Ingrid Cockhren is a child sexual abuse survivor who transformed her trauma into a life’s mission: shifting systems from stress-inducing to healing-centered. With nearly 20 years of experience in mental health, early childhood development, and education, Ingrid has become a nationally recognized voice in trauma-informed leadership, historical trauma, and systemic transformation.
Raised in Clarksville, TN, Ingrid’s early exposure to adversity gave her a profound understanding of how unaddressed trauma can fracture families, destabilize institutions, and suppress human potential across generations. Committed to breaking these cycles, she earned a B.S. in Psychology from Tennessee State University and an M.Ed. in Child Studies from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, where she specialized in the social-emotional development of marginalized children. Her research centered parenting styles, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), historical trauma, and epigenetics.
Her professional journey spans juvenile justice, crisis counseling, child welfare, early education, and higher education. In the early stages of her career, she delivered trauma-focused care to some of Tennessee’s most vulnerable children and families while also leading collective impact efforts to reduce childhood adversity in Nashville. She later joined PACEs Connection, a non-profit social network dedicated to raising awareness of the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, initially serving as a regional facilitator for Tennessee and the Midwest. She eventually rose to become its CEO, where she spearheaded the organization’s transformation into an anti-racist, trauma-informed network of over 60,000 members.
Today, Ingrid continues to guide executives, educators, healthcare leaders, and policymakers in embedding trauma-informed frameworks into real-world systems with Cockhren Consulting. She is a co-author of Reducing Stress in Schools (Harvard Education Press) and an adjunct psychology professor. Ingrid is also the Trauma-Informed Advisor for Thistle Farms, a non-profit social enterprise dedicated to improving the lives of women recovering from trafficking and addiction, and a respected nonprofit and trauma-informed care consultant.
