TRANSFORM- 2021-2022 Events
Past Webinars (2021-2022)
Exploring Suicide Risk among Youth Involved with the Justice and/or Child Protective Services Systems
06/30/2022
In this webinar, Kristen Quinlan, Ph.D., and Alexandra Karydi, Ph.D., LMFT, CAC, CASAC II discussed suicide risk among those engaged with youth-serving state systems, like juvenile justice and child protective services. Dr. Quinlan addressed what we know about suicide morbidity and mortality rates among this population, along with data and system limitations that inhibit our ability to use data to fully understand and address risk. Using a socioecological model, Dr. Karydi discussed factors at the individual, family, community, and societal levels that either contribute to, or mitigate, risk among this population. Together, Drs. Quinlan and Karydi provided concrete examples of policy and other system-level changes that would better support youth at risk, along with real-world examples of programs and strategies with demonstrated efficacy for changing suicide risk among youth engaged in state systems.
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Speakers:
Kristen Quinlan, PhD, is a Senior Research Scientist at the Education Development Center (EDC). With an extensive background in evaluation, she is skilled in outcomes focused strategic planning and data-driven decision making. She serves as co-lead evaluator for the Colorado National Collaborative and serves as a data advisor to the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.
Alexandra Karydi, Ph.D., LMFT, CAC, CASAC II, is a Project Director and provides technical assistance for the States and Communities Initiative with the Suicide Prevention Resource Center at EDC. Before joining EDC, Dr. Karydi was the Director of Project 2025 at the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. She is a certified addictions counselor and a licensed marriage and family therapist.
Health Policy and Child Welfare
Dr. Gregg Margolis joined Dr. Catherine Cerulli to discuss health policy and how it relates to child welfare. Dr. Margolis began the webinar with an overview of the federal health policy landscape providing insight to the governmental components and influences inside and outside the government. He shared diagrams that organizations can utilize after the webinar to craft their educational materials and circulate them to the right individuals. Dr. Cerulli discussed how the federal policy landscape impacts child welfare and how many of the statutes passed impact families for decades. She also shared some tools created by a cohort of Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholars (2020-21), with help from the TRANSFORM team, to help organizations share the federal policy landscape with the constituents they serve to help educate citizens on policy and how it influences their lives. Additionally, she shared a Bill of Responsibilities which can help us understand our collective responsibilities to promote equitable opportunities for health and well-being.
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Speakers:
Gregg S. Margolis, PhD, is the Director of Health Policy Fellowships and Leadership Programs at the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). In this role, Dr. Margolis leads six of NAM’s nationally renowned health policy fellowship and leadership programs with a mission of building health policy leadership and expertise for the future.
Catherine Cerulli, JD, PhD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and the Director of the Laboratory of Interpersonal Violence and Victimization. She also directs the UR Susan B. Anthony Center. The Center focuses on translating science regarding social determinants of health into practices to try and change lives.
Support Over Silence
Dr. Nancy Weaver discussed how to apply communication sciences, analytics, and public health principles to promote healthy and positive parenting to reduce the prevalence of childhood abuse and neglect. During the webinar she discussed Support Over Silence for KIDS, which teaches bystanders the skills for responding to struggles between caregivers and children in public. Dr. Weaver created this program to educate community members on how to listen empathetically and non-judgmentally to parents and caregivers in tense situations to help deescalate what’s happening in the moment.
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Nancy L. Weaver, PhD, MPH, is a Professor of Behavioral Science at Saint Louis University. She blends communication science, analytics, and public health principles to support institutions in adopting effective public health programs. Whether encouraging nurturing relationships between parents and kids, or coaching instructors in best practices for connecting with their students online, she advances strength-based messages that are easy to understand and tools that are easy to apply.
She launched Support Over Silence for KIDS to provide communities with bystander training to support parents struggling with their children in public. Dr. Weaver is Co-director of the Community Engagement Core of the Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment at Washington University and works in partnership with community organizations across the country.
Understanding The Neuroplasticity Of The Brain: How We Can Maximize The Brain’s Ability To Adapt When Addressing Child Abuse And Neglect
TRANSFORM chose the theme of resiliency for our 2021-22 webinar series to shed light on how science and practice come together to help us better prevent and address child abuse and neglect. In this webinar, we discussed neuroplasticity of the brain. When children face difficult experiences, their brains can change and adapt and often develop flight or fight responses. Dr. Ashley Darcy-Mahoney shared her work with children and explored how we can maximize on the amazing capabilities in a child’s early life to promote brain growth and language.
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Presenter:
Dr. Ashley Darcy-Mahoney, PhD, NNP is a neonatal nurse practitioner and researcher, who has advanced nursing research, education, and practice, with a focus on neonatology, infant health, and developmental pediatrics. Her innovative work has led to the creation of programs that improve infant health and developmental outcomes for infants. As the director of infant research at George Washington University’s Autism and Neurodevelopmental Institute, she also advances the body of research in infant health and developmental outcomes in high-risk infants with a focus on understanding the early brain and development trajectories in this population. Her research leverages her knowledge in neonatal nursing, behavioral and cognitive assessment and training in neuroimaging to inform an understanding of multimodal social learning and social perception among high-risk infants and toddlers. NIH, Office of Minority Health, HRSA, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, United Way, and Macy Foundation have funded her work, and she has published in high-quality peer-reviewed inter-professional journals. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nurses and a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar Alumna.
The Cycle of Violence, Victimization, and Trauma: Exploring Mechanisms for Thriving and Healing for BIPOC People and Providers
This panel includes three clinician scholars who gave “lightning talk” style presentations on Black males’ experiences with trauma, Latinx providers’ vicarious trauma, and healing centered interventions with Black girls. This panel enabled the attendees to review the impacts of violence, victimization and trauma among Black and Latinx populations, as well as providers. The facilitators used their applied research and practice with communities to share strategies about how the quality of life for these populations and providers can be enhanced. This webinar addressed the urgent need for providers, educators, and other researchers to center populations who have been traditionally neglected.
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Presenters:
Dr. Camille Quinn is an Assistant Professor in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University. She is a juvenile justice expert and has nearly 20 years’ experience as a clinician and administrator in social and health services. Dr. Quinn is a licensed social worker in Illinois and Ohio, which informs her program of research. Dr. Quinn conducts mixed methods research with a collaborative spirit to engage community, university and government partners in her work.
Dr. Henrika McCoy is an Associate Professor and Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Student Services at Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois Chicago. Dr. McCoy’s research has predominately focused on strengthening the screening of mental health needs for youth who have juvenile legal system involvement and examining the intersection of mental health and juvenile delinquency, particularly for African American boys ages 12 to 17. Her work also focuses on the violent victimization experiences of Black males, ages 18 to 24.
Dr. Kathryn Bocanegra is an Assistant Professor at Jane Addams College of Social Work at University of Illinois Chicago. She is a licensed clinical social worker and also serves as Senior Advisor to Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on crime victim and violence prevention issues. Dr. Bocanegra has over 15 years of community-based mental health and violence prevention experience and specializes in working with survivors of violent crime.