Patricia Barron, director, Youth Initiatives of the National Military Family Association, joined the staff in 2005 as a deputy director of Government Relations. She serves as the subject matter expert on children's mental health and deployment issues, collaborating with other organizations, programs, and initiatives dealing with issues that affect military children. In addition, she oversees the association's programs and initiatives dealing with children and youth for children of deployed service members.

She also is a member of the advisory board of Coming Together Around Military Children, a partnership between ZERO TO THREE and the US Department of Defense, the Sesame Workshop "Talk Listen, Connect; Phase Two" advisory panel, and the Families OverComing Under Stress (FOCUS) advisory group.

Ms. Barron has a BSN from the University of San Francisco and an MS in community counseling from Long Island University.

Susan Badeau, director of systems analysis for Casey Family Program, has been a child welfare professional for more than twenty-five years. During this time, she has worked at every level in this arena, from direct casework to administration at the local, state, and national levels. Most recently, she served as deputy director of the national, nonpartisan Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, and as a policy consultant for child welfare agencies, organizations, and foundations.

In 1999 Ms. Badeau served as a public policy fellow in the U.S. Senate, where she worked on the Chafee Foster Care Independence Act, a follow-up to the landmark Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). Also active in child health, education, and disability initiatives, she has served on the Philadelphia Department of Public Health's Special Needs Task Force and as the Pennsylvania representative for Family Voices, a national child-health organization, for over a decade. A Philadelphia resident, she and her husband have been foster parents to more than fifty children and have adopted twenty children from foster care, whom they have raised alongside their two biological children.

Dr. Thomas H. Bornemann became the director of mental health programs at The Carter Center under the leadership of former First Lady Rosalynn Carter on August 1, 2002. Prior to this appointment, he served as senior adviser for mental health in the Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence of the World Health Organization. Dr. Bornemann has spent his entire career in public mental health, working in all aspects including clinical practice, research, research management, policy development, and administration at the national level. At the National Institute of Mental Health he served as chief of refugee programs in the Office of International Health, where he was one of the leaders in developing a national mental health program for refugees.

In 1994 Dr. Bornemann was appointed deputy director of the Federal Center for Mental Health Services in the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). During his tenure at the center, he provided leadership in the development of the first-ever Surgeon General's Report on Mental Health. A career public health officer, Dr. Bornemann retired at the rank of assistant surgeon general.

Earlier in his career, he held an academic appointment at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.

Diane Elmore is acting associate executive director for the Public Interest Government Relations Office at the American Psychological Association (APA). Dr. Elmore is responsible for health and social policy initiatives related to health care reform; trauma, violence, and abuse; aging; military service members, veterans, and their families; and refugee populations. She is also director of the APA Congressional Fellowship Program, which provides psychologists who work in the Congress with public policy learning experience, and an adjunct professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University. Previously, Dr. Elmore served as an APA/American Association for the Advancement of Science Health Policy Fellow in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and as a James Marshall Public Policy Scholar for the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

She currently serves the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies on the board of directors, and as chair of the Public Policy Committee and co-chair of the Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma and Resilience Special Interest Group. Dr. Elmore is also on the board of directors for the National Alliance for Caregiving and on the advisory board for Voices of September 11th. In 2007 she received the Chaim Danieli Young Professional Award and in 2002 the University of Houston Alumni League/Outstanding Young Alumni Award. Dr. Elmore has a BA and an MA in psychology from Pepperdine University, an MPH from Johns Hopkins University with a dual concentration in health policy and public health preparedness, and a PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Houston.

