About Trauma ScreenTIME

About Christian Connell

Dr. Connell serves as the evaluator for the Trauma ScreenTIME initiative. His research focuses on individual, family, and system-level outcomes of youth who have been maltreated or involved in the child welfare and other child-serving systems, as well as the effectiveness of community-based interventions to reduce adverse outcomes associated with maltreatment and trauma. He is co-author of the Child Trauma Screen, a brief trauma screen intended for use in child-serving systems.

About Rochelle Hanson

Dr. Hanson is a professor at the National Crime Victims Research and Treatment Center (NCVRTC) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and in the Department of Pediatrics at the Medical University of South Carolina. She is Associate Director of Research and Director of the Family and Child Program at the NCVRTC. She is also serving as Director of the Training and Technical Assistance Division of the National Mass Violence Victimization Resource Center (NMVVRC), funded by the Office for Victims of Crime and the Department of Justice.

Throughout her career, Dr. Hanson has focused on understanding and responding to victims of traumatic events, as well as training professionals to provide effective treatments for children and families. Her research has been funded by federal agencies such as the National Institute of Mental Health, the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, and the Office for Victims of Crime, as well as private foundations. Dr. Hanson is a clinical supervisor at the NCVRTC. She also co-directs an integrated behavioral health program in pediatric primary care and provides clinical supervision. Dr. Hanson is a national TF-CBT master trainer.   

About Wizdom Powell

Dr. Powell is a tenured professor, nationally recognized expert and thought leader on racial trauma, racism, masculinities, and male health. In 2020, she was  named one of the top 25 essential voices on Black mental health. Dr. Powell serves on and leads several national advisory councils on racial health disparities in boys and men. She is also a White House Fellow, Ford Foundation Fellow, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Fellow, Aspen Institute Health Innovator Fellow, and awardee of the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation academic writing residency in Bellagio, Italy.


Her numerous scientific articles have been published in the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Internal Medicine, Behavioral Medicine, and Child Development. Dr. Powell has notably advanced the national public conversation about racism, trauma, and injustice in the lives of Black men and boys. Dr. Powell serves on the CHDI Board of Directors.

About Amanda Bishop

Amanda Bishop Burdick, LSCW-C, is the Assistant Director for the Adult, Child, and Family Services Division at the Washington County Department of Social Services. She received her Master of Social Work Degree with a dual concentration in Clinical Social Work with Children and Families and Management and Community Organization from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She has been a social worker for 23 years, all of which has been dedicated to working with children, youth, families, and vulnerable adults.

Through the course of her career, Ms. Bishop Burdick has served in a variety of capacities with diversified populations including public child welfare, mental health treatment with a specialization in childhood trauma, forensic social work, long-term geriatric care, supervision and management, and independent consulting. In her current role, she is responsible for the oversight and implementation of 26 different social services programs for both Child Welfare and Adult Services systems and the management and leadership of approximately 130 staff.

About Lisa Conradi

Dr. Conradi has multiple years of experience in the field of child trauma and in supporting service systems in their efforts to become more trauma-informed. She has authored and co-authored a variety of publications on trauma screening and assessment practices and creating trauma-informed systems. She has also presented nationally on innovative practices designed to improve the service delivery system for children who have experienced trauma.

About Jeanette Vega

Jeanette Vega is a proud Puerto Rican mother of four awesome boys. Born and raised in Brooklyn, so supporting NYC families is always a priority. As a parent impacted by child welfare personally, she has dedicated her career to supporting other parents. She has been advocating for the past 17 years for family rights in NYC. Jeanette is a graduate of the Child Welfare Organizing Project, the first Parent Advocate to sit in a child safety conference. She has worked as a Parent Advocate at a foster care agency for 5 years. She started again with RISE in 2016 and became Executive Director in 2023.

About Chandra Ghosh-Ippen

Dr. Ghosh Ippen is Associate Director of the Child Trauma Research Program at the University of California, San Francisco and Director of Dissemination and Implementation for Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), an evidence-based treatment for young children who have experienced trauma. She has spent the last 28 years conducting research, clinical work, and training in the area of childhood trauma, has co-authored over 20 publications on trauma and diversity- informed practice, and is the lead author of the Traumatic Events Screening Inventory Parent Report Revised.

