Families at Risk: The Role of Parenting and Family Processes in Child Maltreatment and Intervention

Session I: Child Maltreatment and Family Processes

Lucy Johnston-Walsh, J.D. - Moderator Lucy Johnston-Walsh is a Clinical Professor and Director of the Children’s Advocacy Clinic at Penn State University Dickinson School of Law. She supervises law students as they represent child clients in court actions in dependency and high conflict custody cases. The Clinic operates as an interdisciplinary program, by partnering law students with graduate social work interns, pediatric medical residents, and child psychiatry fellows. Johnston-Walsh is also the Director of the Center on Children and the Law at Penn State. Prior to directing the Clinic, she worked as a staff attorney at MidPenn Legal Services, and as a policy director for a statewide child advocacy organization. Before attending law school, Johnston-Walsh practiced as a social worker in the public school system of Virginia. She received her Juris Doctor from The Dickinson School of Law and her Masters in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania.

Sherry Hamby, Ph.D. - Lead Speaker Sherry Hamby is a Research Professor of Psychology and Director of the Life Paths Research Program at the University of the South. She is also founding editor of the APA journal Psychology of Violence. A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Hamby has worked for more than 20 years on the problem of violence, including front-line crisis intervention for domestic and other violence, involvement in grassroots domestic violence organizations, therapy with trauma survivors, and research on many forms of violence. She is co-investigator on the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence, which is the U.S.’s primary surveillance of youth victimization and the first national effort to measure crimes against children under 12 that are not reported to authorities. She is the recipient of numerous honors and author or co-author of more than 100 works including The Web of Violence: Exploring Connections among Different Forms of Interpersonal Violence and Abuse. Dr. Hamby’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Huffington Post, the Christian Science Monitor, and hundreds of other media outlets.  Her most recent book is Battered Women's Protective Strategies: Stronger Than You Know.

Margaret Wright, Ph.D. Margaret Wright is a Professor of Psychology at Miami University. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1981 and completed a clinical internship at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute. Her research focuses on the long-term consequences of interpersonal trauma, particularly trauma emanating from within the family. Dr. Wright is interested in understanding what promotes positive resolution of abusive experiences as well as factors that lead to continued vulnerability. Her current research explores mothering as a survivor following childhood abuse or neglect and the identification of mediating and moderating factors that account for the link between childhood maltreatment and teenage childbearing;  intergenerational continuity and discontinuity of abuse; exploration of protective processes that foster resilience in child abuse survivors, such as social support, attachment relationships, coping flexibility, ego-resiliency, and meaning making; and therapists as wounded healers—how clinicians’ prior personal struggles and traumatic life experiences inform their work with clients.

Nancy D. Kellogg, M.D. Nancy Kellogg graduated from Dartmouth College in 1978 and completed her medical school training and pediatric residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in 1988. Since 1988, she has been a faculty member at UTHSCSA and is currently Professor of Pediatrics and Division Chief of Child Abuse. Dr. Kellogg has worked in child abuse for over 25 years, and has evaluated more than 10,000 children for suspected abuse or neglect. She has over 75 publications and has been an invited speaker more than 200 times. She served on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Child Abuse from 2002-2008. In 2006, the American Board of Pediatrics approved child abuse as a new subspecialty in pediatrics, and Dr. Kellogg was appointed as the Medical Editor for the sub-board. She has received numerous regional and national awards for teaching, humanism, community service, and clinical excellence.

Emily Putnam-Hornstein, Ph.D. Emily Putnam-Hornstein is an Assistant Professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Social Work and Director of the Children’s Data Network, an agency, university, and community collaborative focused on the linkage of administrative data to inform children’s policies and programs. She also maintains a research appointment at the UC Berkeley California Child Welfare Indicators Project—a longstanding child welfare data and research collaboration with the California Department of Social Services. Putnam-Hornstein’s current research focuses on the application of epidemiological methods to improve the surveillance of non-fatal and fatal child abuse and neglect. Her research has been funded by the CN Hilton Foundation, HF Guggenheim Foundation, First 5 LA, and HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Putnam-Hornstein graduated from Yale University with a BA in Psychology, received her MSW from Columbia University, and earned her Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of California at Berkeley.

