March 1 is Employee Appreciation Day! We are celebrating our team members all month long by sharing their stories. Read more about Jason Lindsley, Campus Director, and how he overcame a health crisis to become the leader of our Cressona, PA campus.  

What is your favorite thing about working here? 

I love working in a team environment. I appreciate the culture that our organization has established. It is a student focused approach with a heavy emphasis on teamwork. 

What keeps you coming to work each day? 

There are two main things that keep me coming back each day. The first thing is our students. Our students have shown the desire to grow and develop in a lot of different areas. I love working with this population of students for that reason. The second thing is the staff that I work with. Everyone on our team is so selfless, for the betterment of our students and the team. I appreciate them more than they know. 

How do you make an impact on students’ lives? 

I try to impact students by building relationships with them. Providing students with an opportunity to develop positive social relationships is an important part of our program. My favorite thing to do is talk to our students about life and their experiences. I want students to leave our program and feel like they could trust me and value our conversations. 

Last year, we rolled out our BetterTogether guiding principles. Which one of our values resonates with you most personally and why? (Integrity, Accountable, Collaborative, Inclusive, Supportive) 

I value collaboration in our environment tremendously. Our staff does a phenomenal job of collaborating to generate student success. Each member of our team does a great job of sharing their unique experiences and perspectives. We often will pull from these to help generate positive outcomes for our program and our students. 

What does a “day in the life” look like for your role? 

One of the things I will say about being a Campus Director is that my day-to-day responsibilities are always changing based on the needs of our team and our students. This is one of the things I love about what I do. I like being able to play different roles to meet the needs of everyone involved in our program. We start our day in Cressona, PA with a staff meeting to set the tone for our day. I then often will spend time communicating with school districts and families regarding student progress. I will often stop by classrooms to check in with students and staff. I also handle all new student intakes and work through that process daily. Once students leave our campus, we will often meet as a staff to debrief our day and discuss what to expect tomorrow. Following this, I will work on any additional reports I may have and continue to communicate with school districts and families regarding any student updates. 

Can you talk a little bit about your career trajectory and what led you to where you are now? 

I have worked for River Rock Academy full-time since 2019. I initially started with this organization back in 2017 as a part-time Behavior Coach during college. I eventually completed my clinical internship in college during the 2018-2019 school year at the Amity Campus working in their clinical department. After that experience, I was asked to fill a full-time Behavior Coach role. During COVID, I was transferred to the Sinking Spring campus to become their Living Skills and Social Skills Teacher. I did that until the beginning of the 2022 school year when I transitioned back into a Behavior Coach position. At the beginning of this school year, I was promoted to the Campus Director position, tasked with opening a new River Rock campus in Cressona, PA. I have also been a Safe Crisis Management Instructor since 2021. 

What has been your proudest moment or accomplishment in your role? 

Becoming a campus director has been one of the proudest moments in my professional career. Being tasked with opening a new campus in a new county and overcoming a lot of obstacles has challenged me tremendously. With that being said, the team that we have in place in Cressona has been amazing. I am proud of our team and what we have accomplished to this point in our journey. We are set up to continue to do amazing things. Being a part of this team and organization is definitely the highlight of my young professional career. 

What is something about you that not many people know? 

I experienced some severe health problems back when I was 21 years old in 2016-2017. I lost my ability to walk due to a neurological condition. I was wheelchair bound and told by many medical professionals that I would never walk again. Thanks to the help of some amazing medical professionals from around the world, I experienced a medical miracle and am now fully healthy and back on my feet.