KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Jackson, Mississippi native Rita Brent is an award-winning comedian, musician, writer, and military veteran whose work seamlessly blends humor, music, and cultural commentary. Immersed in music by the age of eight, she credits her mother, Dr. Angela Weathersby, with nurturing her talents, laying the foundation for a multifaceted career in entertainment.
At 18, Rita enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving with the 41st Army Band and completing her service as a respected sergeant. While attending Jackson State University, she launched her radio broadcasting career at WJSU 88.5 FM, later continuing her work with Mississippi Public Broadcasting. Rita has appeared on Comedy Central, truTV, and Circle TV, and is currently a contributor on the Rickey Smiley Morning Show.
Rita tours regularly with comedy heavyweight Cedric the Entertainer. As a comedy writer, she has contributed to the Primetime Emmy Awards, the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, and GRAMMYs MusiCares, earning three Writers Guild Award nominations. As a recording artist, her political and comedic songs, including “Kamala,” “I Deserve to Be Alive,” and “Can You Rock Me Like a Pothole,” continue to resonate with audiences nationwide.
In 2025, she launched Late Night with Rita Brent, which airs locally on FOX40 WDBD. Rita is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Presentation
Closing Session | Wednesday, September 30 | 10:20am
The first national School Counselor of the Year from Maryland, Danielle Crankfield is a school counselor and department chair at Crofton High School in Gambrills, Md. The school serves 1,900 students, grades 9–12. Crankfield, who has been a school counselor since 2010, received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Temple University and a master’s degree in counseling (school counseling concentration) from Johns Hopkins University.
“Danielle represents the very best in professional school counseling from her commitment to her students’ academic, college/career and social/emotional success, to her reputation among her peers as Crofton High School’s ‘North Star,’” said Molly McCloskey, School Counselor of the Year Selection Committee member. “Her excellence is not only in what she does, but in the way she does it – authentically and with an eye toward meaningful, measurable results.”
In her school’s founding year, Crankfield disaggregated course enrollment data to determine whether the school had a course access gap, particularly in honors and Advanced Placement courses. The data showed that Black and Hispanic students were disproportionately taking standard-level courses rather than honors and Advanced Placement classes. To address this access gap, she created guidelines for middle and high school teachers to use when making core course recommendations. In addition, she collaborated with the testing coordinator and department chairs in several content areas to promote higher-level courses and honors and Advanced Placement electives that met students’ interests. “The school counseling department and I encouraged open access, which allows students and parents to request honors or Advanced Placement courses by choice, even when students are recommended for a different course level,” Crankfield said. “Over time, the course access gap decreased.”
Presentations
Keynote Address | Tuesday, September 29 | 8:00am
Breakout Session | Monday, September 28 | 2:50pm
Breakout Session | Wednesday, September 30 | 8:00am
On September 28, 2016, Molly Hudgens, a school counselor in Pleasant View, Tennessee, averted a school shooting when a fourteen-year-old eighth grader, armed with a semi-automatic handgun and an additional magazine of ammunition, came to her in the counseling department at Sycamore Middle School with a plan to harm people on their campus. He told her, “I think you’re the only person who can talk me out of this.” After ninety minutes of talking and ultimately praying with the young man on her knees beside him, Hudgens was able to convince the student to relinquish the weapon to her with no shots fired and no lives lost. As a result of her intervention, Hudgens became a 2017 recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society’s Citizens Honor for a single act of heroism.
After a personal experience in college, her interest in violence prevention and safety sparked a desire to educate others who work with intervening in the lives of potentially violent teenagers. Her in-depth study on school shootings and the teenagers who commit these acts, “Recognizing Red Flags,” written prior to the averted school shooting incident at her school, has been utilized nationally to train professionals in the fields of education, law enforcement, juvenile probation, and juvenile court. The training focuses on understanding the three types of school shooters and how to use threat assessment tools as an intervention to prevent violent acts in a school and community setting.
Hudgens, the 2004-2005 and 2016-2017 Sycamore Middle School and Cheatham County Middle School Teacher of the Year, is also the 2017 recipient of the Tennessee School Counseling Association’s Phoebe White Award for Excellence in School Counseling and the 2019 Mental Health of the Midsouth's I.C. Hope Award for bringing mental health awareness to schools.
Hudgens has been the recipient of three state recognitions for heroic actions on September 28, 2016—a Proclamation from the Tennessee House of Representatives in October of 2016, House Resolution No. 66 from the Tennessee House of Representatives in March of 2017, and Senate Resolution No. 40 from the Tennessee State Senate in April of 2017. Mrs. Hudgens has also been a nominee for the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission as well as the American Hero Channel’s Red Bandanna Hero Award in 2017.
Saving Sycamore
Keynote Address | Monday, September 28 | 9:00am
Magnolia State School Counselor Association
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