PSSF Peer Learning Call - Trauma Informed Practice in Child Welfare
Bio on Presenters
North Carolina
Jeanne Preisler is a Program Consultant with the North Carolina Department of Health
and Human Services, Division of Social Services and the Coordinator for Project
Broadcast, North Carolina’s efforts to develop a trauma-informed child welfare system.
Jeanne has worn many hats over the years: kinship parent, foster parent, social worker,
trainer, and foster/adoptive parent recruiter.
Montana
James Caringi is an Associate Professor and MSW Program Director for the University
of Montana School of Social Work and Coordinator of Qualitative Research for the
National Native Children’s Trauma Center at the Institute for Educational Research and
Service. Dr. Caringi joined the faculty of the University of Montana in 2007 and teaches
both at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the areas of advanced practice,
traumatic stress, and research methods. His research interests include primary and
secondary trauma, child welfare, and participatory action research. Dr. Caringi has
authored and co-authored several national presentations, peer reviewed publications,
and book chapters on topics such as child welfare, secondary traumatic stress, and
participatory research designs. He is currently the principal investigator for a five year
Federal Children’s Bureau grant focused on child welfare traineeships. He is also coprincipal investigator of the NCTSN trauma informed systems grant, “Transforming
Tribal Child Protective Services” (TTCPS). Before coming to academia full time Dr.
Caringi worked as a clinician and community organizer for over ten years in diverse
areas such as the housing projects of Boston and small rural Alaska Native villages
accessible only by small planes.
Marilyn Bruguier Zimmerman is a tribally enrolled member of the Assiniboine and
Sioux Tribes. Her experience in social services began on her reservation more than 20
years ago. She has extensive experience providing mental health services in juvenile
justice settings, health settings, domestic violence, and substance abuse tribal
programs. Ms. Zimmerman has extensive experience in the area of tribal program
development and community engagement. She also participated in tribal child protective
teams, multi-disciplinary sexual abuse treatment teams, and juvenile justice teams. She
was also a member of the Ft. Peck Tribal and Roosevelt County infant/mortality review
board.
Connecticut
Marilyn E. Cloud, LCSW is a Behavioral Health Clinical Manager at the Connecticut
Department of Children and Families. Her career spans more than 40 years,
specializing in public child welfare in several states and children's behavioral health
services through a private practice and at community clinics. She has served as the
State Project Coordinator for the Connecticut TF-CBT Learning Collaborative since
1997 and currently serves as the Co-Principal Investigator for the Connecticut
Collaborative on Effective Practices for Trauma (CONCEPT), a 5-year initiative funded
by the Administration for Children and Families to improve trauma-informed care for
children in Connecticut.
Jason Lang, Ph.D. is Associate Director of the Connecticut Center for Effective
Practice at the Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut. He is a licensed
clinical psychologist who holds an appointment as an Assistant Clinical Professor in
Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut Health Center’s Child Trauma Clinic. Dr.
Lang’s interests are in the implementation of evidence-based practices, quality
improvement, and the assessment and treatment of child traumatic stress. He has
worked to develop a more trauma-informed system of care in Connecticut, including
overseeing implementation and sustainment of Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral
Therapy (TF-CBT) across the state. Dr. Lang has published and presented nationally on
child traumatic stress, implementation of evidence-based treatments, and collaboration
across child-serving systems. Dr. Lang completed a fellowship specializing in child
traumatic stress at the Yale Child Study Center in 2007. He received his Ph.D. in
Clinical Psychology from UCLA in 2005.
Christian M. Connell, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of
Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine and Director of Child Development and
Epidemiological Research at The Consultation Center at Yale University. His research
interests focus on risk and protective processes that influence child and adolescent
developmental and behavioral health outcomes, with a particular focus on outcomes for
children and families involved with the child welfare and children's behavioral health
systems. He received his Ph.D. In clinical-community psychology from the University of
South Carolina and has over 15 years of experience providing evaluation research and
consultation services to child welfare agencies and other community-based settings
related to the evaluation of services and supports to address the safety, permanency,
and well-being of children in their care.
Cindy A. Crusto, Ph.D. is an associate professor of psychology in psychiatry in the
Division of Prevention and Community Research, Department of Psychiatry, Yale
School of Medicine and Director of Program and Service System Evaluation at The
Consultation Center in New Haven, CT. She conducts evaluations of community-based
programs and initiatives to address the needs of children and their families. Dr. Crusto
has over 15 years of experience providing training and technical assistance to
community-based organizations regarding evaluation design and implementation,
particularly regarding preventive interventions. Currently, Dr. Crusto has been the
principal investigator of evaluations focusing on children’s mental health systems of
care; school-wide educational reform; after-school initiatives; early learning and
development; children’s exposure to violence and psychological trauma, youth violence
prevention, and community and public health partnerships and coalitions. Dr. Crusto
earned a B.A. in psychology from Vassar College, an M.A. in clinical-community
psychology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and a Ph.D. in clinicalcommunity psychology from the University of South Carolina. She completed predoctoral and postdoctoral fellowships in clinical-community psychology at Yale
University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry.