Opening Keynote for Infant & Young Child Mental Health Summit | November 12th at 8:30am-10:00am
Kandace Thomas
Kandace Thomas works to help individuals, programs and our society experience transformation by learning, doing and being. Dr. Thomas is a senior program officer at the Irving Harris Foundation where she provides vision and strategic direction for integrating early childhood development and child trauma-informed best practices into programs and systems, and where she led the creation of the Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work With Infants, Children and Families, a framework and approach to help organizations and systems that work with children and families. A published author and well-sought out speaker, Dr. Thomas sits on local and national advisory groups related to children’s social-emotional development and well-being, diversity-informed practice and mindfulness.
In a society in which markers of difference including race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability and immigration status are fraught with conflict, chances are if diversity, equity and inclusion are not deliberately addressed, historical injustices will continue to be played out. It takes being with - personal commitment, conscious effort, and intentional resource allocation to implement diversity, inclusion and equity principles into our spheres of practice. Mindfulness moves us from automation toward present moment awareness and intentional action. Taken together, Mindfulness and Diversity-Informed Practice awaken our self-knowledge, support our reflection, and deepen our capacity to integrate diversity, inclusion and equity in our work with infants and toddlers. This session will introduce participants to Mindfulness, Diversity-Informed Practice and the Diversity-Informed Tenets for Work With Infants, Children and Families. We will explore how being with ourselves can help us be our best professional selves with children, families and communities.
Opening Keynote for Home Visiting Summit | November 13th at 8:30am-10:00am
Jon Korfmacher, Ph.D.
Jon Korfmacher, Ph.D., is an associate professor at Erikson Institute, a graduate school in child development in Chicago, Illinois. His research examines the implementation and outcome of early childhood interventions, parent engagement in early childhood services, and quality assessment, with an emphasis on workforce training and development. He has worked on numerous research trials focused on home visiting programs, including Nurse Family Partnership and Early Head Start, as well as other early childhood interventions. Dr. Korfmacher also directs a training program for community-based clinicians in child parent psychotherapy, an evidence-based model for young children exposed to trauma and their families. He is a member of the management team of the Home Visiting Applied Research Collaborative (HARC), a national network in the United States funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Dr. Korfmacher also consults nationally and internationally on research and evaluation of early childhood services.
Closing Keynote for Home Visiting Summit | November 14th at 12:30pm-2:00pm
Parent Panel Moderated by Sarah Verbiest
A parent panel with parents from the Home Visiting Models of Nurse-Family Partnership, Healthy Families America, and Parents as Teachers will occur during a catered lunch. The panel will be moderated by Sarah Verbiest, Director of the Jordan Institute for Families in the School of Social Work and Executive Director of the Center for Maternal and Infant Health in the School of Medicine at the University of Chapel Hill.
Sarah Verbiest, DrPH, MSW, MPH is the Director of the Jordan Institute for Families in the School of Social Work and Executive Director of the Center for Maternal and Infant Health in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Verbiest has led many initiatives to improve maternal and infant health outcomes, with a particular focus on health equity. Currently, the Jordan Institute is launching a new resource for postpartum mothers as well as a national campaign to improve care for moms. She is also the lead on the national preconception health campaign. She has held a governor-appointed seat on the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force for over a decade and pretty much loves everything that has to do with moms, babies, and families. www.JordanInstituteforFamilies.org
Lunch Included
