AC21 - D1 - Hospital to Home: Supports for Medically Fragile Infants, Young Children, and Families (Kathryn Barnard Legacy Session)

Dr. Browne is a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She holds dual licensure as a Pediatric Psychologist and a Clinical Nurse Specialist and is endorsed as an Infant Mental Health Mentor.  She is the founder and director of WONDERbabies, which encompasses several programs including the Family Infant Relationship Support Training (FIRST) program, the BABIES and PreSTEPS program and the BABIES Adaptive Behavior Inventory.  She is affiliated with the Australasian NIDCAP and APIB Training Center as the Assessment of Preterm Infant Behavior trainer. Her area of expertise is in neurobehavioral assessment and intervention with high-risk infants and their families, as well as systems change toward developmentally supportive and family centered care in both hospital and community settings. Dr. Browne provides training and consultation nationally and internationally.

Dr. Debbie Cheatham is a doctoral-prepared registered nurse with 38 years of experience in maternal and child health, children with special health care needs, and public health. Dr. Cheatham currently serves as the Senior Technical Assistance (TA) Specialist for the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Collaborative Improvement and Innovation Network (ECCS CoIIN), through the subcontract with the National Institute for Children's Health Quality (NICHQ). She formerly served as a Resource Specialist, for Project LAUNCH, for the National Resource Center on Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention at ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. Prior to joining ZERO TO THREE, Dr. Cheatham served as the Clinical Director of the Office of Child Health and the former Director of the Children and Youth with Special Needs (CYSN) Unit and the Title V funded Children with Special Health Care Needs (CSHCN) in Georgia. The Office of Child Health included the Title V - CSHCN program; Children's Medical Services; the Babies Can't Wait - Part C early intervention program of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); the Newborn Screening Unit for Metabolic/Blood Disorders; the Newborn Hearing and Screening programs; the Comprehensive Child Health Unit; Children 1st; Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS); Health Check; and the Child Safety/Sudden Infant Death programs. As Clinical Director for Child Health, Dr. Cheatham advised and assisted program leadership on program development and quality management of the various federal and state-funded child health programs. In addition, Dr. Cheatham assisted with the development of programmatic policies and procedures to ensure regulatory compliance; monitoring of programmatic activities; and provided technical assistance and training to the various programs staff in the districts to develop, implement, and improve services to the children of Georgia.

Denise Findlay is a Nurse Educator for Parent-Child Relationship Programs, at the Barnard Center for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, University of Washington School of Nursing. She develops curriculum and teaches internationally. Before coming to the University, Denise worked as a Public Health Nurse, serving highly stressed families, including pregnant women, infants, young children, children with special health care needs, and those involved with child protection services. Denise is currently Parent-Child Relationships Director of Education and as a nurse educator, assists with developing new research-based training programs at the University of Washington. With Dr. Monica Oxford, she edited the Second Edition of both the NCAST PCI Feeding and Teaching manuals. She prepares and mentors certified NCAST PCI Instructors throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, and England. Denise attended Seattle University and holds a post-graduate certificate in Infant/Parent Mental Health from the University of Massachusetts Boston, Napa Program.

As a pediatric nurse and clinical psychologist, Dr. Zeanah's lifelong focus has been on the interface of health and mental health in primary and tertiary settings. She has held a variety of nursing positions, including staff nurse, pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP), and in nursing education and nursing administration, as well as full-time faculty positions in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at LSUHSC (1993-1998) and at Tulane (1998-2015), where she served as the Chief of the Psychology Division and co-directed the Pediatric-Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison service (consultation with medically hospitalized children). Additionally, from 1997-2015, she served as the Clinical Director of the Louisiana Office of Public Health, Bureau of Family Health's Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program. With the Bureau of Family Health, Dr. Zeanah developed and continues to provide the Foundations of Infant Mental Health educational program, available statewide to nursing and other professionals serving families of infants and young children. She also developed and directed the infant mental health service augmentation for the state's nurse home visiting program, one of the first of its kind in the U.S. In 2015, Dr. Zeanah became the Lafayette General Medical Center/Our Lady of Lourdes Endowed Chair in Nursing, College of Nursing and Allied Health Professions and Research Director at the Picard Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She continues to pursue her clinical and research interests on the impact of chronic illness and trauma/early adversity on children and families; perinatal, infant, and early childhood mental health; and adolescent and early adulthood sexuality. Her current projects include mental health education for nurse home visitors, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and a brand new project focusing on the challenges, resources, and needs of college students who are also parents. She is developing research and educational opportunities for faculty and students regarding ACEs at UL Lafayette and the Lafayette community, and consults with state and national service and policy organizations on research and other issues related to infant mental health and home visiting. She has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and is a frequent presenter at local, national, and international professional meetings. Dr. Zeanah obtained a Diploma in Nursing from Piedmont Hospital School of Nursing in Atlanta, and received her BSN from the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, GA. She received a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Certificate and completed the MSN from the University of Virginia School of Nursing in Charlottesville, VA. She received a PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and completed an internship in pediatric and child psychology with the Brown University Internship Consortium in Providence, RI.