ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
*For additional information about speakers visit our website at www.traumainformedcareproject.org*

J. Stuart Ablon, Ph. D. is the director of Think: Kids in the Department of Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) where he specializes in the treatment of explosive, inflexible, easily frustrated children and adolescents and their families. He is also Assoicate Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Ablon is co-author of Treating Explosive Kids: The Collaborative Problem Solving Approach and author of numerous articles, chapters and scientific papers on the process and outcome of psychosocial interventions. Dr. Ablon trains parents, educators, and clinicians and consults to schools and treatment programs throughout the world in the Collaborative Problem Solving approach.

Dipesh Navsaria, MPH, MSHS, PA, MS (LIS), MD is an assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He practices primary care prediatrics at Access Community Health Center. He is the founder and director of the Pediatric Early Literacy Projects at the University of Wisconsin, and is the founding medical director of Reach Out and Read Wisconsin. He also serves as the faculty advisor for the Pediatric Interest Group and is the director of the MD-MPH program of the University of Wisconsin.

Avis Smith, ACSW, LSCSW, LCSW is a liscensed clinical social worker with 30 years experience in child/adolescent mental health. She is Director of Trauma Smart/Head Start at Crittenton Children's Center in Kansas City. Trauma Smart is an early childhood Trauma intervention model that supports young children who have experienced trauma and the parents and teachers who love them.

Sara McMillan, MS, LMFT, LMSW has been a psychotherapist for 25 years. She currently works at Polk County Crisis and Advocacy Services, has her own private practice and is EMDR Therapy cerfitied. She is also a certified yoga instructor and received her 40 hour Trauma Sensitive Yoga training at Kripalu in western Massachusetts.

Janet Nickell Horras, BA has over 25 years of experience in the family support field. She has been employed by the State of Iowa since 1999. She currently works for the Iowa Department of Public Health in the Bureau of Family Health as the State Home Visitation Program Director. She previously worked for the Iowa Department of Management in the Early Childhood Iowa Office as the Family Support Coordinator and the Iowa Department of Human Rights in the Division of Community Action Agencies.

Marva L. Lewis, Ph.D. has taught at the Tulane School of Social Work since 2008. Her program of research uses mixed methods and a cultural practices approach to understand the influence of sociocultural factors including community violence, the stress of internalized racism and stereotypes on the formation of parent-child attachment relationships. Over the past 20 years she has published and presented this research to professional audiences at state, national, and international forums of interdisciplinary audiences.

Jerry B. Yager, Psy.D. or "Dr. Jerry" has more than 30 years of experience in the assessment and treatment of neglected, abused and traumatized children. He joined the Denver Children's Advocacy Center in 2011 to pursue his passion of educating professionals who work with children about the impact of abuse and neglect on the developing brain. Dr. Jerry leads DCAC's far-reaching initiative to provide training and consultation to the professionals who work with traumatized children in many different capacities - therapists, social workers, educators, foster/adoptive parents, law enforcement officers, investigators and victim advocates - to help them understand the often difficult behaviors of child abuse victims and learn to provide appropriate and effective interventions that ameliorate rather than exacerbate the trauma.

Rebecca Brown, MSE, RSW has a Masters Degree in Social Work and her career has spanned 29 years including medical social work, child welfare and domestic violence. The majority of her career was spent as a supervisor within the child protection system, where she was a Coordinator of the Critical Incident Debriefing Team. Rebecca is an Associate with Compassion Fatigue Solutions delivering workshops and conferences throughout Canada and the US on the topics of Vicarious Trauma, Compassion Fatigue and Resilience to professionals, caregivers and volunteers.