Saida M. Abdi (she/her), PhD, LICSW, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. She is a trained clinician and expert in refugee trauma and resilience. She earned her PhD in Sociology and Social Work from Boston University. Dr. Abdi has worked for more than 20 years with refugee and immigrant youth and families. Her area of focus is building individual, family, and community resilience and improving mental health access and engagement among trauma-impacted refugee and immigrant children and families. Dr. Abdi is a leader in the adaptation and implementation of Trauma Systems Therapy for Refugees (TST-R). She is also the co-author of a recently published book, Mental Health Practice with Immigrant and Refugee Youth: A Socioecological Framework (American Psychological Association, 2020).

Alex Barker (They/Them) is a young professional who began their career as a youth peer support specialist at FMRS Health Systems Inc., located in southern West Virginia. Through the agency, Alex joined the NCTSN Youth Task Force, now the Young Adult Collective, and has used their lived experience as a tool to increase the quality of services provided to youth and young adults. Now working in Raleigh, NC as the Outreach Coordinator with the Capital Area Teen Court Program, Alex continues to share their knowledge and experiences inside the NCTSN and beyond. Outside of work, Alex serves on the board of directors for Safe Schools NC, a non-profit dedicated to resourcing teachers passionate about supporting LGBTQ+ youth in their classrooms. Additionally, they have partnered with NC State University on a research initiative addressing the professional development needs of 4-H program staff as they pertain to serving youth identifying in the LGBTQ+ community. In 2019, Alex received the Youth Advocate of the Year Rockstar Award from Youth Move National. Alex is currently pursuing their MSW  and plans to use this degree in addressing needed systems changes that will impact service delivery for youth and young adults. 

Shannon Crossbear (she/her) articulates her purpose as "to demonstrate and promote gentle healing." She expresses her commitment to healing through her work in the world. Her own community and family history propelled her to develop leadership to address disparities that have led to poor outcomes for friends and relatives. Shannon’s work has included facilitating and consulting with the National Indian Child Welfare Association, the Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, Georgetown University, The National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the Surgeon Generals Conference on Children’s Mental Health. She has worked with tribal and non tribal communities in providing technical assistance to Systems of Care and Circles of Care utilizing traditional interventions and the promotion of culturally congruent and trauma informed practices. Shannon has worked in communities throughout the contiguous United States and Alaska, as well as within Canada, to address systemic change for improved out comes for children and their families. Ms. Crossbear has facilitated and supported practices and services that include the provision of culturally-cemented early childhood; parenting programs; supports for transition age youth, young adults, and families with mental health and substance abuse issue. Ms Crossbear is skilled in trauma-informed community engagement. She has worked with supporting organized stakeholder voice and representation at local and national levels through various behavioral health initiatives.

Chase Giroux (they/them), LMHC, has over 20 years of experience working in the field of community mental health and local non-profit agencies. After attaining their degree in counseling, Chase became a therapist trained in TF-CBT and ARC. They specialize working with children and families who exhibit a complex trauma response through a variety of interventions. Chase is passionate about building strong and resilient communities so that all children and families can thrive by utilizing a trauma-informed and culturally-responsive lens. After spending time in buddhist monasteries, practicing mindfulness in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, Chase was inspired to make this beautiful practice accessible to as many people as possible. Becoming trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and a certified Koru mindfulness trainer has allowed Chase to share this practice in a more secular context. Chase lives with their family in Northampton, Massachusetts, where they can be found playing and coaching sports in her community, hiking, and meditating.

Allegra Hirsh-Wright (she/her/hers), LCSW, works within the Department of Clinical Innovation at Maine Behavioral Healthcare. She is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of trauma-informed care, secondary traumatic stress (STS), burnout, and professional resilience. Allegra has authored multiple resources on the topics of STS, compassion fatigue, and resilience, including fact sheets, a national website, STS Core Competencies for Supervisors, and a chapter on STS and compassion fatigue in national guidelines for pre-and post-natal treatment of women with substance use disorders. In addition, she has expertise in direct clinical practice as well as training, supervision, and implementation of multiple evidence-based child trauma treatment models, and is a nationally certified TF-CBT clinician, clinical supervisor, and consultant. Allegra sits on multiple statewide committees all working towards improving trauma-informed care across Maine and is a member of the University of Kentucky’s Secondary Traumatic Stress Innovations and Solutions Center National Advisory Board and a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s Affiliate Advisory Committee. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the University of Southern Maine’s School of Social Work.

Kay Jankowski (she/her), PhD, is a clinical psychologist and Director of the Dartmouth Trauma Interventions Research Center and Director of Psychology Services in the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. She has focused most of her career on trying to improve the lives of at-risk and trauma-affected children, teens, and families. Kay is currently leading a number of projects including a 5-year SAMHSA sponsored grant (Project LAUNCH Upper Valley) aiming to “meet young children and families where they are” through integrating mental health services and trauma-informed care into 7 pediatric sites, as well as child care centers and businesses in a tri-county area. She is a co-principal investigator on a 5-year DHHS ACF Regional Partnership Grant implementing an evidence-based enhanced care coordination model, called Wraparound, to families with substance use disorder in her community and building infrastructure to enhance coordination between systems. She is also co-lead on a new Category III NCTSN grant called Project TIDD, improving care for children and youth in New Hampshire with trauma and intellectual and development disabilities. The project aims to improve services for trauma-affected children with autism and intellectual disabilities, as well as youth with gender diverse and transgender identities. Kay has led many research projects over the years, including developing and testing new treatment interventions, disseminating evidence-based treatments for traumatized children and youth into “real world settings” and transforming child serving systems, including NH Division for Children, Youth and Families to bring a more trauma-informed approach to care and services for children and families. Kay is a certified trainer in TF-CBT.  She also trains and supervises psychology and psychiatry trainees, and has always maintained a clinical practice within the Department of Psychiatry. Kay is also a mom to two teenage and young adult children and enjoys all the natural beauty that northern New England has to offer in her spare time.

