Toni Bankston is the Associate Clinical Director and a member of the CMBM Faculty and Supervision Team. She has worked with CMBM for 17 years, as part of a 35-year career in mental healthcare and trauma response. Highlights include her work in Broward County, Haiti, Israel/Gaza, Puerto Rico, Western Maryland, and Northern California.
Toni is the Founder and Director of MindBody Baton Rouge, an organization dedicated to teaching professionals the skills they need to take care of themselves and those they serve. She is a Master Adverse Childhood Experiences Trainer for the state of Louisiana, and has served on the LA Governor’s Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board and the Governor’s Advisory Board for Human Trafficking. Toni has implemented programming in Baton Rouge to address natural disasters—Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Gustav; the BP Horizon Oil Spill—and homelessness. She also served as the CEO of the Baton Rouge Children’s Advocacy Center, where she developed Mind-Body Skills Groups that supported violent crime victims, their families, and those who serve them. Toni also expanded access to these services across four parishes, and trained teams of law enforcement officers, medical professionals, faith-based community groups, judges and child welfare teams to build trauma-responsive teams and mitigate the effects of secondary stress and vicarious trauma.
Toni earned her BA in Psychology and MSW from Louisiana State University. She has been honored by the National Association of Social Workers, LA Chapter as the Louisiana Social Worker of the Year, and her work has been published in the International Journal of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine and Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention. She has also taught at the Louisiana State University in the Graduate School of Social Work.
