The African American Heritage Society of Williamson County will host its June 2025 “ Porch Talk” on Monday, June 30th, 2025, at the Williamson County Public Library, 1314 Columbia Ave., in Franklin. AAHS monthly features speakers with varied topics: people, places, past stories of historic significant, etc. This month our focus is on a current critical subject: Mental Health. Recent data shows that there is a mental health crisis in our nation. It has no respect of persons and people of all ages, race, creed and color are victims of mental illness, especially among young people. It is imperative that communities be aware and find solutions to address this issue.
The organization is pleased, excited and honored to have Erica Gentry as our guest speaker for our June event. She is a Franklin native and 2002 graduate of Centennial High School. Erica attended Tennessee State University, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree, furthering her education by attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville College of Social Work, where she obtained an M.S.S.W from the Nashville campus. She later received a license for school social work and later fulfilled the requirements of clinical supervision by becoming a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. For 15 years, Erica has worked particularly with children in treatment foster care and emerging adults exiting the foster care system at Youth Villages in the LifeSet Program where she’s the Licensed Program Expert.
In addition, in 2021 Erica opened a private practice named Resiliency Therapy LLC. where she specializes in depression, anxiety and trauma. She loves helping clients to process their traumas and understand their trauma so they can live life anew. She offers a lot of psycho education to help clients better understand themselves as well as work towards healing. Erica is in a much needed profession and AAHS is grateful to her for agreeing to share her thoughts and expertise on the mental health crisis to our community.
Mrs. Gentry states, “As a therapist, it’s pertinent that we as a community promote mental health and create spaces where the community can receive psycho education to gain a greater understanding of diagnoses and the drivers to mental illness. Our experiences shape us starting at birth, and it’s of the utmost importance that we begin to address the drivers to anxiety, depression, trauma, etc.”
She is married to her husband, of 11 years, Vandale and together they have two sons, Caden and Camden. Erica’s passions include mental health advocacy, mentorship, social justice and cooking new recipes. She also loves hanging out with family and friends. Erica plans to work on her doctorate soon. Some of Erica’s awards entail Coalition of Black Social Worker of the Year 2023, Hometown Heroes Award for Mental Health, Franklin Justice & Equity Coalition Justice Award; and the University of Tennessee College of Social Work Alumna Award 2024.
The African American Heritage Society thanks the community for the amazing support in the many efforts to protect and preserve the rich African American history here. AAHS is a 501c (3) organization; donations are tax-deductible and may be made online at aahswc.org. to make a donation through mail, checks should be made payable to the: African American Heritage Society, P. O. Box 1053, Franklin, TN. 37065.
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