Senior Fellows Program
CHDI has established a Senior Fellows program to recognize and formalize ties with faculty who are integrally involved with our work. Each year we select several faculty in CT to become CHDI Senior Fellows for a period of two years, with the opportunity for renewal.
The purpose of the Fellows Program is:
- To formalize and solidify CHDI’s relationship with research institutions and their faculty
- To recognize and honor faculty for their work in the areas of child health and mental health
- To create a more cohesive network of researchers interested in translating research to practice, conducting policy analyses, and carrying out program evaluation related to health and mental health care systems for children
Jean A. Adnopoz, MPH
Jean is a Clinical Professor at the Yale Child Study Center, and Director of In-Home Out-Patient Clinical Services. Among the programs she has developed and manages with her colleagues are the Intensive In-Home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Service (IICAPS), Family Based Recovery (FBR) the Intensive In-Home Reintegrative Service (IICARS) and Intensive Family Preservation (IFP). Ms. Adnopoz’s clinical interests have focused on addressing the behavioral and developmental needs of children who are at substantial risk for disruption of their primary relationships and placement outside of their communities and their families. Factors affecting these children include abuse, neglect, parental drug addiction, chronic physical or mental illness, or their own serious psychiatric and behavioral disorders, all often co-existing within the context of multi-generational psychosocial adversity. Services are delivered in the family’s home and are designed to maintain children safely within their homes and communities. Both IICAPS and FBR are replicated broadly throughout Connecticut. Her research interests address the effectiveness of the interventions with which she has long been associated. Ms. Adnopoz is the author of numerous articles and chapters as well as the book IICAPS: A Home-Based Psychiatric Treatment for Children and Adolescents, co-authored with Joseph Woolston, M.D. and Steven Berkowitz and published by Yale University Press.
Christian M. Connell, Ph.D.
Christian is Assistant Professor of Psychology, Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. He is also Director of Child Development and Epidemiological Research at The Consultation Center. Dr. Connell joined The Consultation Center first as a trainee and then as a member of the Psychology Faculty. His interests focus on examining ecological risk and protective processes that influence developmental and other outcomes for child and adolescent populations exposed to adversity. Research and evaluation activities encompass work with a range of populations including children and adolescents within community settings and those who are served by more formal systems of care. His work encompasses a range of activities including community-based research, program and service system evaluation, and consultation.
Angela A. Crowley, Ph.D., APRN, PNP-BC, FAAN
Angela is Associate Professor at Yale University School of Nursing in the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Specialty Masters Program, and her practice is based at the Pediatric Primary Care Center, Yale New Haven Hospital. Her research, publications, community activities, and professional involvement for the past 20 years have focused on improving the health and developmental outcomes for children in out-of–home settings and their families. She co-founded the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners’ Child Care Special Interest Group and served on the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption, and Dependent Care. She is Chair of the Child Development Technical Panel for the USDHHS Maternal Child Health Bureau Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards: Guidelines for Out-of-Home Child Care Programs (3rd ed).
Paul H. Dworkin, MD
Dr. Dworkin is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics, University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief, Connecticut Children's Medical Center. His interests are at the interface among child development, child health services, and child health policy and his research has focused on the value of developmentally-oriented anticipated guidance, the role of developmental surveillance and screening in the early detection of at-risk children, and the value of care coordination in the linkage of children and families to programs and services. He has authored more than 150 journal articles, abstracts, and book chapters in the fields of developmental-behavioral pediatrics and general pediatrics. He was the editor of the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics from 1997 to 2002 and is currently editor emeritus. He is a co-editor of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics: Evidence and Practice, a scholarly, comprehensive textbook published by Elsevier in the fall of 2007. His vision led to the creation of Help Me Grow, a statewide initiative to promote the early detection of children with developmental and behavioral problems.
Julian D. Ford, Ph.D.
Julian is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Director of the University of Connecticut Health Center Child Trauma Clinic and Center for Trauma Response Recovery and Preparedness (www.ctrp.org). He was Deputy for Education and Clinical Networking to the Executive Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD from1994-1998, as well as founding Director of the PTSD Residential Rehabilitation Program and a member of the PTSD Clinical Team (working with Operation Desert Storm and prior era veterans and families) at the Portland Oregon VA Medical Center from 1990-1994. Dr. Ford developed the TARGET empowerment model for adult, adolescent, and child traumatic stress disorders. He conducts research on psychotherapy and family therapy, health services utilization, psychometric screening and assessment, and psychiatric epidemiology, including serving as the principal investigator on several federally-funded studies evaluating TARGET and other evidence-based psychosocial empowerment interventions for families, adults, and youth.
Walter S. Gilliam, Ph.D.
Walter is Director of The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy and Assistant Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology at the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine. He is a Senior Advisor to the National Association for the Education of Young Children and a fellow at the National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families (Zero to Three) and the National Institute for Early Education Research. His research involves early childhood education and intervention policy analysis (specifically how policies translate into effective services), ways to improve the quality of prekindergarten and child care services, the impact of early childhood education programs on children’s school readiness, and effective methods for reducing classroom behavior problems and reducing the incidence of preschool expulsion. Dr. Gilliam has led national analyses of state-funded prekindergarten policies and mandates, how prekindergarten programs are being implemented across the range of policy contexts, and the effectiveness of these programs at improving school readiness and educational achievement, as well as experimental and quasi-experimental studies on methods to improve early education quality.