Barbara Feaster is cofounder and interim executive director of uFOSTERsuccess, a nonprofit organization whose membership is composed entirely of former foster care youth. Ms. Feaster has more than fifteen years' experience working to make a positive difference for children in foster care. A survivor of child sexual abuse by her father, she was rescued at age 16 by Utah's West Valley City Police Department and successfully placed in the state's Independent Living Foster Care Program at age 17. Ms. Feaster has served in leadership roles on a number of councils and boards in Utah including vice chair of the Out-of-Home Care Advisory Council, co-chair of a Foster Care Citizens Review Board, chair of the Salt Lake Child Abuse Prevention Team (and coordinator of the organization's annual child abuse prevention event three consecutive years), co-chair of the planning committee for Utah's 1st Annual Youth Leadership Summit and of the Utah Child Abuse Prevention Task Force. Ms. Feaster was also on former Governor Olene Walker's Transition to Adult Living Implementation Team and co-chaired the Youth Leadership Task Group for the team; and was a governor-appointed member of Utah's Board of Child and Family Services and vice chair of the board in 2009. In 2004 Ms. Feaster received the annual "Jennifer Jayne Memorial CASA Bear Award" from Utah's Office of Guardian Ad Litem and CASA, and in 2001 she received "A Source of Pride 4 Utah" Award from News 4 Utah.

Ms. Feaster's proudest accomplishment is being a loving and devoted mother. She knows firsthand that all children from tragic personal circumstances have enormous potential to contribute and thrive in life. She wants all children and teens in foster care to know that they are just as important and valuable as are the children of royalty!

James Hmurovich is president and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America. Prior to the appointment he had held this position on an interim basis for ten months. He was also a juvenile probation officer for Monroe County, Indiana; and worked for twenty years at the Indiana Department of Correction, serving as state parole officer, state director of probation, director of administration, deputy commissioner, and director of planning. Hmurovich was then appointed director, Division of Family and Children for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. During his nine-year tenure the administration was awarded seven federal high-performance cash bonuses for successes in welfare reform and child welfare, and received national recognition as a leader in the State Children's Health Insurance Program and for the Healthy Families Program, a voluntary home visitation program. He is the recipient of the Sagamore of the Wabash, which is the highest award that can be given to an Indiana citizen for leadership and accomplishment. Hmurovich also managed his own consulting business for five years after thirty years of public service. Hmurovich has been an adjunct faculty member at Indiana University for more than 18 years, where he earned undergraduate degrees in psychology and sociology, and a master's degree in counseling.

Judge Michael Howard was elected to the Stark County Court of Common Pleas in 2004. He presides in Family Court in both the juvenile and domestic relations divisions. In the juvenile division approximately 4,200 cases—including abuse, neglect, dependency, and unruly and delinquent youth—are heard annually. In his role as a community convener Judge Howard has focused on increasing community awareness of trauma and its impact, and has promoted community-wide adoption of evidence-based treatment for trauma victims. He has mobilized development of effective resources for children and families impacted by trauma, and has incorporated trauma screening in Stark County's juvenile court. Judge Howard has been instrumental in developing the Stark County Traumatized Child Task Force and serves as its chair.

A member of NCTSN's advisory board and Justice Consortium, he has also served on the Ohio Department of Mental Health Childhood Trauma Task Force. Judge Howard has lectured nationally on childhood trauma and is coauthor of "Children Who Have Been Traumatized: One Court's Response," published in the 2008 autumn edition of the Juvenile and Family Court Journal. In response to requests generated by that article, he has contributed to trauma reference guides to be used on the bench by judges. Judge Howard is secretary of the Stark Education Partnership, a public school reform organization; and he is an active community volunteer, focusing primarily on programs that help children achieve success and avoid delinquent behavior. Among the boards and committees Judge Howard serves on are the Ohio Supreme Court Board of Character and Fitness, which oversees admission to the bar in Ohio; the Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence; and the Stark County Bar Association Family Law and Citizenship committees.

Teresa Huizar is executive director of National Children's Alliance (NCA), the national association and accrediting body for children's advocacy centers, having previously served the organization on five boards of directors and four committees. She has worked in senior management and executive positions in the nonprofit sector for fifteen years. Prior to her tenure with NCA, she was project director of the Western Regional Children's Advocacy Center, a technical assistance and training center for children's advocacy centers in thirteen Western states. Ms. Huizar has been involved with the children's advocacy center movement since 1993 including serving in Colorado as executive director of two children's advocacy centers, director of fund distribution for United Way of Weld County, and coordinator of the Colorado Children's Alliance. She has a special interest in public policy in the child welfare arena and was instrumental in the passage of four pieces of legislation involving children's advocacy centers in Colorado, and has also contributed to the successful passing of other legislation and of policy initiatives on local, state, and national levels.

