AC21 - G5 - Emerging Leadership: Advancing the Field Of IECMH

Dr. Humphreys received her doctoral degree in clinical psychology and has expertise in infant and early childhood mental health. Her research focuses on characterizing the early environment and examining links to later life outcomes. In addition, she conducts basic and applied research with the aim of improving children's early life. She has received recognition in her field, including being awarded the Janet T. Spence Award for Transformative Early Career Contributions from the Association for Psychological Science, as well as being selected for the internationally competitive Jacobs Foundation Early Career Research Fellowship.

Ashley McCormick is the endorsement and communications director for the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health (Alliance) based in Southgate, Michigan. McCormick is a demonstrated policy leader who coordinates and collaborates with multiple state leaders and administrators as well as with key champions in Ireland and Australia. McCormick has authored three field-leading reports: “What Makes an Infant Mental Health Association Strong?”, “Forming an Association for Infant Mental Health: A Getting Started Idea Booklet” and “Endorsement is Good for Babies.” She is recognized for her exceptional project management abilities, decisive decision-making skill, and inspiring leadership.

Nat Vikitsreth (she/her) is a dot connector, norm agitator, and lover of liberation who supports social justice curious families in their efforts to practice social justice in their parenting while re-parenting their inner child. Nat works as a decolonized, somatic, and licensed clinical psychotherapist, transgender rights community organizer, child development specialist, and host of the Come Back to Care Podcast. She founded Come Back to Care to collaborate with parents who want to transform from autopilot to decolonized, embodied, and intergenerational parenting. She believes that when parents heal their inner child and internalized oppression wounds in a community, they put fragmented pieces of themselves together to show up to both parenting and community organizing with their whole selves. Then, parents can dismantle systemic oppression and rebuild a culture that’s rooted in liberation for their future generations.

Nat is a graduate of and faculty instructor with the Erikson Institute’s Social Work and Child Development Program. She also holds another master’s degree in Infancy & Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Nat had the honor of speaking about decolonized mental health at the 18th World Association for Infant Mental Health in Dublin, Ireland.

In 2021, she received the Zero to Three Award for Emerging Leadership where she was nationally recognized for her innovative work at Come Back to Care. In 2023, she received the Equity Champion Award from the National Training & Technical Assistance Center for Child, Youth, & Family Mental Health. Her most recent publications include an academic article in the June 2022 Zero to Three Journal and an op-ed piece in Condé Nast’s Them.  

Outside of her clinical and psychoeducation work at Come Back to Care, Nat provides political education and mental health support to youth organizers around the stolen land of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations (Chicago). Her advocacy areas include economic justice, intergenerational healing justice, disability justice, and trans rights.