Today we’d like to introduce you to Pam.
Hi Pam, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I didn’t begin my career in education. My path started in television news media, documentary storytelling, and volunteer community work. Throughout every chapter of my life, I’ve always been drawn to helping people feel seen, heard, and valued. As I continued to volunteer in my community and became more disenfranchised with television news as a career, I began to notice a pattern: more and more people were stressed, struggling with anxiety, etc. I started by producing positive affirmation signage, to help schools and businesses with respectful reminder signs.
A turning point came when I helped support a friend whose child who was dealing with bullying. I saw firsthand how much kids needed guidance in self-love, empathy, self-regulation, and relationship skills. — lessons that weren’t being taught consistently or in a trauma-informed way.
That experience pushed me to dig deeper. I bought the domain respectfulways.com – bouncing off of respectfulsignage – and began studying trauma, brain development, and Social Emotional Learning. I hired amazing educators, counselors and curriculum writers to help build programming for K-12 students. I was able to use my documentary producing skills to project manage the whole initiative, along with hiring tech staff to build the digital products. Now it’s all about marketing and communications, which again are more skills I learned in television production.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Navigating the education landscape is quite intense in that it changes constantly. Over the years, federal priorities, state policies, and district-level shifts have all had real impacts on how schools invest in SEL and mental-health supports.
Some years, the momentum is strong: federal relief funds are available and mental-health initiatives rise to the top of the conversation. Districts actively seeking trauma-informed solutions. Those moments have helped Respectful Ways grow and reach more students.
But there have also been real struggles. When federal budgets tighten or political rhetoric creates confusion around SEL, schools often freeze. They delay decisions. They push purchases to “next year.” Even administrators who love our program sometimes lose funding streams overnight due to federal and state funding cuts.
The turnover rate in education is also a challenge. Through all of this, I’ve stayed committed to the mission. Every challenge has pushed us to adapt — building more evidence, strengthening our trauma-informed foundation, finding new funding pathways for schools, and helping districts figure out long-term mental health programming plans.
The education industry may change and shift year to year, but what students need has stayed the same: safety, connection, respect, and emotional tools they can rely on. That’s what keeps us going. The kids.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Respectful Ways LLC?
Wow! A lot of questions so I’ll do my best. Respectful Ways specializes in trauma-informed, relationship-centered SEL that supports both students and educators. We focus on creating calm, connected classrooms where students learn emotional regulation, kindness, and healthy communication through simple, ready-to-teach digital lessons, along with respectful reminder signs and posters that help with a common, positive language throughout the school.
We’re known for offering SEL that is easy to use because everything has been written and designed for the counselors and educators. Our digital lessons require little prep, our characters help kids feel safe and seen, and our professional development gives educators hands-on recommendations they can use immediately. And trauma-informed strategies. Our schools tell us their classrooms are calmer, more connected because of the common language, and more respectful after implementing our program.
What makes Respectful Ways different is that we spent the time, money and effort to be trauma-informed by partnering with the Attachment & Trauma Network Their trauma experts vetted our lesson plans and digital content to be trauma-informed, so as not to trigger a child to feel fight, flight, freeze, frustration, etc. Being trauma-informed helps ALL students feel safe and comfortable. That’s key! We built our curriculum around brain science and emotional safety. Our lessons are engaging, scripted, and realistic for busy teachers because they can always resume where they left off.
Brand-wise, I’m most proud that Respectful Ways leads with heart — people feel the warmth and compassion behind our lessons and products. Our RW characters bring comfort and are relatable, our materials are accessible to all teachers in the building, and we made sure parents are involved! We produced “Home Connects” so families can be in on the lessons learned, written in both English and Spanish.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Substack has been very helpful to learn from experts and we’ve been writing our own Substack posts in response.
I love following teachers on Instagram and TikTok because they share truths. They don’t hold back on feelings or experiences, both positive and negative. It helps me learn more about what’s happening in the classroom, and what else they may need from a program like Respectful Ways.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://respectfulways.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pammcnall/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RespectfulWays
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pammcnall/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@respectfulwaysselprograms6125
