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With the intersectional challenges of the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and mental health challenges in various forms, empowerment can hold a significant key to mitigating and preventing traumatic experiences at post-secondary institutions. Campus as Lab (CaL) is a growing trend in higher education whereby students, faculty, and staff use experiential learning and applied research projects to advance sustainability on their campuses. It is a unique, empowering learning methodology that can synergistically benefit academic and operational sustainability efforts at post-secondary institutions. In July 2021, a group of professionals who support or lead CaL initiatives gathered to participate in four Summer Series webinars to explore the use of trauma informed practices in CaL programs. This paper provides a high-level overview of the Summer Series webinar structure and explores how participants identified opportunities to use a trauma informed framework for future CaL initiatives. Because of the Summer Series webinars, we believe there is a need for greater familiarity of trauma informed practices on campuses and amongst sustainability staff. Future research could explore the broader application of trauma informed approaches in the various fields of sustainability within post-secondary institutions. 5 Exploring the Use of Trauma Informed Practices in Campus as Lab Programs: Learnings from a Workshop Series practices are being implemented in colleges and universities to create supportive environments that promote student resilience and success (Barros-Lane et al., 2021; Davidson, 2017). This paper explores the novel use of trauma informed practices in the context of postsecondary Campus as Lab (CaL) programs. CaL may be referred to as Campus as a Living Lab, Campus as a Learning Lab, Living Classroom, Applied Learning in Sustainability, or other terms. CaL activity can focus on a diversity of aims including cultivating sustainability leaders, demonstrating scalable sustainability impact, and harnessing academic research expertise toward global sustainability problem-solving (Haddock & Savage, 2020). For the purposes of their sustainability benchmarking system, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) (2021) defines CaL through institutions that: [U]tilize their infrastructure and operations as living environments for multidisciplinary learning and applied research that advances sustainability on campus. Students that actively participate in making their campuses more sustainable are well prepared to continue that work in their careers and communities after graduation. (p. 1) CaL is a unique, empowering learning methodology that can synergistically benefit academic and operational sustainability efforts at post-secondary institutions. There is a growing body of research that suggests engaging students in experiential opportunities like CaL can help combat the negative effects of climate anxiety (Aruta & Simon, 2022; Bentz, 2020; Buchanan et al., 2021; Kelly et al., 2021). However, little research has been completed that specifically addresses CaL and its potential for reducing the effects of multiple stressors. With the intersecting challenges of the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and mental health challenges in various forms, empowerment can hold a significant key to mitigating and preventing traumatic experiences. We posit that CaL’s applied theory-to-practice framework can empower students to have a hand in real-world climate and sustainability solutions and can serve as an effective way to integrate trauma informed care into higher education. The purpose of this paper is to: 1. Provide a high-level overview of trauma informed care and its relevance to CaL; 2. Share the learnings from the four 2021 Summer Series webinars to explain how partnership, collaboration, and opportunities for engagement can help build individual and organizational resilience to trauma; and, 3. Suggest opportunities for future research to explore the broader applications of trauma informed approaches within sustainability initiatives at post-secondary institutions. The target audience for this paper is sustainability professionals, both faculty and support staff, who lead and support CaL activities. The literature cited within this paper on trauma informed practices in higher education does not differentiate between types of higher education professionals. In these instances, the authors use the term higher education professionals to convey the research accurately. CaL and Trauma Informed Care CaL is a growing trend at post-secondary institutions whereby students, faculty, and staff use experiential learning and applied research projects to advance sustainability on their campuses (Haddock & Savage, 2020). Multiple scholars have emphasized the need for these approaches in environmental education, noting that direct experience in tackling campus and community projects can help develop environmentally responsible citizens (Chawla & Cushing, 2007; Hungerford & Volk, 1990). Need for New Approaches amidst a Convergence of Stressors The impetus to explore trauma informed care as a framework for CaL projects stemmed from the growing acknowledgement of the negative impacts of trauma, mental health stressors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing climate crisis on the students, faculty, and staff who design, implement, and participate in sustainability change efforts and CaL initiatives. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, trauma can be defined broadly as: The experiences that cause intense physical and psychological stress reactions. [Trauma] can refer to a single event, multiple events, or a set of circumstances that are experienced by an individual as physically and emotionally harmful or threatening and that have lasting adverse effects on the individual’s physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being. (2014b, p. xix) Today, trauma is widespread. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019) indicate that adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic 6 Laurelin Haas, Rachelle L. Haddock, Joe Fullerton events that occur in childhood (zero-17 years). Further, ACEs can include 1) experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect; 2) witnessing violence in the home or community; and 3) having a family member attempt or die by suicide. ACEs are quite common, even among a middle-class population, and there is a powerful, persistent correlation between the more ACEs experienced and the greater the chance of poor outcomes later in life (Center on the Developing Child Harvard University, 2022). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2019) reported that 61% of adults have had at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), and 16% have had four or more types of ACEs. In a 2019 study, 70% of freshmen entering college reported experiencing at least one potentially traumatic event, and 34.4% of the trauma-exposed individuals met criteria for probable post-traumatic stress disorder (Cusack et al., 2019). Particular sub-groups of students, including first generation college students, Indigenous students, LGBTQ+ students, and student veterans, may have additional mental health concerns, which could make them more vulnerable to experiencing symptoms of PTSD, depression and anxiety (Davidson, 2017; House et al., 2020; Morissette et al., 2021; Travers et al., 2020). Refugee students may have experienced trauma because of war, civil unrest and family disunity (Erisman & Looney, 2007). Students entering postsecondary institutions after aging-out of the foster care system may also have experienced trauma; rates of post-traumatic stress disorder were twice as high for youth aging-out of care compared to the American war veteran population (Gomez et al., 2015). The threat of climate change can lead students to experience apocalyptic fears of annihilation and extinction as well as pre-traumatic stress (Dodds, 2021; Panu, 2020). A recent study revealed that students felt “overwhelmed,” “angry,” and “ashamed” when asked how they felt about climate change (Hiser & Lynch, 2021). Student responses to climate anxiety have included outright denial, manic defense behaviors, and burnout (Dodds, 2021). The mental health and climate crises are pervasive, compounding issues that require attention and investment (Romeu, 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic has increased student stress, particularly related to academic workloads, separation from school, and fears of contagion (Yang et al., 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates the impact of stress and trauma on individuals, organizations, and institutions (Bridgland et al., 2021). These and other types of collective trauma require focus and action by higher education institutions; indeed, the “. combination of medical, economic, racial and climate-based catastrophes highlights the need for attention to the meaning and implications of cumulative, compounding trauma exposure” (Silver et al., 2020). Prolonged student exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate crisis represents a new challenge for higher education support staff and faculty members. Sustainability professionals at postsecondary institutions are positioned to address these interrelated challenges. Those who work within sustainability can directly address issues relating to climate change and involve students in local solutions to overwhelming global challenges. Sustainability professionals can re-focus feelings of hopelessness and apathy and transform them into action by facilitating experiential learning opportunities, such as CaL (Roysen & Cruz, 2020). Using trauma informed approaches is one way that higher education professionals can better support students who have been impacted by trauma. For example, a 2021 study found that when trauma informed care interventi