Session II: Intergenerational Transmission of Child Maltreatment

Sandra Azar, Ph.D. - Moderator Sandra Azar is a Professor of Clinical Psychology in the Psychology Department at the Pennsylvania State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Rochester in 1984 and has held faculty positions at Concordia University and Clark University. Azar has published extensively on the topic of child maltreatment and parenting risk with a focus on theory, assessment, treatment, and legal issues. Her research has included comparative treatment outcome work, etiological model testing, and measure development. She has had federal grants in Canada and the U.S. examining the origins of child maltreatment and parenting risk. Her latest work is an NICHD study examining the etiology of neglect. Dr. Azar has served on the advisory boards of national surveys and studies, including an Evaluation of Nine Comprehensive Community Based Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Programs, a Study of High Risk Groups, and a national agenda planning group for Prevent Child Abuse America.

Laura Anna McCloskey, Ph.D. - Lead Speaker Laura McCloskey is Professor of Public Health and Director of the Center for Research on Health Disparities at Indiana University. She earned her doctorate in developmental psychology from the University of Michigan and completed a post-doc with Dante Cicchetti at the University of Rochester. She held faculty appointments at the University of Arizona, Harvard University (Public Health), University of Pennsylvania (Social Work and Policy), and the University of Illinois (Community Health) before moving to Indiana University. Dr. McCloskey directed the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute in Detroit where she promoted research on the determinants of child maltreatment and especially on community-based interventions. Dr. McCloskey’s research has been supported with several federal grants, and she has published more than 50 articles and chapters. She is engaged in research to intervene with adolescent girls to stop a “cycle” of family violence, from abusive relationships with men to in-parenting challenges. 

Jennie Noll, Ph.D. Jennie Noll is a Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. She is the Director of Research and Education for Penn State’s Network on Child Protection and Well-Being. Dr. Noll has conducted several NIH-funded longitudinal cohort studies following abused and neglected individuals over time. These studies include following adolescents through the teenage years tracking teen pregnancy and motherhood, observing internet and social media behaviors of sexually abused teens, and tracking the long-term bio-psycho-social impact of sexual abuse across development—a study that is now in its 30th year.  Dr. Noll’s work is chiefly concerned with elucidating mechanisms that will inform intervention and connect the dots between childhood abuse and a myriad of maladaptive sequelae including physical health consequences. Her work has informed public policy regarding the scope and gravity of childhood abuse and the cost/benefit analysis of primary and secondary prevention.

Sheree Toth, Ph.D. Sheree Toth is the Director of Mt. Hope Family Center and Professor of Clinical and Social Psychology at the University of Rochester. Her interests are broadly focused in the area of developmental psychopathology, and throughout her career she has been committed to bridging research and clinical practice. Dr. Toth has published in the areas of the developmental consequences of child maltreatment and the impact that Major Depressive Disorders exert on offspring. She has received funding from the NIMH to evaluate a number of preventive interventions with maltreated infants and children. Her Center is also a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Dr. Toth is an Associate Editor for the journal Development and Psychopathology. In 2013, she received the Outstanding Research Career Achievement award presented by The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children for repeated, significant and outstanding contributions to research on child maltreatment. 

Viola Vaughan-Eden, Ph.D. Viola Vaughan-Eden is President of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. She is a clinical and forensic social worker in southeastern Virginia, and works as a consultant, evaluator, and expert witness in child maltreatment—principally sexual abuse. She also lectures nationally and internationally. Dr. Vaughan-Eden is Co-Editor of the Journal of Forensic Social Work and contributes to numerous other journals. She is the author of several child abuse publications including the APSAC Practice Guidelines: Forensic Interviewing in Cases of Suspected Child Abuse. She has a Ph.D. in Social Work (Virginia Commonwealth University), a Master of Social Work (Norfolk State University), and a Master of Jurisprudence in Children’s Law and Policy (Loyola University Chicago Law School). Dr. Vaughan-Eden is the recipient of the 2011 NCAC’s Outstanding Service Award in Mental Health and the 2012 NASW—Virginia Chapter Lifetime Achievement Award.

Session III: Intervening with Maltreated Children and Their Families

Benjamin Levi, M.D., Ph.D. - Moderator Benjamin Levi is a practicing pediatrician and a philosopher who is a Professor in the Departments of Humanities and Pediatrics at the Penn State College of Medicine and Penn State Children’s Hospital. In addition to his other work in bioethics (much of which focuses on decision making), Dr. Levi is recognized as an expert on ethical and professional concerns regarding the reporting of suspected child abuse. Dr. Levi has published and lectured widely on this topic, both nationally and abroad. Dr. Levi is Director of Penn State Hershey’s Center for the Protection of Children. He and his colleagues have been instrumental in developing Penn State Children’s Hospital initiatives for the treatment and prevention of child abuse. Dr. Levi is co-creator of Look Out for Child Abuse, an extensive online resource that includes the Commonwealth’s only web-based tool for reporting suspected abuse.

Judith Cohen, M.D. - Lead Speaker Judith Cohen is a Board Certified Child & Adolescent Psychiatrist, Medical Director of the Allegheny General Hospital Center for Traumatic Stress in Children & Adolescents, and Professor of Psychiatry at Drexel University College of Medicine. Dr. Cohen is a developer of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, an evidence-based treatment for traumatized children, and has received more than a dozen federal grants related to child trauma. She served on the Board of Directors of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and received its Outstanding Professional Award. She is a past member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Associate Editor of its Journal of Traumatic Stress, and co-editor of its PTSD guidelines. Dr. Cohen is Co-Chair of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Child Maltreatment and Violence Committee, first author of its PTSD practice parameters, on its Journal’s Editorial Board, and recipient of its 2004 Rieger Award for Scientific Achievement. Anthony P. Mannarino, Ph.D.Anthony Mannarino is the Director of the Center for Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents and Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh. He is also Professor of Psychiatry at the Drexel University College of Medicine. Dr. Mannarino has been a leader in the field of child traumatic stress for the past 25 years. He has been awarded numerous federal grants from the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect and the National Institute of Mental Health to investigate the clinical course of traumatic stress symptoms in children and to develop effective treatment approaches for traumatized children and their families. Dr. Mannarino has received many honors for his work, including the Betty Elmer Outstanding Professional Award, the Most Outstanding Article Award for papers published in the journal Child Maltreatment given by the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC), the Model Program Award from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Child Traumatic Stress, and the Legacy Award from the Greater Pittsburgh Psychological Association. Dr. Mannarino has recently completed two-year terms as the President of APSAC and the President of the Section on Child Maltreatment, Division of Child and Family Policy and Practice, American Psychological Association. He is one of the co-developers of Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.

Monica Fitzgerald, Ph.D. Monica Fitzgerald is a licensed clinical psychologist and Assistant Professor at the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Medical School. Dr. Fitzgerald co-directs the Kempe Child Trauma Program (CTP) and leads the Evidence Based Practice Training Initiative, which focuses on evaluating effective dissemination and implementation models to spread evidence-based, trauma-informed interventions in community settings in Colorado. She evaluates impact of EBP implementation on professionals' knowledge and practice in the field. She serves as a Principal Investigator on several federally funded initiatives (e.g., SAMHSA, National Child Traumatic Stress Network, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention), which aim to raise the quality of mental health care delivered to abused and trauma-exposed children and their families in different child service settings (community, child welfare). Dr. Fitzgerald is an expert trainer in several evidence-based trauma focused treatments and regularly conducts trainings, consultation, and evaluation both nationally and internationally. She is a Board member of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.  

Mark Chaffin, Ph.D. Mark Chaffin is a Psychologist and Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City. He currently directs research efforts in the Section of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. His research has mainly focused on developing, adapting, implementing and scaling up evidence-based behavioral models in child welfare and prevention services systems. This has included clinic-based and home-based parenting models. Dr. Chaffin is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Founding Editor of the journal Child Maltreatment, and serves on a number of national advisory and review panels. Dr. Chaffin will be joining the Georgia State University School of Public Health in Atlanta in August.

