Speaker's Profile

Alicia Ead, LICSW is the Supervisor of School-Based Services at the Bradley Learning Exchange, an initiative of Bradley Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She leads the development and implementation of scalable, school-based behavioral health consultation models designed to expand access to care for youth experiencing anxiety, school avoidance, and emotional distress.A licensed clinical independent social worker with over a decade of experience, Alicia specializes in early identification and system-level responses to youth mental health needs that interfere with school engagement, including Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA). Her work focuses on strengthening schools as access points for behavioral health by building educator capacity, embedding tiered supports, and aligning interventions across educational and clinical systems.Alicia has extensive experience partnering with school teams, behavioral health providers, and multidisciplinary professionals to design trauma-informed, preventative approaches that reduce escalation and reliance on high-acuity services. Her background spans school-based consultation, psychiatric emergency services, autism-focused care, and therapeutic social skills programming, providing her with a comprehensive perspective on how untreated anxiety and avoidance can disrupt learning, attendance, and long-term wellbeing.A nationally recognized presenter and trainer, Alicia has delivered sessions on youth anxiety, alternatives to exclusionary discipline, suicide prevention, trauma-responsive schools, and sustainable behavioral health models. She is a certified Youth and Teen Mental Health First Aid instructor and regularly supports organizations in translating behavioral health expertise into practical, system-wide strategies that improve access and engagement for vulnerable youth.