Ms. Huizar frequently presents on children's issues at local, regional, and national training sessions and conferences. She has published reports and technical assistance manuals on organizational development for children's advocacy centers, a gap analysis of service coverage for children's advocacy centers in the western region and of the United States, and a cost-benefit analysis of the children's advocacy center model. Ms. Huizar has a BS in psychology from Evangel University and a master's degree in public policy from the University of Denver.

Dr. Vivian Jackson is a senior policy associate and member of the faculty of the National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) at the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development in Washington, DC. She provides technical assistance and consultation related to cultural and linguistic competence for the Children's Mental Health Initiative of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Dr. Jackson is a social worker with more than thirty years of experience as a practitioner, supervisor, manager, and trainer in health, mental health, substance abuse, child welfare, managed care, system reform, and cultural competency.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Jackson served as director of the Office of Policy and Practice at the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and as child welfare advisor for the National Resource Network for Children's Mental Health at the Washington Business Group on Health. Her publications include Cultural Competence in Managed Behavioral Health Care (Manisses Communications Group, 1999), and Getting Started...and Moving On: Planning, Implementing and Evaluating Cultural and Linguistic Competency for Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children and Families (NCCC, 2003). Dr. Jackson is currently a member of the NASW's National Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity and the NASW's Presidential Diversity Task Force.

Dr. Peter Pecora is director of research services for Casey Family Programs and professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington, Seattle. He was a line worker and later a program coordinator in several child welfare service agencies. Working with a number of state departments of social services, he helped implement intensive home-based services, child welfare training, and risk assessment systems for child protective services.

Dr. Pecora has also served as an expert witness for many states in the area of child welfare, and has coauthored numerous books and articles focused on child welfare program design, administration, and research.

Currently, with Harvard Medical School and the University of Michigan, Dr. Pecora is planning a new study of foster care alumni with the states of Michigan and Texas. This study is being conducted in conjunction with a Midwest foster care study of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. He is also testing caregiver and youth empowerment approaches to helping youth in foster care access evidence-based mental health services. Additionally, he is participating in a national effort to reduce racial disproportionality in the child welfare system.

Dr. Walter Howard Smith Jr., a licensed psychologist, is executive director of Family Resources, a private nonprofit corporation focusing on child abuse prevention and treatment. He became the agency's first clinical director in 1987 and its executive director in 1997. In his private practice, Dr. Smith treats children, couples, and families. He is the founding member of the Western Pennsylvania Family Center, an education resource center for lay and professional persons interested in family therapy and family studies. He has presented lectures and conferences nationwide on child abuse and family emotional process.

His career has centered on the use of Bowen family systems theory to understand the functioning of families, organizations, and social groups. For twenty years he has focused on conflict and violence to understand how relationship shifts and responses to stress lead to child abuse, domestic violence, and conflict. He specializes in implementing complex ideas and intervention strategies in community and professional settings.

Dr. Smith also serves as an adjunct associate professor in the psychology program at Duquesne University and is an organization consultant. His consulting work—which includes a university department, an employee assistance firm, a religious order, a medical practice, and several human service nonprofit organizations—concentrates on leadership coaching and organization conflict.

Esta Soler is founder and president of the Family Violence Prevention Fund (FVPF), one of the world's leading violence prevention agencies, with offices in San Francisco, Washington, DC, and Boston. Along with its worldwide partners, the FVPF develops innovative strategies to help prevent violence (domestic, dating, and sexual), stalking, and child abuse. Under Soler's direction, the organization was instrumental in the development and passage of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994—the first comprehensive federal response to violence against women. She has led the FVPF as it developed trailblazing public education campaigns, as well as innovative policies, and advocacy, prevention, education, and training programs to help lawmakers, judges, health care providers, employers, and others stop violence and help victims. Among Ms. Soler's numerous awards are a Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellowship in 1995, the University of California, Public Health Heroes Award in 1998, the Violence Prevention Award from Peace Over Violence in 2007, and an honorary doctorate from Simmons College. She has served many public and private agencies as a consultant and advisor including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ford Foundation/Harvard University Kennedy School of Government Innovations in American Government initiative, the Soros Justice Fellowship program, and the Aspen Institute. She is coauthor of Ending Domestic Violence: Changing Public Perceptions/Halting the Epidemic.