About Amy Hunter

Amy Hunter has worked in the field of infant early childhood mental health for over thirty years. She currently serves as an Assistant Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Child and Human Development. In her capacity at Georgetown she co-leads the post-graduate Clinical Certificate program on Infant Early Childhood Mental Health and co-directs the mental health work of the Head Start National Center on Health, Behavioral Health and Safety, a training and technical assistance center for Early Head Start and Head Start.

Additionally, Ms. Hunter serves as a lead on the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations, a training and technical assistance center funded by the Office of Special Education. Ms. Hunter provides training nationally on the impact of trauma on young children and serves as a content expert on integrating trauma informed care into early childhood systems.

About Sufna John

Dr. John is a Licensed Psychologist and Associate Professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She specializes in infant and early childhood mental health and trauma and is a state Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and DC:0-5 trainer.

About Neena McConnico

Neena McConnico, PhD, LMHC, holds a doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology and is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor.  Dr. McConnico currently serves as the Program Director for the nationally renowned Child Witness to Violence Project at Boston Medical Center and the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Department of Pediatrics. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She is a Co-Leader of the Department of Pediatrics Council of Social Justice, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Boston Medical Center and leads a team focused on developing and implementing an anti-racism toolkit to support service delivery and practice change for the department.  Dr. McConnico has served as a consultant for Futures Without Violence helping to plan, design and disseminate national curricula and initiatives.  She is a member of the Massachusetts Governor’s Council on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Early Interventions Subcommittee.

Dr. McConnico has a passion for enhancing the social, emotional, and physical well-being of children and their families.  She has made it her mission to be the voice for the voiceless and to advocate and uplift marginalized youth and families who have experienced adversity.  She has served as a panelist and provided testimony for state hearings and congressional briefings. She was also a consultant on the Boston Defending Childhood Initiative assisting with the planning and implementation of various city-wide initiatives focused on coordinated responses to violence exposure. 

Dr. McConnico has appeared in several media/news outlets and provided numerous trainings on the local, state and national level to cross-disciplinary entities focused on the impacts of violence exposure on children, vicarious, historical and systemic trauma and promoting resilience. She has expertise in working with schools and early childhood education systems to create and implement trauma-informed practices and systems of care.

About Joshua Mersky

Dr. Mersky is a Professor of Social Work in the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a founding director of the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being. Dr. Mersky’s applied and translational research agenda is organized around the goal of helping families from underserved communities gain access to high-quality therapeutic services in routine care settings. In addition to his research on trauma-focused treatments and trauma-responsive practices, Dr. Mersky has made seminal contributions to the measurement and modeling of adverse experiences and their consequences over the life course. 

About Salam Soliman

Dr. Soliman is the Director of the Center of Prevention and Early Trauma Treatment at the National Service Office for Nurse-Family Partnership and Child First. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and a certified school psychologist. Salam is a seasoned consultant and speaker with many years of experience providing support in the field covering topics such as attachment, child welfare, reflective supervision, attachment-based interventions and the intersectionality of diversity, equity, justice and inclusion.

Dr. Soliman has consulted with the Reflective Supervision Collaborative, Louisiana State University, Alliance for Infant Mental Health, Zero to Three, Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting, Child Heath Development Institute, the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress and KK Hospital in Singapore. She is a Board Member for APA Division 39, Section II. Salam was invited by the Singapore Ministry of Health as a Visiting Expert in Paediatrics, Women’s Mental Health, Psychology and Psychosocial Trauma Service in 2023.

About Dimitri Topitzes

James “Dimitri” Topitzes is professor and chair in the Social Work Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). He also serves as the Director of Clinical Services for the Institute for Child and Family Well-Being, where he leads training workshops in Parent Child Interaction Therapy as a Regional Trainer. As a researcher, he partners with community-based agencies to implement and test innovative trauma-responsive programming such as the trauma screening, brief intervention and referral to treatment or T-SBIRT protocol. As an instructor, he founded and directed the Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) Graduate certificate program at UWM and teaches courses within it such as Trauma Counseling and Mindfulness & Community Building. He also teaches a Philosophy of Science doctoral seminar.

