CARE Team

The CARE Team is comprised of key institutional stakeholders that manage student concerns and support student success. The CARE Team includes:

• Dean of Students (Jeremy Moore; Chair of CARE),
• Senior Director of Academic Advising (Jessica Del Castillo; Co-Chair of CARE)
• Director of Student Accountability & Advocacy (Emma Vogel; Case Manager)
• Associate Vice President of Student Administrative Services (Jessica Ibrahim)
• Assistant Director of Student Financial Services (Karen Leinberger)
• Director of Campus & Residence Life (Stephan Taylor)
• Director of Accessibility Resources (Anna Shaw)
• Civil Rights Compliance & Title IX Coordinator (Sarah Scarchilli)
• Senior Director of Wellbeing and Resilience (Jo-Lynn Park)
• Lead Graduate Advisor and Training Coordinator (Brooke Rice).

The CARE team can provide support and assistance to students encountering a range of barriers to their academic success and personal wellbeing. These may include, but are not limited to:

• Housing instability
• Financial concerns
• Food insecurity
• Relationship or family difficulties
• Victim of crime
• Transitional issues
• Behavior toward others that is concerning or disruptive
• Health, mental health or well-being concerns
• Hospitalization, suicidality, or self-harm
• Academic struggles
• Death or grief
• Belonging or isolation
• Immigration issues
• Interpersonal challenges

The CARE team meets every Monday afternoon to review the referrals the came in throughout the week. The team collaboratively discusses the student and their case in detail, including prior history/reports/cases, interactions with various departments, and information gleaned from our Chatbot, Bodhi. The team utilizes the NaBITA (National Association for Behavior Intervention and Threat Assessment) Risk Rubric to assign an objective risk score to the student which determines our scope of follow-up outreach. The CARE team works to develop appropriate action steps, including referrals to the most applicable department(s), and non-clinical interventions.

This varies depending on the student need. A meeting with a student for CARE may not always be needed, and the team may elect for the most appropriate office to reach out and support with a specific concern under the office purview. If a CARE meeting is offered or recommended, some students feel they just want a space to talk about concerns and do not wish to seek further resources, which is absolutely their choice. Generally, CARE team meetings can explore a case management approach by assisting the student in identifying areas related to academics, wellness, finances, and social/engagement that they may be struggling in. The CARE case manager and the student may then co-create goals or action items that support success in these areas, including referrals to appropriate departments. The CARE case manager and student will then follow-up to explore how attainment of these goals is going.

The CARE team members do not provide mental health counseling and instead utilize a non-clinical case management approach. The CARE team can refer students to clinical counseling support through TimelyCare, Naropa’s telehealth provider, and to local clinical support such as Colorado Crisis Services or other national support lines. or students can connect with TimelyCare (Naropa's Teleheath provider) at timelycare.com/naropa for free support from a licensed mental health counselor. TimelyCare offers students up to 9 sessions per academic year. The CARE case manager may be able to assist the student in identifying a counselor more broadly through sites such as Psychology Today. We do not refer to external for-profit individual clinicians.

Naropa employees should never promise confidentiality. We have limited employees that do maintain confidentiality and are protected by privilege when acting in the scope of that role (Naropa Community Counseling staff if information is learned under privilege, and the Naropa Chaplaincy role when information is learned under privilege). If a student requests to speak with you about something confidentially, while also acknowledging your employee obligations that require passing along information to appropriate parties to ensure safety, including Title IX as well as specific other situations. For example, a student may share with you a student conduct violation, a risk of harm to themself or others, or a dual relationship concern, which all require you to pass information to the appropriate office for follow-up.

‘Title IX Mandatory reporting’ refers to the federal obligation to report sexual misconduct under Title IX. CARE referrals are not required but are recommended, and they are intended to express care and concern and to help to ensure students are well and successful. You are not required to submit a CARE referral, but it is recommended. However, if a student indicates they may be at risk of harm to themselves or others, employees are expected to report this out of a duty of care.

Nope! If the student has been adequately resourced or is already working with a member(s) of the CARE team for their concern, there is not a need to submit an additional referral to the CARE team. The exception to this would be in higher-level cases of well-being concerns, such as psychiatric hospitalization, self-harm, indirect or direct threats that indicate a risk of harm to self or others. If you would like to submit a concern to have this on record, that is no problem. If concerns persist or increase upon resourcing the student, then we would encourage submission of a CARE referral.

