Keynotes and workshops

Nancy L. Weaver, PhD, MPH

Behavioral scientist · Keynote speaker · Founder

“For all of us trying to stay calm in aisle seven.”

Dr. Nancy Weaver studies what it takes to show up for kids and the adults raising them. She is Founder and CEO of Support Over Silence, LLC, creator of Olley and Support Over Silence for KIDS, and host of the Out Here with KIDS podcast. A professor of public health at Saint Louis University and co-director of the Community Engagement Core at Washington University’s Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment, she works at the intersection of statistics, behavioral science, community engagement, and improvisation. Her approach is powered by compassion, centered on connection, and grounded in science.

What I speak about

The aisle seven problemWhy good people freeze when someone needs them, and what it takes to unfreeze a whole room.

What the brain is doing when your kid stops listeningThe essay 105,000 people read, turned into a room. What a developing brain is actually doing in a meltdown, and what to do with your own nervous system while it happens.

Protection without fearWhat actually keeps kids safe from sexual abuse, and why the warnings most of us grew up on do not. Built for parents, and for the schools and groups that gather them.

Behavior through the nervous systemWhat a child’s hardest moments are actually communicating, and why our instincts get it backwards.

Building psychological safety in your teamWhat makes it safe enough to say the hard thing out loud, and how teams recover from miscommunication with curiosity instead of blame.

Run of show

Keynotes, half day and full day workshops, and virtual sessions. People get on their feet, work in small groups, and practice the thing instead of hearing about it. By the end they have already done it once, which is the only way anyone changes what they do in a real moment.

Selected national audiences

Attachment & Trauma Network · Children’s Safety Network · Parents as Teachers National Center · Centene · Society for Public Health Education · Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint · SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center · Washington University in St. Louis

What our research shows

41% to 0%Share who said they would avoid a struggling caregiver, before and after one three hour session

84%Left intending to act differently the next time

80+Certified facilitators across seven states

Weaver, Taylor, Weaver & Kutz (2020), Children and Youth Services Review. Program evaluation, 2025.

What people say

I love Nancy’s positive energy, and the fact that it was not just sitting and listening.

This is by far the best training of trainers I have been through in my 22 years of social work practice.

More personal, more inspiring, and honestly, more fun.

Participants, Trainers’ Course, 2025

Credentials and reach

Research funded by NIH, the CDC, HRSA, and the Missouri Foundation for Health. She has led more than $2 million in funded research. Her 2025 essay in The Conversation has been read more than 105,000 times and was republished in Japanese.

Booking

nancy@supportoversilence.com
drnancyweaver.com