a functional context

let's remember together

"We are all connected in ways that go beyond our comprehension. The essence of love is the interconnectedness of all things."

– Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

"Human behavior and the ecological systems they inhabit are inseparable parts of the same process—a disruption to one is a disruption to both."

- j.r. kantor

integrating the philosophy of science &

the science of behavior

You are the sky,

everything else is the weather.

- Pema Chodron

about me

dora ragin powell, board certified behavior analyst
📍minneapolis, b/w/o north carolina, california, & new york city.
human/mom/educator, philosopher, scientist, writer, school-based behavior consultant, bcba, abolitionist, radical behaviorist, supervisor, artist, collaborator, futurist, anti-racist, curious creature, and perpetual student of the world.

In the vast terrain of education, my work is not merely instruction—it is architecture, the weaving of structure and possibility. For over six years, I have worked at the confluence of behavioral science and compassionate coaching, guiding school districts through the intricate rhythms of Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), ensuring that every shift, every intervention, every intention moves with purpose.I do not simply advise; I illuminate. Administrators and staff navigate the shifting tides of attendance, academics, and behavior, and I serve as both compass and current, transforming turbulence into momentum, barriers into passageways. Where others see challenges, I see patterns waiting to be decoded, solutions waiting to be designed.Beyond my own district, I extend my reach, a bridge between insight and action. In the quiet of summer, I offer professional development—immersions into the art and science of education:

Behavioral Assessment and Intervention: Charting the unseen, mapping the why beneath the what.
Functional Behavior Assessments: Listening to what behavior whispers before it shouts.
Behavior Support Planning: Rewriting struggle into strategy, reaction into response.
Collaborative Problem-Solving: Bringing voices into harmony, solutions into motion.
Trauma-Informed Practices: Honoring the past without letting it dictate the future.
Social-Emotional Learning: Balancing self-awareness with the gravity of connection.
Team Leadership and Coordination: Orchestrating coherence from complexity.
Positive Behavior Support: Sowing encouragement so it outgrows correction.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Reading not just numbers, but the stories they tell.
Research in Behavioral Science: Learning forward, forever asking, forever refining.

My mission is neither rigid nor abstract—it is the living framework between knowledge and action. I coach, I collaborate, I help districts design Tier 1 assessments and responses that do not merely exist on paper but resonate in the lived experiences of students. Because at the heart of all of this—beneath the systems, the data, the theory—there are young lives waiting to be seen, waiting to be understood, waiting to flourish. My work is to make sure they do.

"To sense the sublime is not to know; it is to feel the infinite."

– Immanuel Kant

"What we call science arose as a kind of magic, born of our primal awe."

– Carl Sagan

“I am for truth, no matter who tells it. I am for justice, no matter who it is for or against.” –

– Malcolm X

Try not to resist the changes that come your way. Instead, let life live through you. And do not worry that your life is turning upside down. How do you know that the side you are used to is better than the one to come?

– Rumi

The unknown is not a threat; it is a sacred part of the web of life.

Work hard with me to trust that everything we experience is part of the mystery, and each moment is a thread in the grand tapestry of spacetime.

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