Meghan Marsac (she/her), PhD, is a pediatric psychologist and a tenured Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky and Kentucky Children’s Hospital. She serves as the site PI for the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress (Category II). Her program of research centers on medical trauma includes conducting grant-funded studies to identify predictors of emotional and physical outcomes in the context of acute or chronic medical conditions, developing and validating assessment tools, and creating and evaluating programs to promote recovery and/or adjustment to medical conditions in children and families. Meghan is a leader in the field of pediatric medical trauma, having published over 65 academic articles and 10 chapters on this topic. She has co-authored a book for parents to use to help support their children through medical care as well as to care for themselves: Afraid of the Doctor, Every Parent’s Guide to Preventing and Managing Medical Trauma (www.afraidofthedoctor.com). Meghan currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology and Journal of Traumatic Stress. She has given hundreds of talks on understanding and promoting adjustment to injury and illness in children and their families. She is the CEO of the Cellie Coping Company (www.celliecopingcompany.com) which has distributed over 2000 coping kits to families with children with medical conditions. In addition, Meghan specializes in training medical teams in the implementation of trauma-informed medical care. Clinically, she implements evidence-based practices to facilitate families' management of medical treatment and emotional adjustment to challenging diagnoses and medical procedures.

Kelly Moore (she/her), PsyD, is a clinical psychologist licensed in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. She currently is the Principal Investigator and Program Manager for the Children’s Center for Resilience and Trauma Recovery (CCRTR), a SAMHSA funded, Category III Center of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. This center works to provide training and consultation to mental health providers and advanced students in evidence-informed assessment and treatment of complex trauma in children ages 0-10, along with their caregivers. Kelly is also a certified instructor for Question, Persuade, and Refer (QPR) Suicide Prevention Training, and Youth Mental Health First Aid. She oversees the Rutgers CCRTR Mental Health Awareness Training Program, a SAMHSA funded project focused on training educators, law enforcement, clergy, and parents in QPR and Youth Mental Health First Aid. As a practitioner, her clinical expertise is in the treatment of trauma and anxiety disorders in children and adolescents with a specialty in the treatment of PTSD and OCD. Additionally, Kelly has worked in efforts to disseminate evidence-based treatments and develop trauma-focused programs in community mental health in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Her work has focused on identifying facilitators and overcoming barriers to implementation of evidence-informed practice and implementing trauma-informed care with multidisciplinary teams.

Carmen Rosa Noroña (she/her), LICSW, MSW, MS. Ed., IMH-E® Infant Mental Health Mentor-Clinical, is from Ecuador where she trained and practiced as a clinical psychologist. In the US, she obtained MA degrees in social work and early intervention. For over 25 years, Carmen Rosa has provided clinical services to young children and their families in a variety of settings including early intervention, home-based and outpatient programs. She currently is the Child Trauma Clinical Services and Training Lead at Child Witness to Violence Project and is the Associate Director of the Boston Site Early Trauma Treatment Network at Boston Medical Center. She is a Child-Parent Psychotherapy National Trainer, an expert faculty of the Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood Training (DC: 0-5) and one of the developers of the Harris Professional Development Network Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work with Infants Children and Families Initiative (https://diversityinformedtenets.org) and of the Boston Medical Center Family Preparedness Plan. Her practice and research interests are on the impact of trauma on attachment; the intersection of culture, immigration, and trauma; diversity-informed reflective supervision and consultation; and on the implementation and sustainability of evidence-based practice in real world settings. She is a former co-chair of the Culture Consortium of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and has adapted and translated materials for Spanish-speaking families affected by trauma. Carmen Rosa has also contributed to the literature in infant and early childhood mental health, diversity, and immigration.

Kelly Sullivan (she/her), PhD, is a Licensed Psychologist and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center and has worked at the Center for Child and Family Health (CCFH) for more than 14 years. She directs their NCTSN project and a project to improve services to families impacted by domestic violence and co-directs projects that provide post-adoption support and trauma-informed training for schools. She is trained in Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and is a Level II Master trainer in PCIT. She facilitates the workshop, “Caring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma,” for foster, kinship, and adoptive caregivers and trains facilitators of this curriculum. She has also worked with Project Broadcast, an initiative to bring trauma-informed practices to NC’s child welfare system, since it began 2011 and is dedicated to assisting all types of agencies to become more trauma-informed.

Wanda Vargas-Haskins, (she/her), PhD, is currently the senior psychologist at New York Presbyterian’s Family PEACE Trauma Treatment Center. She dedicates herself to improving the safety and well-being of children and caregivers who have been exposed to trauma. Wanda was born in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to the United States at the young age of 3, where she was raised in the community of Washington Heights. She earned her PhD in the combined Clinical and School Psychology program at Hofstra University where she developed an interest in maternal stress and mother-child dyads. Her career began in St. Barnabas Hospital’s Safe Start program, testing the effectiveness of using Child-Parent Psychotherapy as a treatment for young children exposed to violence. In 2011, she became a clinician at New York Presbyterian Hospital’s Family PEACE Trauma Treatment Center to continue working with the underserved population of Latino/a/x young children and their parents exposed to trauma in Washington Heights and Inwood. Over the years, Wanda’s passion for working with families has grown into a dedication and commitment to affect change both directly and on a systemic level. Through her leadership at Family PEACE, she has been working on creating a trauma-informed approach to identifying at-risk young children and developing programming that is client-centered and culturally attuned to the needs of the community. She dreams of one day being able to break the intergenerational transmission of trauma for our nation’s children.