Parenting Student Conference 2026

Xochitl Juarez

Xochitl Juarez is a bilingual mental health clinician at Utah Partners for Health, where she serves the Latine community with a specialization in intergenerational trauma, women's issues, cultural dynamics, and parenting. She is a fierce community advocate dedicated to creating equitable spaces where every voice feels heard and valued. Xochitl graduated with a Master of Social Work from the University of Utah. She has worked in the Social Work field for over 10 years and has experience with a diverse range of communities. Xochitl believes therapy is a sacred space to explore your story, reconnect with your inner strengths, and create healing that resonates across generations. She is a proud mother of three boys, enjoys a belly-aching laugh, eating a really good meal, and being around the people who make her feel at home.

Sessions:

• Keynote address: "From Good Enough to Enough"
• Breakout 2 - Motherhood workshop: "These Flowers Are For You"

Beth Hunsaker

Session:

• Breakout 1 - "Raising Financially Confident Kids"

Stacy Waddoups

Stacy Waddoups is an award-winning professor from Utah Valley University who has created and taught courses to support personal, academic, and professional development for more than 30 years. Among these is UVU’s SLSS 1100 Stress Management that won a Best Design award. Developing and teaching this course has been transformative for how Stacy experiences and manages her own stress, including her relationship with food, exercise, sleep, key thinking habits, and her use of meditation and specific breathing practices. Stacy gets deep satisfaction from working with students to build habits and integrate practices which improve their lives in and beyond the classroom.

Session:

• Breakout 2 - "From Overwhelmed to Aware: A Framework for Understanding Stress"

Roberto Martinez, MSW

Roberto Martinez (he/him/his) is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over 15 years of experience in community-based domestic violence victim support services and mental health and crisis intervention in higher education, university counseling center settings. His clinical expertise focuses on trauma-informed care, mindful self-compassion, racial battle fatigue, first-generation student experiences, and healthy masculinity. He has served as a clinical supervisor for over 10 years. He is originally from Mexico City and immigrated to California as a toddler. He attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, for his undergraduate degrees in Economics and Chicanx Studies, and San Jose State University for his Master's in Social Work. He identifies as Chicano to acknowledge both his experience as a Mexicano living in the US and his Indigenous Zapotec lineage from La Sierra Juarez, Oaxaca. He currently works for the University Counseling Center as the Associate Director for Clinical Services, and lives in Salt Lake City with his brilliant spouse, Dra. Andrea, active and outdoorsy 12-year-old (Emiliano) and 5-year-old (Agustin) kids, and anxious 13-year-old fur baby, Chava.

Sessions:

• Breakout 2 - Fatherhood workshop: "Chill Skills for Campus Dads"

Eddie Zamora

Eddie is a healthcare research professional and parent of a medically complex autistic child. Drawing from both professional and lived experience, he currently works closely with clinicians and researchers to improve cancer outcomes for children and caregivers. His interests include caregiver financial well-being, evidence-informed practices, and understanding the structural and social gaps that shape caregiving experiences and access to support. He is committed to translating research into practical strategies that strengthen child outcomes and caregiver resilience.

Session:

• Breakout 2 - "When Caregivers Need Care Too - Supporting Parents of Children with Special Needs"

Allison Barrington

Session:

• Breakout 3 - Yoga session - "It's Like This Now"

Christina Kelly Lecluyse

Christina Kelly LeCluyse is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the Associate Director of Outreach and Programming at the University of Utah’s Counseling Center (UCC). She earned her Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Oberlin College and her Master of Science in Social Work from the University of Texas at Austin.

At the UCC, Christina provides initial assessments, individual, couples, and group therapy, and clinical supervision for Master-level social work interns. She also leads the Counseling Center’s outreach programming, helping connect mental health resources and education across campus.

Christina has worked in the field of social work for twenty-nine years in a variety of settings, including domestic violence shelters, foster care, community mental health, and college counseling centers. She is passionate about all things animal-related and, in 2024, became the handler for Volley, a licensed facility dog from Canine Companions, a national nonprofit organization that trains and places service dogs free of charge with people and professionals to enhance independence and well‑being.

Volley partners with Christina to provide animal‑assisted interventions in both individual and group therapy, as well as in outreach across the University of Utah campus. As a facility dog, Volley brings joy, comfort, and meaningful support to students, staff, and faculty alike.

Session:

• Breakout 3 - Introduction to Mindfulness Practice

Sarah May

Sarah May, M.A. is a Salvadoreña artist, poet, organizer, facilitator, and scholarship Advisor at East High. She graduated from the University of Utah with a B.F.A. in Photography & Digital Imaging and an M.A. in Community Leadership with an Emphasis in Art & Culture from Westminster College. Sarah’s writing and visual work frequently weave together across multiple mediums, connecting to ancestry as a healing ritual and ceremony, and exploring identity as cyclical and evolving. Sarah has long called Pia Appaa, Great Salt Lake, home. As someone who lives in between multiple worlds and identities, Great Salt Lake is a sacred place where she cultivated her magic into the artist and storyteller she is today and is a huge component of her work as a place-based artist. Sarah is the co-founder of Making Waves Artist Collaborative, a community of artists, organizers, and vigilkeepers who cultivate lake-facing culture through participatory art and demonstrative love for Great Salt Lake.

Session:

• Breakout 3 - Empowerment Through Creative Expression: A Zine-Making Workshop