Student Resiliency: The Importance of Failure

Adam Russo is the Chairman and CEO of Edgewood Clinical Services. Over the past several years, Adam has spoken hundreds of time to many organization about how to best motivate, discipline, and challenge young people so they may thrive in their adult life.

He will be speaking about the stigma surrounding anxiety and stress and how educators can support resilience in an ever-evolving culture of instant gratification. 

The content will include concepts that can be applied to your classroom interactions with students immediately as well as inform the creation of larger supports within the building as we look to best support ALL STUDENTS.

Adam Russo is the Chairman & CEO of Edgewood Clinical Services. Adam earned his Bachelor of Arts from Southern Methodist University and his Master of Social Worker from Smith College. Adam formally served as an administrator at a local behavior health facility and subsequently founded Edgewood Clinical Services in 2004.

Over the past several years, Adam has spoken hundreds of times to many organizations (including the school districts of Naperville, Plainfield, Bolingbrook, Lisle, and Wheaton, IL) and the Illinois Association of Social Workers about how to best motivate, discipline, and challenge young people so they may thrive in their adult life. He was a speaker, at TEDx Naperville on the The Importance of Failure, and wrote a book called Unwritten Rules: Real Strategies to Parent your Child into a Successful Adult that is available ibooks and Amazon.

Adam served as Chairman of the Board of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce (2016-17), and is a member of many committees in the area with focus on helping kids grow into adaptive and independent adults, including the Council for College and Career Readiness in Naperville District 203. He also serves as a Mentor in the INCubatorEDU class at Naperville Central High School where students learn how to start their own, real companies from scratch.

During Adam's 15+ years of Post-Masters experience, he has provided clinical services to all populations in the inpatient, outpatient, and residential settings. He is skilled at connecting with young people in individual sessions encouraging them to take an active role in their own treatment. Adam has worked with youth facing many difficulties, including mood instability, acting out behaviors adjustment disorders, family conflict,symptoms of post-traumatic stress, legal issues and social withdraw.

He works with adults to name the current issues that are limiting their ability to be successful and then identifies ways to improve their situation. In his work with couples, he is able to clearly define the barriers that are affecting the relationship and set a clear plan for the future. Adam has extensive training and knowledge in the area of family therapy and he uses his mode of treatment to benefit not only the child but the extended family as well.