About Julian Ford

Dr. Ford directs two Treatment and Services Adaptation Centers in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network: the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice and the Center for the Treatment of Developmental Trauma Disorders. Dr. Ford is past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He has published more than 250 articles and book chapters and is the author or editor of 10 books, including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (2nd Edition), Treating Complex Trauma: A Sequenced, Relationship-Based Approach (2nd Edition), Treating Complex Traumatic Stress Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Scientific Foundations and Therapeutic Models, and Critical Moments: Transforming Crises into Turning Points in Psychotherapy.

Dr. Ford is the principal investigator for the national Developmental Trauma Disorder Field trial research study. He developed and has conducted randomized clinical trial and effectiveness studies with the Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET©) model for youths and adults with developmental trauma histories and complex PTSD.

About Heather Forkey

Dr. Forkey is the Director of the Foster Children Evaluation Service (FaCES), chief of the Division of Child Protection for the UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center, and Professor of Pediatrics at UMass Chan Medical School. She is deeply invested in research and clinical care for children who experience multiple traumas. She is also the Medical Director of UMass’ trauma training programs, Child Trauma Training Center and Lifeline4Kids, and collaborator with American Academy of Pediatrics educational resources team. These curricula aim to train pediatricians and other child-serving disciplines to understand biological, medical, behavioral, social, developmental, and educational impacts of childhood trauma and offer practical tools for providing optimal care for children who have experienced trauma.

About Amanda Jones

Dr. Jones is a community pediatrician in Charlottesville, Virginia. She participated in multiple trauma informed care trainings at the state and national level and welcomed the opportunity to be the only independent practice to participate in a Trauma-Informed Leadership Initiative in Charlottesville. She furthered her work through a state-wide effort of the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics to address trauma screening in the primary care setting.

Along with Dr. Paige Perriello, Dr. Jones co-developed a universal trauma and social determinants of health screen which was implemented in 2020 at four clinic sites. She continues to be involved in the local Trauma-Informed Community network and continues to seek opportunities to address social determinants of health and the impact of childhood trauma in order to better serve their patients and community.

About Brooks Keeshin

Dr. Keeshin is a child abuse pediatrician and child psychiatrist who provides clinical care to children and adolescents with histories of child abuse and other traumatic experiences at Primary Children’s Center for Safe and Healthy Families. Additionally, Dr. Keeshin directs Pediatric Integrated Post-trauma Services (PIPS), a SAMHSA funded Category II Center of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network developing, evaluating and disseminating tools and processes for frontline pediatric providers to detect and respond to youth at risk for traumatic stress and suicide. 

About Adwoa Osei

Dr. Osei is a Health Sciences Associate Professor of Pediatrics in the University of California School of Medicine. An experienced pediatrician with a focus on the impact of community adversity, childhood adversity, and pediatric disability on social determinants of equity and health outcomes, she designs and develops curricula to train students and faculty in identifying and addressing inequities within systems, cultures, and structures by reducing the misuse of race to advance health justice. She leads teams in the creation of innovative, inclusive and community empowered, trauma informed approaches in advancing health equity.

Dr. Osei is Program Director for UCR PRIME Leadership Education to Advance Diversity, Co-director for the Health Equity, Social Justice, Anti-Racism (HESJAR) curriculum, Clerkship Director for Pediatrics. She has developed innovative new methods for involvement with local communities of diversity to share their experiences and educate those in the School of Medicine on the impact of the level of their cultural competencies on those around them, partnering with health insurance agencies to train physicians on diversity, belonging and anti-racism. She leads the UCR clinic for Leadership Education in Neurodiversity and has served on expert panels on disabilities for the CDC. She is part of the ACES Aware initiative and together with the regional AAP, has trained physicians in ACEs and related topics. She designs curricular for and serves as a subject matter expert for the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association and National Academies of Science and Engineering on trauma informed care, mental and behavioral health. She currently serves on the National Advisory Group providing technical assistance to PCPs to support mental health needs and promote the use of pediatric mental health care access (PMHCA) programs.

