About

Dr. Byron McClure is a school psychologist, author, speaker, and founder whose work sits at the intersection of education, mental health, and systems change. He is a product of Prince George’s County, Maryland, a proud HBCU graduate of Hampton University, and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist.

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His work has always been grounded in one question: what happens when we stop defining students, educators, and communities by what’s wrong and start working from what’s strong?

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After earning his doctorate in school psychology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Dr. McClure returned to Washington, D.C., where he led a school turnaround initiative at Anacostia High School. That work resulted in the 2020 Whole Child Award and shaped his belief that meaningful change happens through daily practice, not slogans or surface-level reform.

Over the years, his contributions have been recognized by the Black SEL Summit, the National Association of School Psychologists, and organizations focused on youth development and violence prevention. His work has been featured in NPR, Insider, and the APA Monitor.

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Dr. McClure is the author of Hacking Deficit Thinking, a book that challenges educators to examine how deficit-based systems shape decisions, language, and outcomes. The book has consistently ranked among Amazon’s top titles in Inclusive Education and Crisis Counseling.

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He also founded Lessons For SEL, a culturally responsive social-emotional learning curriculum that was later acquired by 7 Mindsets, where he served as Director of Innovation. In response to the growing workload and burnout facing school psychologists, he later founded School Psych AI, a platform designed to reduce time spent on documentation so practitioners can focus more on students, families, and meaningful intervention.

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As a keynote speaker, Dr. McClure has worked with state associations, school districts, and national conferences across the country, including NYC DOE, Denver Public Schools, and psychological associations throughout the Midwest, South, and East Coast.

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At the core of his work is a simple throughline: shifting educators from deficit-focused systems toward strength-based practice, with clarity, honesty, and action.

Dr. McClure's mission is simple.. It's to improve outcomes for youth, especially those from historically marginalized communities.

My method is grounded in one belief: people already have strengths. The problem is that most systems are designed to overlook them.

I work with educators who are tired of naming what’s wrong and ready to work with what’s real. Real students. Real constraints. Real pressure. My approach starts where you are, not where a framework says you should be.

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I help people slow down just enough to see patterns they’ve been trained to miss. Strengths hiding inside behavior referrals. Assets buried under compliance language. Possibility obscured by labels that were never meant to tell the full story.

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The work is practical. We look at what you’re already doing and make small, intentional shifts that change how you observe, document, speak, and decide. No abstract theory. No performative language. Just clear strategies that fit inside the system you’re working in today.

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I teach people how to name strengths without ignoring struggle, how to tell fuller stories about students, and how to act within their sphere of control even when the system feels stuck. Over time, those small shifts compound. Practice changes. Confidence returns. Burnout loosens its grip.

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This is how change actually happens. Not through louder critique, but through consistent action that moves people from what’s wrong to what’s strong.