Sandra Spencer is executive director of the National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health, which is dedicated exclusively to helping children in the United States with mental health needs and their families achieve a better quality of life. Ms. Spencer has served in numerous advocacy roles including leading the first grassroots family-run organization in Eastern North Carolina that advocates for families and children with mental health challenges. This organization—With Every Child and Adult Reaching Excellence—eventually became the state's first statewide chapter of the National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health. She has been a planner for the Federation's annual conferences, as well as for the biannual federal System of Care (SOC) Community Meetings sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Center for Mental Health Services. Other advocacy work includes being a peer mentor for SOC communities across the United States; developing a parent-involvement curriculum at East Carolina University; and helping to establish an SOC for children with serious emotional disturbances in Greenville, NC.

Dr. Robert Ursano is a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience and chairman of the department of psychiatry in the School of Medicine at Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the only federal medical school in the United States. He is also director of the school's Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. Dr. Ursano is one of the world's leaders in research and public health planning and policy development for psychological and behavioral effects of trauma, disasters, terrorism, and bioterrorism. His research and publications on the effects of traumatic events on individuals and groups are widely recognized as having fundamentally contributed to our understanding of the distress and illness that can result from trauma, disasters, and terrorism.

Dr. Ursano is also widely published in the areas of PTSD and the psychological effects of combat. He and his team have served as consultants for and have completed studies on numerous disasters; disaster rescue workers; motor vehicle accident victims; family violence; and veterans of the Vietnam, Desert Storm, and Gulf wars. Dr. Ursano's Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry (Cambridge University Press, 2007), is the first textbook on the topic ever published.

Dr. Ursano also serves as editor in chief of the distinguished psychiatric journal Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes.

Paul Vick is associate vice president for government relations at Duke University Health System (DUHS), a sprawling enterprise that includes Duke University Hospital, Durham Regional Hospital, and Raleigh Community Hospital, along with a variety of ambulatory surgery centers, primary and specialty care clinics, wellness centers, and community-based clinical partnerships. Mr. Vick oversees all health-related issues at the federal level for DUHS and state government issues for Duke University and DUHS.

His professional background includes both local and federal government experience. For three years he worked in Washington, DC, as administrative assistant to U.S. Senator (and former Duke president) Terry Sanford of North Carolina, and he served four years on the Durham (N.C.) City Council. Mr. Vick is a 1966 graduate of Duke University and holds a master's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Elizabeth Yore is an attorney at law in Chicago, Illinois, who currently serves as special counsel to Harpo, Inc. Previously, Ms. Yore was general counsel t0 the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DFCS), a $1.4 billion state agency with 21,000 children in state care. In that role, she oversaw a staff of one hundred and had primary responsibility for all federal and state litigation. Before holding that position at DCFS she was chief deputy general counsel, with responsibility for international and immigration legal issues, such as unaccompanied minors, Hague Convention petitions, and missing children. She also served as the legal liaison with the communications department, handling legal issues in high profile media cases, and as legal legislative liaison, providing legal analysis for proposed legislation.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Yore was chief legal officer for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in Alexandria, Virginia. She oversaw all legal matters and directed the international and Internet Child Exploitation divisions of the Center. She directed the creation of the first Internet cyber-tip hotline for child pornography and trained hundreds of international and national law enforcement officers on legal issues of Internet safety.

Ms Yore has received numerous appointments and awards for her committed diligence to helping children, including the 1996 Award of Merit by the U.S. Department of State for outstanding work on behalf of the Hague Convention on Child Abduction. She has served as subject matter expert for several media outlets. Ms. Yore holds a juris doctor degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law and a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University.