CMU professor, mentor to Oxford survivor, teaches from inside-out
As a professor at Central Michigan University, MEA member Brandi Ansley teaches aspiring educators from an “inside-out” perspective. For Emma Trush, whose post-traumatic stress threatened to derail her dreams, that made all the difference.
Trush took her first class taught by Ansley at the beginning of her sophomore year, just 18 months after experiencing severe trauma: She was in Oxford High School in November 2021 when four students were shot and killed not far from where she was walking.
Trush shared her traumatic history with Ansley in an introductory Google form, advising, “Hey, this is still very fresh to me. There might be days that are worse than others… and I might need time – especially around the anniversary and all that stuff.”
Ansley reached out to ask how to help. “Among the things in the messages that we talked about was it’s up to you how much you’re willing to share. I very much welcome it, but also by no means should you feel under pressure to talk about anything you don’t want to talk about.”
Ansley became a mentor perfectly suited for the role, having started her career in psychology and mental health care before transitioning to special education and academia. “Even though the field tends to be very outside-in, my argument is no, it’s more inside-out,” Ansley says.
She believes human beings have inner workings that matter more than purely observable outcomes. “I’m really familiar with how our personal journeys in life inspire a lot about what we then do with our lives, particularly in the helping professions.”
Ansley encourages students with high empathy not to suppress it but to invest that same care in themselves.
In class with Ansley, Trush processed an experience from freshman year when an instructor’s insensitive question about the school shooting caused anxiety and isolation. “Healing from trauma never means 100% healed,” Ansley said.
“Just like if you have a physical injury and there could be a scar. Even if otherwise that body part is fully functional, it also is subject to being re-injured. Same with emotional types of struggles.”
Ansley was faculty advisor on Trush’s capstone project for the CMU Honors College, helping her develop a literature review to write a children’s book promoting school shooting safety.
The multi-year process of designing and executing a capstone culminated in a gallery event, which Trush said her parents attended specifically to meet Ansley and other professors.
“They wanted to meet the people who helped me be supported throughout this, because it’s hard to drop your child off at school after your whole world just changed and hope that she was going to feel support.”
Trush’s research and book project won the Outstanding Capstone Award in Professional Leadership from Ansley’s nomination at a CMU Honors College ceremony last December. She graduated in May and returned to Oxford to teach this fall.
Ansley said, “It is sad there is a need for this book, but I’m extremely proud of Emma for how she has processed her traumatic stress and channeled this tragedy, using her creative intelligence to serve a higher purpose and address a harsh reality we cannot ignore.
“What a blessing to get to be along this journey.”
Read our package of stories, Oxford: Five Years After