About Paige Perriello

Dr. Perriello is a community pediatrician in Charlottesville, Virginia. She participated in multiple trauma informed care trainings at the state and national level and welcomed the opportunity to be the only independent practice to participate in a Trauma-Informed Leadership Initiative in Charlottesville. She furthered her work through a state-wide effort of the Virginia Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics to address trauma screening in the primary care setting. Along with Dr. Amanda Jones, she co-developed a universal trauma and social determinants of health screen which was implemented in 2020 at four clinic sites. She continues to be involved in the local Trauma-Informed Community network and continues to seek opportunities to address social determinants of health and the impact of childhood trauma in order to better serve their patients and community.

About Beth Cooney

Beth Cooney is a licensed clinical social worker and board-approved clinical supervisor with experience and knowledge in assessment and evidence-based trauma and grief interventions. As Director of Evidence-Based Practice for Project Fleur-de-lis, Ms. Cooney provides training and clinical supervision and oversees individual and group trauma interventions for schools in the Greater New Orleans Area. Ms. Cooney is a certified trainer in Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) and Bounce Back. 

About John Crocker

John Crocker has worked in public education for over a decade, primarily as the administrator for the Methuen Public Schools Counseling Department. He has overseen the planning and implementation of the Mental Health Initiative, which focuses  on the establishment of a comprehensive school mental health system (CSMHS) in partnership with the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH). He has worked with the NCSMH as a member of the National School Mental Health Task Force and as the Massachusetts team leader for the National Coalition for the State Advancement of School Mental Health (NCSA-SMH).  

Mr. Crocker also founded the Massachusetts School Mental Health Consortium (MASMHC), a group of approximately 150 school districts across Massachusetts committed to advocating for and implementing quality and sustainable school mental health services and supports.  Mr. Crocker received the National Center for School Mental Health’s School Mental Health Champion Award in 2018 and was nominated the 2019 Massachusetts School Counselors Association (MASCA) Administrator of the Year, the 20-21 Massachusetts Parent Teacher Association (PTA) Counselor of the Year, and the 2021 Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Michael J. Kane Wellness Award recipient.

About Laura Danna

Laura Danna serves as Project Director of Project Fleur-de-lis, a school-based mental health service program for youth and families who have been and/or continue to impacted by trauma, and as a clinician at Mercy Family Center in New Orleans, LA. She is a certified trainer in Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS) and provides training/consultation for schools both locally and nationally. She has also worked closely with the developers of this model and other evidence-based interventions to ensure fidelity and to promote effective assessment and implementation in a plethora of schools. For almost 20 years, Laura has been a tireless advocate for the use of evidence-based trauma treatments to improve the quality of mental health services in schools.

About Sharon Hoover

Dr. Hoover is a licensed clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Co-Director of the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH). She currently leads national efforts to support states, districts, and schools in the adoption of national performance standards of comprehensive school mental health systems using The SHAPE System. Creating safe, supportive, and resilient schools has been a major emphasis of Dr. Hoover’s research, education, and clinical work. She has worked with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) to train school district and school leaders, educators, and support staff in multi-tiered systems of support for psychological trauma.

In 2020, Dr. Hoover was awarded a SAMHSA grant to develop the NCTSN Center for Safe Supportive Schools (www.ncs3.org), aimed at integrating trauma-informed policies and practices in school mental health systems, with a specific focus on social justice and supporting youth of color, newcomer youth, and other marginalized students and families.

About Lisa Jaycox

Dr. Jaycox is a researcher and clinical psychologist who has been working with schools to bring evidence-based trauma focused interventions and support programs onto their campuses for over 20 years. Her work includes early intervention programs for students who are reacting to traumatic life events, as well as trauma-informed whole school approaches and tools for educators and school staff. Her focus in ScreenTIME is on feasible and acceptable screening methods that can be used in conjunction with such support programs. 

About Erum Nadeem

Dr. Nadeem is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. Her work is focused on community-partnered research, the implementation of evidence-based practices in schools and community settings, and disparities in children’s educational and mental health outcomes. She has particular expertise in evidence-based practices for trauma and studies implementation strategies (e.g., coaching, consultation) and the use of continuous quality improvement methods to improve local practice.

