The Central Maine Youth Trauma Initiative (CMYTI) will enable MaineGeneral Medical Centers Edmund N. Ervin Pediatric Center to: • Provide training for up to 100 local mental health providers in well-researched, effective therapies for children who have experienced trauma or are in high-risk situations. Trainings include Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Attachment and Biobehavioral Catchup (ABC). The availability of this trio of Evidence Base Practices' will provide all families in Central Maine with the option of accessing high quality treatment for children ages zero to eighteen. • Provide education and support to foster parents who are caring for children who have experienced trauma via a series of NCTSN Resource Parent Curriculum (RPC) trainings • Create a Trauma 101 curriculum that will be provided at no cost to organizations that serve children who have experienced trauma, such as schools, day care centers and Boys and Girls clubs.

Karen Mallah, PhD is a bilingual, Black Latina Licensed Psychologist. Her past clinical work has focused children who have experienced trauma, especially those in Latinx immigrant families and those who have experienced sexual abuse. Karen is currently the Senior Director of Quality Management at Community Care Behavioral Health Organization, which manages behavioral healthcare for Medicaid-eligible members in 39 counties in Pennsylvania.

Marisol Acosta, MEd, LPC-S, is the Director of Clinical Services at Any Baby Can in Austin, Texas where she oversees the Family Health Programs, including counseling services and medical case management for children and youth with special health care needs and cancer. She was the Director of a Category III NCTSN site at the Texas Department of State Health Services and the Health and Human Services Commission where she served as the state’s Children Mental Health Director and Manager of Child and Adolescent Services for the Behavioral Health Services and oversaw children mental health services, residential treatment services, suicide prevention, and substance abuse prevention services. Marisol contributed to the redesign of children community mental health programs and the Texas Resilience and Recovery service delivery system, including co-authoring the third version of the Texas CANS. From 2011-2019, she was the trauma subject matter expert for the state of Texas implementing trauma informed care policies, evidence-based practices (including TF-CBT, PCIT, Seeking Safety, and PFA) and systems change impacting behavioral health, child welfare, disaster behavioral health, schools and tribal nations in Texas. Marisol holds a BA degree from the University of Puerto Rico, a MA in Counseling from the University of Houston, and a Graduate Certificate from Harvard University and the Italy Ministry of Health on Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery. She is an NCTSN CCCT Facilitator and member of the Affiliate Advisory Group. She serves as a member of the Advisory Board of La Red Por los Derechos de la Niñez de Puerto Rico. She is the co-founder of Expertus Soulutions, LLC which provides training and consulting services focused on enhancing quality of care and competency through the use and implementation of best practices and trauma-informed care. She is a state and national speaker and trainer on matters of trauma, trauma informed care transformation, unaccompanied minors, and children mental health.

Funda is a licensed professional counselor specializing in trauma resilience and recovery within intimate or team relationships, among adults, children and through brain-based interventions such as biofeedback, EMDR, ROMChi Neural Dance Exercise and SSP neural re-balancing. As a treatment provider for sexual aggressors and survivors of sexual aggression, she brings a unique perspective to healing the individual and organizational wounds of sexual violence. Funda has written and illustrated a 48 page, fully illustrated self-help book for 3-9-year-old survivors of violence and has developed the ROMChi Neural Dance Exercise System as a bottom-up solution to symptoms of traumatic stress. As an individual affiliate of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, Funda has helped develop various products including the Complex Trauma Resource Guide for Youth. She continues to provide training for therapists and the community about the state of the art interventions for trauma resilience and recovery. Funda is an active member of NCTSN's Complex Trauma, Child Traumatic Grief and Justice Consortium collaborative workgroups.