Ethical Practice and Legal Regulation

Meet Our Presenters

Dr. Stephanie Lowe Ellis, EdD, NCSP serves as the Mental Health Coordinator and Nationally Certified School Psychologist for Person County Schools in North Carolina. She provides leadership and oversight for comprehensive school mental health services, behavioral threat assessment and management (BTAM), suicide prevention and intervention, crisis response, school safety initiatives, and Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS). She works collaboratively with school teams, community agencies, and state-level partners to promote safe, supportive, and equitable learning environments for all students.

Dr. Ellis is a nationally recognized leader in school psychology, behavioral threat assessment, school safety, and comprehensive school mental health systems. In addition to her district leadership roles, she previously served as the Assistant Director of Behavioral Health for the North Carolina Center for Safer Schools at the NC State Bureau of Investigation, where she provided statewide leadership and oversight for behavioral threat assessment, suicide prevention, school mental health, and violence prevention initiatives. In this role, she worked with school districts across North Carolina to strengthen behavioral threat assessment practices and build comprehensive prevention and intervention systems.

Dr. Ellis was the lead author and primary developer of North Carolina's Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management (BTAM) Best Practice Guidance Document, which serves as the statewide framework for Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management Teams across North Carolina public schools. She also helped develop statewide training, technical assistance, and implementation supports to assist districts in establishing evidence-based BTAM processes.She served as an appointed member of the North Carolina Governor's Task Force for Safer Schools, the North Carolina Center for Safer Schools Advisory Council, and the North Carolina Center for Safer Schools Multidisciplinary Team, where she serves as Co-Chair of the Behavioral Health Subcommittee.

Along with NCSPA, she founded the NCSPA School Safety and Crisis Committee and was the first chair of the committee. Through these roles, she continues to support statewide efforts related to school safety, behavioral health, crisis prevention, and student wellness.In March 2024, Dr. Ellis was nationally featured by the National Center for Safe and Supportive Learning Environments and the National Center for Healthy Safe Children at the American Institutes for Research in the spotlight series, "What Impact Can One Person Make?" She was recognized for her leadership in developing and implementing innovative behavioral health and mental health systems and was highlighted as a national best-practice implementer for comprehensive school mental health and behavioral health services.

Dr. Ellis received the National School Psychologist of the Year Award from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) in 2016. She also received the North Carolina School Psychologist Practitioner of the Year Award and the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Leadership Award in 2015. In 2019, she was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award from Averett University.A nationally sought-after trainer and presenter, Dr. Ellis is a NASP PREPaRE Crisis Response Curriculum Trainer and has provided training and consultation to numerous school districts, state agencies, and professional organizations on behavioral threat assessment, crisis intervention, suicide prevention, trauma-informed practices, resilience, classroom management, and intensive behavioral supports. She has assisted districts across North Carolina and beyond in developing and implementing Behavioral Threat Assessment and Management protocols, school safety systems, and comprehensive mental health frameworks.

Prior to joining Person County Schools, Dr. Ellis served as the Executive Director of Behavioral Health, Crisis Intervention, and Student Safety and later as Executive Director of Exceptional Children for Rockingham County Schools. Throughout her career, she has led large-scale initiatives focused on mental health, school safety, crisis response, special education, behavioral health, and student support services.Dr. Ellis earned her Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership from High Point University. Her dissertation, "A Study to Improve Threat Assessment Processes and Guidelines in Response to Risk of Violence in Schools," focused on identifying and improving best practices in school threat assessment. She holds an Educational Specialist Degree in School Psychology and a Master of Science in Psychology from Radford University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Averett University.Through her leadership, scholarship, training, and advocacy, Dr. Ellis continues to advance best practices in behavioral threat assessment, school safety, crisis prevention, school mental health, and student support systems at the local, state, and national levels.

Lynn Makor, MA/CAGS is currently the Consultant for Psychological Services andCoordinator of TBI training within the Office of Exceptional Children at the North CarolinaDepartment of Public Instruction. Lynn professional efforts have been targeted on developing both state and district level policies designed toadvance equitable evaluation and identification practices for students with special needs, mostspecifically, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Disabilities, Specific Learning Disabilities andTraumatic Brain Injury. Lynn is also responsible for coordination and maintenance of the North CarolinaRegistry of Approved Providers for TBI, which consists of approximately 25% of the school psychology workforce who have received specialized training in conducting IDEA evaluations for TBI consideration.

Neubia Harris, JD founded The Law Office of Neubia L. Harris, PLLC in August of 2018. She has extensive education law and civil litigation experience. Prior to founding the firm, Neubia worked as an Associate Attorney with a local education law firm , and as a Staff Attorney at Legal Aid of North Carolina. She launched her law practice to marry her passions of protecting children and being an entrepreneur.

Neubia received her undergraduate degree in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She received her law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law. She is licensed to practice in the State Courts of North Carolina, as well as the United States District Courts for the Eastern, Middle, and Western Districts of North Carolina.

Neubia is actively involved with the North Carolina Bar Association ("NCBA") and the Wake County Bar Association ("WCBA"). In 2017, Neubia was one of only sixteen lawyers inducted into the NCBA's Leadership Academy. She has published several law review articles related to diversity, equity and inclusion and education rights. Neubia has also taught Continuing Legal Education courses to other attorneys, and frequently speaks in the community about education law related topics.

Neubia is a native of Wilmington, North Carolina. She is married to her loving (and very handsome) husband, Michael, and the mother of two angels. When Neubia is not working, she enjoys having adventure with her family and friends, traveling, reading and singing.

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