Marisol Acosta (she/her/ella), MEd, LPC-S, Marisol 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 three 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 Bachelors degree from the University of Puerto Rico, a Master’s degree 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 that 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.

Margaret Blaustein (she/her) is a clinical psychologist whose career has focused on the understanding and treatment of complex childhood trauma and its sequelae. With an emphasis on the importance of understanding the child-, the family-, and the provider-in-context, her work has focused on identification and translation of key principles of intervention across treatment settings, building from the foundational theories of childhood development, attachment, and traumatic stress. Dr. Blaustein is co-developer of the Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) treatment framework (Kinniburgh & Blaustein, 2005), and co-author of the text, Treating Complex Trauma in Children and Adolescents: Fostering Resilience through Attachment, Self-Regulation, and Competence (Blaustein & Kinniburgh, 2010 / 2018). Dr. Blaustein is currently Director of the Center for Trauma Training in Needham, MA, and is past Division Director for Trauma Training and Education at The Trauma Center at JRI. She is actively involved in local, regional, and national collaborative groups dedicated to the empathic, respectful, collaborative and effective provision of services to this population. Dr. Blaustein has been involved in various NCTSN-funded projects since the network’s inception.

As funded CAT III site Project Director, in addition to successfully administering the SAMHSA grant funding and providing oversight of the implementation of the Project--a school-based therapy initiative that serves children, ages three to 18, who have experienced various types of trauma, Nancy also developed the trauma awareness training for the Project on (1) How to Recognize Trauma; (2) How to Respond to Trauma; (3) How to Create Trauma-informed Systems for Children; and (4) How to Manage Secondary Traumatic Stress. Nancy successfully administered these trainings to over 300 percent of the first-year target population goal within months. Unsolicited feedback received for the training includes: “Your presentation was FANTASTIC!!! My teachers were still talking about it today! I would love for you to come and facilitate some additional training for our teachers if you can!! We have grade level meetings on Fridays. Let me know if you can or are interested! Thank you so much!!” -- Principal, Montgomery Public Schools “I heard rave reviews on your training. Great job!! Thank you!” -- Social Worker (LCSW, PIP), Montgomery Public Schools “The trauma training was extremely informative and useful for classroom management techniques, especially for those of us who work with high school students. Five stars!” -- High School Teacher, Montgomery Public Schools. As a National Steering Committee member and an Affiliate Advisory Council member with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) with Duke University and UCLA, and as a national advisory board member of the TRANSFORM (Trauma and Racism Addressed by Navigating Systemic Forms of Oppression using Resilience Methods) Program with Washington State University, Nancy works closely with trauma-focused research professionals and evidence-based intervention providers to promote awareness and create transformative training tools to develop trauma-informed systems of care. As a passionate advocate for the homeless, for those who suffer with mental illness, and for children impacted by trauma, Nancy continues to use her unique skill set and her commitment to learning to maximize every effort in developing solutions for at-risk populations. Nancy also serves as the Health Committee Co-Chair for the Milwaukee Section of the National Council of Negro Women.

Janice Hicks-Ulrich (she/her), LPC, has been licensed in the State of Oklahoma for 17 years. Janice is the Project Director for the NCTSI III grant project Guarding the Future at the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma. Guarding the Future utilize a variety of trauma-informed, evidenced-informed treatments for children, adolescents, and families, including EMDR and the culturally adapted TF-CBT model, Honoring the Children, Mending the Circle. Janice has extensive treatment experience with traumatized children, adolescents, families, through 20 years of practice in the therapeutic foster care system and in the inpatient psychiatric hospital setting.

Stephen Hydon (he/his), EdD, MSW, is a clinical professor at the University of Southern California, Suzanne Dworak-Peck, School of Social Work. He directs the School Social Work Program, one of the largest in the country, with over 200 students each year earning credentials to practice school social work in public school settings. Recently, Stephen was funded to co-lead a team of experts in the fields of education and secondary trauma to create a one-of-a-kind online learning platform for educators experiencing secondary traumatic stress called STAT: www.statprogram.org. Hydon also serves as a liaison to the TDNC Committee of the NCTSN, as part of his role on the CAT II Trauma Services Adaptation Center for Hope, Wellness and Resiliency in Schools. Lastly, he is President of the American Council for School Social Work, a national association dedicated solely to the profession of school social work.

Diane Lanni (she/her) is the lead trauma coach for the Safe and Sound program at UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, MA. She works in the FaCES clinic with Dr. Heather Forkey where she provides peer support to foster care families and trains others in the trauma coach role. Recently she has taken on the additional role as Educational Navigator, where she helps ensure foster children are receiving appropriate school services. She pulls from her decade of experience as a foster parent for the Department of Children and Families in Massachusetts. She was awarded Foster Parent of the Year and had roles as a hotline, respite, and an unrestricted foster home caregiver.  She has 3 biological children, 2 guardian children, and many TAY for whom she is their continued support person. Diane also owns and operates 2 restaurants in partnership where she also works with transition age youth. Diane is also active within the NCTSN where she is currently a co-chair for the Resource Parent Curriculum Committee. She is a trained lived experience co-facilitator for the Resource Parent Curriculum and has adapted this material for use in a one on one setting in her role as a trauma coach. Diane is most passionate about promoting the idea of foster parents as professionals and providing them with proper training and support.

