By Kelly Lawson
When Methodist Children’s Home (MCH) President and CEO Trey Oakley began imagining a revitalized Willson-Johnson Lecture Series, the idea didn’t start with a date on the calendar or a high-profile speaker. It began with a simple conviction: the culture at MCH challenges our staff to find and play a meaningful role in learning alongside others.
“We want this to be a shared moment,” Oakley said. “Yes, we have expertise to offer, but we also have much to learn. The lectures give us an intentional way to connect with our community and celebrate the good work happening all around us.”
That kind of leadership — generous and collaborative — has long been a hallmark of MCH, but in recent years, it has taken on new life. Strategic investments in training and staff development, a growing emphasis on organizational effectiveness and a culture of learning laid a foundation for the return of the Willson-Johnson Lecture Series in 2025.
Established in 1957 through a gift from Dr. J.M. and Dr. Mavis Terry Willson of Floydada, Texas, the Willson-Johnson Lectures reflect Methodist Children’s Home’s longstanding commitment to excellence in child welfare. Launched initially to provide in-service staff training, the lectures expanded to include nationally recognized leaders sharing best practices and emerging research for MCH staff and like-minded peers. Renamed in 1967 to honor longtime MCH Administrator Dr. Hubert Johnson, the series inspired and equipped countless professionals dedicated to meeting the evolving needs of children and families.
After a period of consistent offerings, the series paused in 2011. At the time, MCH was in a season of transformation, deepening its program models, launching a research partnership with the Karyn Purvis Institute for Child Development at Texas Christian University, and navigating organizational change. For Oakley, the lecture series remained a meaningful part of the MCH legacy. In fact, he named its revival as a personal goal during his presidential interview process and with its return in 2025, the Willson-Johnson Lecture Series will once again become an annual event.
“There’s this deep well of tradition here,” he said. “The Willson-Johnson Lectures are part of that. Bringing it back isn’t just about nostalgia. It is about reviving something that has real value.”
Oakley remembers as a new employee in 1999 attending the Willson-Johnson Lecture Series, learning innovative approaches to residential care from some of the most respected professionals in the nation. Today, Oakley has a broader vision for the lectures. While continuing to offer excellent education in childcare programs, he recognizes the high level of expertise MCH has in areas beyond childcare. In the future, there will be opportunities to invite speakers in other areas, such as leadership, fundraising, risk management or organizational effectiveness.
Why Now?
In 2024, Methodist Children’s Home was selected to host the 2025 Coalition of Residential Excellence (CORE) National Conference, a gathering of peer organizations serving youth through residential and educational care, of which MCH is a member organization. This provided the perfect moment to welcome CORE colleagues to the Waco campus, and to reintroduce something unique to Methodist Children’s Home’s heritage. Reviving the lectures fulfills a key goal of the Imagine 2028 strategic plan: to increase investment of resources in collaboration with like-minded, transformative organizations.
“I am grateful for the hard work from the many who are making this goal a reality,” Oakley said. “Their efforts will bless other organizations and countless individuals because of what will be learned during this gathering.”
The theme of this year’s CORE National Conference, “Rooted and Rising,” emerged organically from early planning conversations at MCH. As staff began imagining potential keynote speakers, two names rose to the top: Dr. Robert Anda, co-founder and co-principal investigator of the groundbreaking Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Landmark Study, and Shenandoah Chefalo, a national advocate, author and consultant, known for applying trauma-informed principles beyond clinical care into systems, policy and leadership development.
Dr. Anda’s contributions have shaped the foundation of trauma-informed care and evidence-based practices across the country, anchoring many of the therapeutic frameworks organizations like MCH and others rely on today. The ACEs Study is being replicated in numerous countries by the World Health Organization and is used to assess the childhood origins of health and social problems in all 50 states. Chefalo’s work complements that foundation, challenging organizations to move beyond clinical practice and consider how systems and communities can heal together.
The pairing sparked a deeper reflection on the trajectory of the ministry of MCH, which is rooted in tradition, research and long-standing models of care, but also rising into new partnerships, broader community engagement, and more collaborative approaches to family well-being.
“That’s where the theme really started to take shape,” said Brooke Davilla, vice president for organizational effectiveness. “We realized Dr. Anda’s work grounds us in the science and research that underpins much of what we do. Shenandoah’s approach invites us to rise into something more beyond the walls of our residential campuses and into the wider community. That mirrors the journey we’re on at MCH. We have deep roots in residential care, but we’re also rising into broader impact through MCH Family Outreach and initiatives like Together We Flourish. Once we had that language, the creativity followed.”
“These are two people whose work shaped the foundation of what we now call trauma-informed care,” Davilla continued. “Dr. Anda gives us academic roots. Shenandoah helps us imagine what that work looks like when it’s embodied by communities and systems.”
These insights created an opening for the CORE National Conference. The Willson-Johnson Lecture Series event will function as the CORE Conference’s welcome experience— featuring the keynote with Dr. Anda that will be free and open to the community, and livestreamed for those outside of Waco. Plus, a more intimate evening reception for CORE members and distinguished guests that will introduce conference participants to Waco, to MCH and to a deeper dialogue around resilience, systems change and the future of care.
To guide the conversation, MCH invited Dr. Jon Singletary, Endowed Chair of Child and Family Studies Professor at the Diana R. Garland School of Social Work at Baylor University, to serve as moderator.
“Dr. Singletary bridges theory and practice very well,” Davilla said. “He brings a grounding in faith, social work, and systems thinking that made him the perfect person to facilitate this conversation. He is someone who has helped bring about language around community practice and putting academic concepts into practice.”
The hope is for the evening to be a catalyst for deeper conversation and collaboration.