Session IV: Preventing Child Maltreatment: Current Efforts, Future Directions

Moderator: Mark Feinberg, Ph.D. - Moderator Mark Feinberg is a Research Professor in Penn State's Prevention Research Center. He conducts basic and applied research on youth, families, and communities, with a particular focus on family-focused prevention. He has developed and tested several prevention programs, including Family Foundations (FF), a transition-to-parenthood program designed to enhance coparenting among first-time parents. FF has been shown to reduce adverse birth outcomes, postpartum depression, couple and parent-child physical aggression, and child internalizing and externalizing problems. Dr. Feinberg has also co-developed prevention program addressing sibling relationship conflict, adverse birth outcomes, and childhood obesity, and has been involved in the long-term evaluation of large-scale community prevention systems, including Communities That Care, PROSPER, and Evidence2Success. He has also written about and examined the community epidemiology of adolescent problem behaviors (i.e., the ways in which risk factors are linked to behavior problems within and between communities).

Lead Speaker: John R. Lutzker, Ph. D. - Lead Speaker John Lutzker is Director of the Center for Healthy Development; Distinguished University Professor and Associate Dean of Public Health at Georgia State University. He has published 165 articles, chapters, and seven books; has delivered 445 professional presentations; and is a Past-President of Division 33 of the APA in which he is a Fellow in five divisions. Among his awards are the Alumni Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Kansas, Outstanding Research Career Award from the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, and Visiting Scholar in Practice, Emory University School of Law, Georgia Child Welfare Legal Academy. He is on the editorial boards of seven professional journals. Among his media appearances he has been interviewed on NPR’s Morning Edition, ABC’s Good Morning America, and served as a consultant for 60 Minutes on CBS. His research involves the prevention of child maltreatment and parents with intellectual disabilities.

Deborah Daro, Ph.D. Deborah Daro has played a key role in the development and assessment of evidence-based home visitation programs and worked with Federal administrators and Congressional leaders in crafting guidelines for Federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Program passed as part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. She is considered one of the nation’s leading experts in the area of child abuse prevention policy and most recently served on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Child Maltreatment Research, Policy and Practice for the Next Decade. Her most recent work focuses on developing reform strategies that embed individualized, targeted prevention efforts within more universal efforts to alter normative standards and community context. In 2004, Dr. Daro received the Anne Cohn Donnelly Child Abuse Prevention Leadership Award from Prevent Child Abuse America in recognition of her success in translating research finding into measureable improvements in service delivery and public policy reforms. She has served as President of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children and as Treasurer and Executive Council member of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. 

Charles Wilson, MSSW Charles Wilson is the Senior Director of the Chadwick Center for Children and Families and the Sam and Rose Stein Endowed Chair in Child Protection at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego where he oversees a large multi-service child and family maltreatment organization. Wilson also serves as the Director or Co-Director of the California Evidenced Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare, the Chadwick Trauma Informed Systems Project, and the California Screening, Assessment and Treatment Initiative. He co-chairs the Child Welfare Committee of the SAMHSA funded National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Within Rady Children’s Hospital Wilson is the Co-Director of the Centers of Developmental and Behavioral Sciences and administratively oversees the hospital’s inpatient and outpatient psychiatry programs and medical social work department. Mr. Wilson was formerly the Executive Director of the National Children's Advocacy Center and previously served in a variety of roles in public child protection, from a front line worker in Florida and Tennessee in the 1970s, to the State Child Welfare Director in Tennessee (1982-1995). He is past President of the American Professional Society on Abuse of Children (1992) and past Vice President of the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators.

Sharon Wasco, Ph.D. Sharon Wasco is a community specialist and independent consultant with over 20 years of experience in the fields of sexual assault research and violence prevention. She holds a doctoral degree in psychology with a major in community and prevention research and a minor in statistics, methods, and measurement. Her academic training was grounded in years of direct service work as a rape victim evaluation and child welfare case worker. Dr. Wasco is especially interested in building evaluation capacity among prevention delivery systems and has worked toward these ends with various state-level organizations, including the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape. Prior to consulting, Dr. Wasco was a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, where she taught statistics, research methods, program evaluation, community psychology, and rape-related seminars to undergraduate and graduate students. Commitments to collaboration and pluralism guide her work.