Antron McCoullough (he/his), MBA, doctoral candidate, started his career in child welfare back in 2006 while earning my Bachelor’s degree. During this time, Antron interned in Washington DC for three years before migrating over to Seaside Oregon, for a one-year internship. While in Oregon, he traveled across the United States speaking on child welfare trauma, policies, and other challenges that are faced by those in the system and those emancipating out of the system. By the end of that internship, he began working with Sony Corporate for a few years while obtaining my MBA degree from Saint Leo University (SLU). It was at this time Antron switched his career and began to work in higher education, however, he continued to be a consultant on trauma and child welfare issues. Currently, he is an assistant director for the University of Florida, Heavener School of Business, completing his DBA (Doctorate of Business Administration) at SLU with his dissertation topic titled “The Relationship Between Funds Spent on Child Welfare Programs During the Budget Decision Making Process Between the Number of Youth and the Amount of Time They Receive Services While in the System.” Antron enjoys making sure that child welfare youth, teens, and young adults have the services and resources available to them throughout their journey as they look to create positive self-development for themselves throughout their life. His mantra is, “a successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.” In other words, no matter what the challenges are that you face, you can overcome them by putting in the time and effort to create success for yourself.

Tooru Nemoto (he/his), PhD, is Research Program Director at the Public Health Institute (PHI). Before joining PHI, Dr. Nemoto was Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco (UCSF). He has been mainly engaging in substance abuse and HIV prevention studies and service projects for under-served and stigmatized populations, such as transgender and gender non-binary people, men who have sex with men (MSM), and sex workers in the U.S. and Asian countries, such as Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Malaysia. He has been awarded a number of grants and service contracts from NIH, SAMHSA, CDC, HRSA, and private foundations. As Project Director, he recently completed a 5-year SAMHSA funded project providing trauma-informed care and prevention services targeting Asian youths in Alameda County. He co-authored a number of research papers in the field of substance abuse and HIV prevention and health promotion for under-served sexual, gender, and racial minority groups in peer-reviewed journals.

Gil Reyes (he/him), PhD, was born and raised in California, where he lived until I finished college at University of California (Santa Barbara). Before switching his major to psychology, he was involved in performing arts as an actor, director, and musician/vocalist. Hi interests in psychology were extremely diverse, but he homed in on human development (especially attachment theory and behavior) and emotional disturbance (especially trauma). Gil completed my doctorate at the University of Colorado with a dissertation examining the intersection of trauma, attachment security, shame, and sensitivity to rejection. Upon graduating he began a tenure-track academic appointment in the Disaster Mental Health Institute within the Clinical Psychology Program at the University of South Dakota. There he remained for 6 years, became married to my wonderful spouse (April), gained wonderful maturational experiences, and was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. Gil moved back to Santa Barbara in 2005 and worked as an associate dean in the School of Psychology at Fielding Graduate University until 2013. Since then, he has mainly worked as a consultant, except for a brief stint as Behavioral Health Director for a Native American tribal government. Gil began his involvement with NCTSN when he was a co-investigator for the Terrorism and Disaster Center at the University of Oklahoma. He has contributed to a number of projects and training programs through the NCCTS at UCLA, and recently joined the Osofsky-Team at the Louisiana State University’s Terrorism and Disaster Center (TDC-4). He also has been among the NCTSN’s Affiliate Members for several years and am currently serving on the Affiliate Advisory Group.

Veronica Willeto DeCrane (she/her), is Diné (Navajo), of the Many Hogans Clan and born for the Mexican Clan. Her maternal grandparents are of the Tangle Clan, and her paternal grandparents are of the Bitter Water Clan. She was raised in Ojo Encino, New Mexico, on the Navajo reservation and now lives in Billings, Montana with her husband and children. Veronica has worked in education and youth development for over ten years, in the areas of school turnaround, parent and community engagement, youth leadership development, afterschool programs, cultural responsiveness, systems change, and behavioral and academic supports. Veronica is a Training and Technical Assistance Manager for the National Native Children’s Trauma Center (NNCTC). Through a collaboration with the Tribal Youth Resource Center, she manages trauma-informed and healing-focused training and technical assistance for Tribal youth programs and Tribal juvenile healing to wellness courts. She also supports the NNCTC’s child welfare work in partnership with Casey Family Programs, co-facilitates a nationwide Trauma Resilient Schools Peer Learning Network with the Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board, leads the NNCTC’s Youth Advisory Council, and contributes to the adaptation of Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency model into a culturally-congruent curriculum for tribal youth. In addition to her work with the NNCTC, Veronica is a Multi-Tiered System of Support Coach with the Montana Office of Public Instruction and serves as the Vice-President of the Montana Afterschool Alliance Steering Council.

Jen Velten (she/her), MA, LPC, ACS, CCTP, graduated John Jay College of Criminal Justice in 2015 with an MA in Forensic Mental Health Counseling and became a Licensed Professional Counselor in 2019. She is licensed in the State of New Jersey with 7 years of experience working with youth and families in the mental health field. Jen became Licensed as an Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS) in 2020. Jen additionally became certified as a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional in 2021. She was a school counselor for 3 years as well as a clinician with Care Plus in the Child/Family Division for the past 7 years.  Jen has extensive training on trauma treatment modalities for youth. She has been trained in Prepare/Enrich, CBT, TF-CBT, ARC, and most recently EMDR. Jen is a trained trauma informed specialist and is certified in PFA and YMHFA. Jen has focused her expertise on helping children and adults to overcome complex trauma experiences as well as work with the LGBTQ+ community. Jen is the Coordinator for the Bergen County Traumatic Loss Coalition (TLC). Jen is a professional trainer and provides seminars and consultation services on vital mental health topics to help improve social and emotional functioning for youth. Jen most recently became a certified trainer on the Core Curriculum on Childhood Trauma. Jen is additionally an adjunct professor of Social Psychology for Ramapo College of New Jersey for the past 4 years.