Jeri Hepworth, Ph.D.
Jeri is a family therapist, Professor and Vice-Chair of Family Medicine, at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Her scholarly activity has focused on families and health, especially assisting families coping with chronic illness. She also has expertise in psychosocial issues in medicine, and integrating behavioral health into primary care. She completed the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine fellowship, and coordinates faculty development activities for the University of Connecticut School of Medicine Faculty. Among her publications, she is co-author of 3 books: Medical Family Therapy, The Shared Experience of Illness, and Family Oriented Primary Care. She has led organizational retreats, and consulted nationally and internationally. Dr. Hepworth has held board and leadership positions in multiple professional associations, and serves on advisory boards of 5 professional journals.
Darcy Lowell, M.D.
Darcy is Executive Director of Child FIRST. She is a Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician in the Department of Pediatrics at Bridgeport Hospital, Yale-New Haven Health System, who has been working with high risk young children and families in the Greater Bridgeport community for 24 years. She is Section Chief of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Bridgeport Hospital and Associate Clinical Professor in the Yale Department of Pediatrics and Child Study Center. She was Director of the Greater Bridgeport Children with Special Health Care Needs Program, CT Department of Public Health, for 15 years, and Executive Director of Child FIRST (Child and Family Interagency, Resource, Support, and Training) for the past 12 years. She is founder of Child FIRST, an early childhood system of care, which targets the highest risk young children (prenatal through age five years) and families to prevent developmental and learning problems, emotional and behavioral disturbance, and abuse and neglect, with the goal of closing the achievement gap.
Cliff O’Callahan, M.D., Ph.D.
Cliff joined the faculty of the Middlesex Hospital Family Practice Residency Program in early 2002 as a pediatric consultant and advisor. He is responsible for the outpatient pediatric of resident training and is the Director of Nurseries in the hospital. He is the physician leader for Middletown’s Opportunity Knocks community collaborative that is working on improving the health of 0-5 year olds in the areas of oral, nutritional, and mental health. He is on the Early Head Start Advisory Board, the United Way of Middlesex County Board, and the Middletown School Readiness Council. He is also active on the advisory group to the CT chapter of the AAP and is the Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on International Child Health.
Anne E. Pidano, Ph.D.
Anne is a licensed psychologist and co-coordinator of the Child and Adolescent Proficiency Track at the University of Hartford’s Graduate Institute of Professional Psychology. She primarily teaches courses related to children and families and her research interests include the intersection and integration of primary care and behavioral health, as well as training in clinical child psychology. For over 25 years she worked in community-based organizations including Convalescent Hospital for Children, and as a psychologist and then Chief of Mental Health Services at Genesee Valley Group Health, a group model HMO in Rochester, New York. She was employed at the Village for Families and Children in Hartford, first as Program Director and Vice President of Child Guidance Services and then as Director of Psychology Internship Training.
Marjorie Rosenthal, MD, MPH
Marjorie is Assistant Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program Yale and Assistant Director for the Program’s Community Research Initiative, Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Pediatrics and Medical Director of the Premature Infant Follow-Up Clinic at Yale. Dr. Rosenthal conducts research on decreasing inequities in health education and health behavior for young, vulnerable families. Specifically, she studies barriers, such as parental literacy and maternal mental health, as well as facilitating factors, such as quality improvement in physicians' offices, group well-child care, and child care providers as health educators.
Dr. Jack Tebes
ack is an Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Child Study Center, and Epidemiology & Public Health at the Yale University School of Medicine; Co-Director of the Yale Division of Prevention and Community Research; and Deputy Director of The Consultation Center. The Center conducts prevention and community-based research and service across the life span and is a cooperative endeavor of the Yale Department of Psychiatry, the Connecticut Mental Health Center, and a private, nonprofit organization, The Consultation Center, Inc. His research focuses on the promotion of resilience in at risk populations, including the prevention of adolescent substance use; prevention and community research methodology; culture and human diversity in clinical/community interventions; and the science of interdisciplinary team science. In addition to management of The Consultation Center, Dr. Tebes consults to state, municipal, and community-based agencies on the development, evaluation, and implementation of community-based programs and services, and on the use of evaluation data to inform practice and policy. He teaches seminars to pre- and post-doctoral fellows and co-directs Yale research training programs. A fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Community Research and Action, Dr. Tebes is currently Editor of the American Journal of Community Psychology.
Dr. Carol Weitzman
Carol is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and the Child Study Center at the Yale University School of Medicine. She is the Director of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics and the Program Director of a Fellowship in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics. For the past 12 years, she has directed the Yale Adoption Clinic and oversees the clinical services in DBP. Nationally, she is on the Executive Board of the Society for Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics and the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics. She is also the chair of the Fellowship Training Committee of the Section of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics. Her research has recently focused on assessing and treating mental health disorders in children and parents within primary care settings.
Dr. Joseph Woolston
Joseph is the Albert J. Solnit Professor of Child Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine. He is the Vice-Chair for Clinical Affairs for the Child Study Center. In that capacity he oversees clinical program development and quality improvement. He is a co-developer of Intensive In-home Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Services, better known as IICAPS. Dr. Woolston has focused his career on creating, implementing and improving clinical programs designed to treat children and families who are living in significant psychosocial adversity.
