NCCTS Staff: Comings and Goings

Christopher M. Layne, PhD, has joined the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (NCCTS) at UCLA as director of the Treatment and Intervention Development Program. Dr. Layne will promote the development, evaluation, adaptation, adoption, and dissemination of evidence-based and evidence-informed assessment and treatment methods throughout and beyond the Network. His work will focus primarily on: a) cataloguing interventions in development within the network and working with treatment developers to track and support their ongoing assessment and development, and b) conducting a needs assessment to identify populations in urgent need of specialized interventions that are not yet developed. Layne has been involved as a consultant with the NCCTS since its inception and has contributed in such areas as training, traumatic grief, assessment, developing the Psychological First Aid protocol, and program evaluation. He has consulted with schools following school shootings, and, following the September 11th attacks, became extensively involved in providing methodological support, training, and long-term consultation to clinicians and researchers in their efforts to identify and treat adolescents exposed to trauma and traumatic death.

Ernestine Briggs-King, PhD, has joined the NCCTS at Duke University as director of the Data and Evaluation Program. In this position, Briggs-King will head up several data projects including enhancing the clinical feedback provided through the Core Data Set. She will continue the coordination with DCRI to assist new centers in implementing the Core Data Set, and will also work closely with NCCTS/NCTSN staff on the design, measurement and implementation of Learning Collaboratives and other evaluation efforts. Many know Briggs-King from her work as the director of Trauma Treatment Services for the Center for Child and Family Health, an NCTSN site in North Carolina. Briggs-King is also a co-investigator on the Longitudinal Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN), a multisite longitudinal study examining the development and psychosocial impact of maltreatment. She is also an advanced level cognitive-behavioral therapist with expertise in the areas of cultural, gender, and systemic issues.

Shannon Dorsey, PhD, has joined NCCTS at Duke University to support data and evaluation activities. Dorsey will focus on the clinical feedback reports for planning services and treatment, and will further develop profiles of children served through the NCTSN. She will continue her work as a clinician, supervisor, and trainer for Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) at the Center for Child and Family Health, an NCTSN center in Durham, NC. Dorsey also has worked with the NCTSN and the developers of TF-CBT to provide training and consultation to NCTSN centers.

Departures:  Betsy Farmer, PhD, of the Date Core at NCCTS-Duke has moved to Pennsylvania State University, where she and her husband have accepted faculty positions.  In a parting message she said, “I’ve learned a tremendous amount about child trauma in the past few years and have deepened my appreciation for the complexities of bringing together state-of-the-art treatment with data collection that can support, assist, and evaluate the extraordinary efforts of everyone in the field.”  Of the new team at the Date Core, she said, “Clearly, data for the NCTSN are in very good hands!”

Patrick Loebs, MPH, a key staffer with the Data Core team at Duke University, has accepted a new position at the Research Triangle Institute in Raleigh, North Carolina. Loebs contributed greatly to many of the accomplishments of the Data Core team and the NCCTS mission, and will be sorely missed.

Postdoctoral Position Open at NCCTS-UCLA

A postdoctoral position is available for an individual to assist in planning and implementing activities central to the mission of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Duties include promoting:

• Adoption of trauma-informed mental health practices;
• Development, evaluation, and dissemination of mental health treatments and interventions;
• Development of products and programs to enhance our national capacity to respond to terrorism and disaster.

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