this role, she oversees, creates, and develops graphic design projects for both print and digital mediums, crafts social media content and images, and manages web updates to enhance the program’s digital presence.

With over 13 years of experience in the non-profit sector, Elsa has worked across diverse fields, including nutrition and food insecurity, public health, cancer care, event planning, and the tech industry. She holds a B.A. in Nutrition & Public Policy, complemented by a minor in Adult Education from Alverno College.

Beyond her professional life, Elsa finds joy in spending time with family and friends, exploring new destinations, savoring ice cream and delicious meals, and passionately rooting for her favorite sports teams—the Kansas Jayhawks during March Madness and the Seattle Seahawks throughout football season.

Northwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center’s School Mental Health Supplement
(Training & Technical Assistance) In addition to regular training activities and special areas of focus, the Northwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (Northwest) has received funding to support increased training and technical assistance for school mental health in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. To operationalize this support Northwest has partnered with the University of Washington School Mental Health Assessment, Research, and Training (SMART) Center, a national leader in developing and supporting implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) in schools, including prevention, early intervention, and intensive supports. The Northwest School Mental Health (SMH) and Multi-tiered System of Supports (MTSS) Training and Technical Assistance (TA) Center, within the UW SMART Center, supports school mental health efforts with the goal to support states, districts, schools and community partners to build an equitable single system of delivery in which education and mental health systems are integrated across the tiers.
Training & Technical Assistance Core (TACore)
(Training & Technical Assistance) As a key component of this mission, UW SMART has developed strategies and related infrastructure for providing training and technical assistance to state and local education agencies as well as individual school districts. The SMART Center’s “TACore” provides: 1) Training and consultation/coaching focused on developing workforce capacity (among school staff and community partners) to deliver research-based strategies, policies, and practice models relevant to the education context, 2) Technical assistance focused on building evidence-based, multi-tiered systems of school-based behavioral health, using collaborative decision-making processes guided by local data as well as research evidence, and 3) Program evaluation focused on collecting and analyzing existing (e.g., administrative datasets) and novel (e.g., surveys, focus groups) quantitative and qualitative data to determine the impact of new or existing programs, practices, and policies.