We advise that you share with the student that you will be making a CARE referral. Transparency can help build trust across the university and can help the student open to receive follow up outreach and support.

Due to the high caseload of student concerns, academic success referrals are received by the Academic Advising team and distributed amongst Advisors for follow-up. The larger CARE team meets about Wellbeing Concerns, and on occasion, Academic Success concerns that become elevated. Academic Success referrals are most suited for students who may be missing classes, lack of participation, struggling to understand assignment expectations, or at-risk of failing.

No, the Civil Rights Compliance & Title IX Coordinator addresses Sexual Misconduct and Discrimination/Harassment independently. Student Conduct reports are addressed independently by the Director of Student Accountability.

If the concern includes a direct or indirect threat that indicates a higher risk of harm to self or others, please contact the Director of Student Accountability & Advocacy (Emma Vogel) and Dean of Students (Jeremy Moore) immediately and submit a report as well. For all other CARE referrals, please submit at your earliest convenience.

However, Title IX Mandatory Reports must be submitted within one business day of learning the information.

CARE concerns, along with all other related concerns (Student Conduct, Title IX, Residential Conduct, etc.) are stored and documented within our case management system, Maxient. Within this system, we record all case-related information such as email correspondence, letters sent, meeting notes, action items, resolutions, etc.

Due to our high caseload and FERPA-sharing limits, the CARE team will often not communicate back to the reporting party unless it is necessary, appropriate, and relevant.

In the 2024–2025 Academic year, we received a total of 392 Student of Concern referrals and reports (all report types, including Student Conduct and Title IX). Of these, 287 cases related to Academic Success or Wellbeing concerns. This does not include concerns that come through email!

You can make a referral using the Naropa Reporting form on Naropa SharePoint or Naropa.edu. You can also email us at studentconcerns@naropa.edu.

With any high-level concerns, Naropa staff will act as quickly as possible, however we respond to submissions during work hours Monday through Friday, and do not offer crisis services, so this generally means referring to the next best place for this as soon as we can. Risk of harm to self or others may result in reaching out to emergency contacts, law enforcement, a local crisis team and/or involuntary or voluntary hospitalization.

For risk of harm to self:

The CARE team case manager will work with the Dean of Students, the Special Advisor to the President, and other appropriate staff to determine the best course of action. Generally, the CARE case manager will attempt to make contact with the student of concern as soon as possible. If they are unable to reach them, they will request the student of concern if they can get back in contact with the CARE team member within 24 hours. The CARE team member may initiate a welfare check and may undertake a non-clinical assessment of suicide. The CARE team member may need to assist the student of concern in seeking crisis services for a further clinical assessment, or work with the student to develop a safety plan.

For risk of harm to others:

The Threat Assessment Team (TAT) will convene as soon as possible. The Core Threat Assessment Team is the Director of Student Accountability (Emma Vogel), the Dean of Students (Jeremy Moore), and the Special Advisor to the President (Joy Valania). The Threat Assessment Team is to initially establish the transient or substantive nature of the threat or likelihood of risk of harm to others based on the information that is available to the team at the time using the 11 key questions of threat assessment. The team may explore with appropriate campus stakeholders, any further details to support their assessment. The Threat Assessment Team, will decide whether additional action is warranted. Additional action may include, but are not limited to: making contact with the student of concern and devising support and interventions; conducting a Structure Interview for Violence Risk Assessment; reporting the incident to law enforcement; or any other interim actions considered necessary.

While members of Naropa’s CARE team will try to be available as quickly as possible to address concerns, we cannot always respond immediately and cannot support situations outside of standard work hours. If you have a concern that should be addressed immediately, please contact the proper authorities or services that are available for 24/7 support and assistance. Immediate safety concerns should be referred to local law enforcement. For immediate mental health concerns, Colorado Crisis Services can be reached at 844-493-8255.

Absolutely! If you would like to simply consult with a member of CARE to see how you can support a student, or to understand if and how the CARE team can support with a situation, you can contact us at studentconcerns@naropa.edu.