MARYSVILLE – Cheri Lovre of the Crisis Management Institute in Salem, Ore., will speak at a Marysville School District Community Meeting Thursday, Dec. 11.

Lovre will speak on helping children cope with grief over the holidays. The meeting will start at 6:30 p.m. at Cedarcrest Middle School, 6400 88th St.

Following Lovre’s talk, which will include tips for parents, school officials will lead a discussion on what to do with the cafeteria at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, where the shooting took place Oct. 24. The district will be looking for ideas to put into an online Thoughtexchange survey used to gather even more input.

Lovre has more than 30 years of experience in the field of prevention, crisis response, grief and trauma with specialization in working with youth. Her greatest strength is helping schools predict the hundreds of soon-to-surface challenges. Just knowing ahead of time allows administrators to prepare and mitigate the tsunami of needs that will arise. Her work spans consulting to administrators, training counselors/school psychologists in acute trauma response and long-term recovery.

She has helped school districts involved in shootings at Columbine, Colo., and Springfield, Ore., among others. She served on the Oregon Attorney General’s Coalition for Violence Prevention and Safe Schools.

She has written many books, including The Crisis Resource Manual, The Training Manual, the All Staff Preparedness Kit and Reclaiming Life!, a workbook for recovery of trauma for those old enough to journal.

Crisis Management Institute provides training and technical assistance to schools, government, businesses and agencies in crisis response, trauma intervention and violence prevention.