“We wanted to offer a moment of meaningful connection,” Davilla said. “To highlight each speaker’s work, yes — but also to show how those ideas speak to one another, and how they inform what we do in caring for children, youth and families. It is also a great opportunity to highlight that MCH is a connector, and how we are contributing at a larger scale as nonprofit leaders.”
Jean Wright, senior director for organizational effectiveness, expressed particular excitement for the evening’s moderated conversation, noting that Dr. Jon Singletary, Dr. Robert Anda, and Shenandoah Chefalo each bring a justice-oriented perspective and a rare gift for storytelling. Their combined expertise, and collective focus on resilience-building will allow them to present the realities of trauma’s impact on children while also pointing toward the possibilities of healing.
“They can speak hard truths,” Wright said, “but they also highlight the opportunities for hope in the midst of it.”
CORE at MCH
While the return of the Willson-Johnson Lecture Series marks a major milestone, MCH hosting the CORE National Conference is equally significant. The Organizational Effectiveness team, led by Vice President Brooke Davilla and Senior Director Jean Wright, has played a central role in preparing MCH to host the CORE National Conference.
CORE is a network of organizations committed to quality, ethics and advocacy in residential care. Member organizations range from therapeutic boarding schools to child welfare ministries like MCH. Though not faith-based in nature, CORE includes many partners with shared values.
CORE has established itself as a strong, unified voice at the national level — advocating for the essential role residential care plays in the broader child welfare landscape. Its leadership actively gathers data, insights and real-time challenges from member organizations like MCH, synthesizing that information to inform national conversations around policy, regulation and best practices. CORE then represents its members as a collective force, helping to shape systems that better support children, youth, families and those that serve them.
MCH became a member of CORE in 2005, and President and CEO Trey Oakley joined its board of directors in 2023. For him, CORE’s value lies in a shared commitment to collaboration.
“To me, it has always been a two-way street,” Oakley said. “We want to share our expertise — we don’t care who gets the credit — but we also come with humility, knowing we still have so much to learn from others. Some organizations have access to fewer resources than we do, but they’re still doing really innovative work.”
That mutual exchange is part of what made hosting the 2025 CORE National Conference so appealing.
“This is a tight-knit group of leaders who understand what it means to provide 24/7 care, who face the same legislative and licensing pressures,” Oakley said. “There are not a lot of people in the nation offering this kind of care and even though our missions and visions differ, there is a natural benefit of a conference like this where we can come together.”
Hosting CORE offers unique challenges: balancing the focus of a national organization with the local identity of MCH, managing many logistics, and cross-collaboration among multiple departments.
But it also offered opportunity.
“This gives us a chance to reintroduce ourselves to Waco in a new way,” Wright said. “It gives us a chance to re-engage our backyard a little bit. Being able to bring the CORE National Conference here and to revive the Willson-Johnson Lecture Series is such a gift to the Waco community and others. It is really special to provide access for so many people to this kind of learning opportunity.”
The Bigger Impact
While the conference and lectures will span just a few ays, the hope is for a lasting impact.
“For the people who come and participate, we may never know the impact it will have,” Oakley said. “It is not something that will show up neatly in an annual report. But we will know that, by being faithful to our vision and mission in these ways, we were part of making a positive impact in the lives of others.”
For Oakley, that is the heart of bringing these events to life — sharing expertise, learning from others and creating spaces where leaders can connect and bring their ideas to the table.
“We live in a hurting and broken world,” he said. “But through affiliations with churches, organizations like CORE and other peer agencies, we have an opportunity to help others be their very best.”
That spirit of collaboration has become a defining part of the culture of MCH.
“In recent years, we have strengthened partnerships, community collaborations and training opportunities,” Wright said. “These events are another way to live that out.”
The conference will close with a panel that embodies those values — bringing together Traci Wagner, vice president for programs at MCH, Troy McPeak, training and consultation specialist at the Karyn Purvis Institute for Child Development at Texas Christian University, and Laura Hardin, senior risk consultant at Praesidium, a company specializing in organizational risk assessment and programs to help organizations create and maintain safer environments. The panel will be moderated by Kristi Hayes, regional director of Unbound Now, a global nonprofit that combats human trafficking. Through the lens of felt safety, risk prevention, and attachment-based care, the panelists will explore how to build cultures of trust, align systems with trauma-wise practices, and lead with intentional care.
The panel will focus on the practical realities of residential care — issues that resonate not only with organizations like MCH, but also with boarding schools and other environments. Regardless of the setting, leaders of these organizations face the same questions: How do we provide safe care? How do we maintain adequate supervision while allowing age-appropriate independence?
“Anytime you’re sending a child off, whether it’s to camp, a boarding school or a group care facility, you want them to be safe,” Wright said. “The challenge is figuring out how to do that without losing connection.”
Positioned as the final session of the conference, the panel will bring the week full circle, linking earlier discussions on ACEs, trauma and resilience with actionable strategies for safe, connected care. From there, the celebration will continue with the Catherine Hershey Awards, honoring outstanding achievements in residential education across the nation.
For Davilla, watching these moments unfold captures exactly what Rooted and Rising is all about. “We’re seeing relationships form and people working alongside each other in new ways,” she said. “There’s increasing access to training opportunities, both for our community and through these larger affiliations.”
She sees these events not as stand-alone milestones, but as investments with a long-term mindset. “This is a real opportunity to live out our vision: to empower all we serve to experience life to the fullest,” Davilla said.
* The Willson-Johnson Lecture Series and CORE National Conference will take place in Waco, Texas, October 21-23, 2025. To learn more or to register for the CORE National conference or the Willson-Johnson Lecture Series, including the livestream, click here.
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