General Session Recap: Dr. Tommie Mabry on Childhood Trauma

By Caren Clark

March 2025

On the final day of the 2025 ACA Conference & Expo, Tommie Mabry, PhD, shared his inspiring journey from troubled youth in one of Jackson, Mississippi’s roughest neighborhoods to renowned international speaker, nationally recognized educator and bestselling author.

In the general session “ACEs Matter: Uncovering the Root Causes of Childhood Trauma,” Mabry reinforced the power of intervention as a protective factor for youth who experience adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).

Mabry’s own high number of ACEs could have placed him at greater risk of poor health and academic outcomes were it not for adults in his life who tried to “see the able, not the label.”

The Power of Perspective

Mabry emphasized the importance of understanding someone’s perspective — or their lived experiences, values and morals — to reach them. He invited the audience to “enter my world to understand why I operate like I operate.”

Growing up, Mabry faced numerous challenges, including arrests and school expulsions. A judge once predicted his attitude would lead to his demise or incarceration.

For Mabry, school wasn’t a safe haven. “I got more attention for not being smart,” he explains. “In my neighborhood, smart was considered lame. You’d get labeled if you were smart. You had to dumb it down for acceptance.”

Mabry had no role models for higher education. The idea of becoming a doctor, a lawyer or an astronaut was totally foreign. “Education was never the number one priority in my house,” he says. “Survival was.”

Generations of trauma surrounded him. He witnessed his mother’s ongoing struggles with depression and anxiety and her suicide attempt. Yet mental health was another foreign concept. As a male in his environment, he would have been viewed as weak to seek therapy. “It took me years to find out I had tears,” he says.

Reaching At-Risk Youth

Children growing up in difficult environments need attention, validation and connection. “You can’t teach me if you can’t reach me,” says Mabry. “You gotta activate me first. Reach my self-esteem first.”

Professionals who work with at-risk youth, such as educators and counselors, need to understand their students’ backgrounds and challenges to engage them. “You can’t be scared of the people you serve,” says Mabry.

Mabry feels educators and counselors should be among the highest paid professions because their work can be so meaningful. “It takes one person to see me for something I’m not before I become it,” he says. “You could be the one.”

Defying the Odds

Mabry’s life began to improve when he joined an Amateur Athletic Union basketball team. He earned several scholarship offers due to his athletic promise. But his promising future seemed like it might end when a friend accidentally shot him in the foot. His scholarship offers were revoked, and his low GPA could have put higher education out of reach.

“You know who saved me?” he asks. “My school counselor.”

She didn’t give up on him, explains Mabry. Despite his grumbling, she tried to give him a full course schedule. “You’ll thank me one day,” she told him.

Mabry persevered, became the first in his family to graduate from high school and and earned a full basketball scholarship to Missouri State University - West Plains.

He later realized the only reason he’d made it to college was because his counselor had tried to raise his GPA by making him take so many courses. She’d also been sending transcripts to the university and trying to get him ready for higher education.

Afterwards, he did get the opportunity to thank her. “Ma’am, if it wasn’t for you,” he remembers telling her.

Mabry graduated with honors with a bachelor’s in education from Tougaloo College and went on to earn a master’s in child development. In 2020, he completed an executive PhD in urban higher education at Jackson State University.

Mabry reminded the audience you can’t be the person you aspire to be and the person you are at the same time. “You have to adapt to change,” he says.

He recounted the significant challenges that mindset helped him overcome: Low GPA of 1.8, getting arrested for breaking and entering in middle school, repeating the eighth grade, being shot.

But now? Mabry is a CEO, international speaker, nationally acclaimed educator and published author, known for his inspiring memoir A Dark Journey to a Light Future.

“I am Dr. Tommie Mabry,” he proclaims. “I cannot walk in my future with one foot in my past.”