About Minu Ranna-Stewart

Minu Ranna-Stewart is the Director of Student Support Services for Puget Sound Education Service District in Renton, WA. In this role, she oversees comprehensive school safety and crisis response, regional behavioral health navigation, school and community-based substance use prevention and intervention, school-based mental health, and school nursing support.

Previously, Ms. Ranna-Stewart was the assistant director for an accredited child advocacy center, community sexual assault program, and crime victim service center in Seattle, WA. She provided training to mental health providers across Washington State  on clinical treatment models for children and adults, participated in clinical research projects, delivered trauma and trauma-informed trainings to the community, and provided direct clinical services to children and adults.

About Tim Marshall

Tim Marshall, now retired, was a licensed clinical social worker in Connecticut who provided treatment services to children and families in a variety of settings. He worked for DCF for over 28 years, serving in both local area offices and in the central office. He shared in the oversight of statewide behavioral health systems and led the state’s system of care work for several years.

About Scott Newgass

Scott Newgass, now retired, was an education consultant for the Connecticut State Department of Education (CSDE), where he oversaw school safety, social work, and mental health services. Prior to working for CSDE, he was at the Yale Child Study Center, where he was program coordinator of a regional school crisis prevention and response program.

About Carly Sheil

Carly Sheil has worked directly with youth and families who are involved in the juvenile justice system since 2012. At the CT Judicial Branch's Court Support Services Division (CSSD), she oversees probation officers who utilize the Gender Responsive Probation Model, a trauma-informed approach to probation practice.

About Barbara Ward-Zimmerman

Dr. Ward-Zimmerman serves as a pediatric and behavioral health integrated primary care consultant, educator, and advocate. She facilitates trauma-informed and responsive screening and care in pediatric practices across the state of Connecticut. She has also consulted for the Connecting to Care initiative, leading development of the Connect4Families toolkit.

About Maguena Deslandes

Inspired to help communities move toward empowerment and strengthen the  leadership abilities of urban youth, Maguena Deslandes received her bachelor’s degree in the field of Education and Human Resources. An interest in therapeutic foster care management led her to complete a master’s degree in Counseling and Human Services.  Earning a second master’s degree in Adult Learning and Training enabled Maguena to integrate expertise in the fundamentals of the helping process, theories of adult learning, and facilitation instruction in leadership development for and with diverse adult learning leaders. Her role as Director of Family Engagement at FAVOR is to research, engage, and move healing communities into action.

About Lisa Girard

Lisa Girard is the Family Systems Manager for the Eastern Region at Connecticut’s statewide, multicultural family support organization, FAVOR, Inc. Lisa works primarily with families throughout Connecticut to empower them to use their lived experiences to advocate for change within their communities and in child-serving systems, including deconstructing systemwide stigma and misunderstanding surrounding trauma and shaping how screening for trauma occurs across multiple agencies and organizations. Lisa works to ensure that families and youth feel comfortable and supported by engaging them in a culturally competent and sensitive way. 

About Keisha Martin-Velez

Keisha Martin-Velez is Family Systems Manager for Connecticut Region 1 at FAVOR, Inc. She has worked in the mental and behavioral health field for the past decade to assist families who have experienced trauma.  She is committed to empowering families to share their experiences, with the goal of informing development of practices that will bring positive change to Connecticut’s systems of care.

About Family Representatives

The following family representatives provided invaluable insight and feedback - grounded in their lived experiences navigating the children's behavioral health system - during the development of Trauma ScreenTIME:

• Charlene Colson
• Reshaya Dreckett
• Mavis Etienne
• Rachel Foster
• Norielys Gonzalez
• Judith Kobylarz-Dillard
• Sara Pelletier
• Gloria Ray
• Samaris Rose

We also wish to acknowledge long-time FAVOR family champion Yolanda Stinson, who served as a ScreenTIME Family Advisory Board member from 2020 until her passing in late 2023. Yolanda’s lived experience and dynamic personality contributed to the work of ScreenTIME in ways that will continue to impact all those touched by ScreenTIME and beyond.