Rosalyn Bertram, Ph.D
Rosalyn Bertram directs the Child and Family Evidence-Based Practice Consortium in its many projects and publications. With other Consortium participants, Dr. Bertram studied the extent to which evidence-based practice is taught in North American MSW curricula, and produced a series of national webinars addressing those findings. With Sue Kerns, she served as co-editor for a 2018 special issue of The Journal of Social Work Education focused on how to integrate evidence based practice and implementation science into academic and field curricula. Together they recently published a book for academic and community service programs, (Bertram & Kerns, 2019). Selecting and Implementing Evidence-Based Practice: A Practical Program Guide. Springer Press, New York.
With the Consortium leadership group, Rosalyn develops an annual track of presentations for the Research and Policy Conference for Child, Adolescent and Young Adult Behavioral Health. She co-edited a 2017 special section of Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services that honored the 30th anniversary of that conference, and with Jacquie Brown, co-edits a 2020 special issue of the Journal of Family Social Work that features presentations from the 32nd convening of that conference.
Dr. Bertram is a professor of social work at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and editor-in-chief of a new Springer Press journal, Global Implementation Research and Applications, and serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Child and Family Studies.
Rosalyn served as principle investigator of a National Child Welfare Workforce Institute university partnership grant that integrated implementation science and evidence-based practice in transformation of academic and field curricula to produce future child welfare workforce and leaders. Her research and technical assistance most recently focus upon implementation science and evidence-based practice in child welfare and behavioral health care.
Jacquie Brown, MES, RSW
Jacquie is an international Implementation Consultant and Executive Director of Families Foundation and exiting Co-Director for the Child and Family Evidence-Based Practice Consortium. With Rosalyn Bertram, Jacquie serves as co-editor of a 2020 special issue of the Journal of Family Social Work that features presentations from the 32nd annual Research and Policy Conference for Child, Adolescent and Young Adult Behavioral Health.
As an implementation practitioner Jacquie is involved in the implementation of Triple P – Positive Parenting Program in Europe, Australia and sub Saharan Africa, as well as implementation of best practices in the health care sector across Canada, and education sector and community-based services sector in Ontario.
Areas of focus for Jacquie are: development of implementation processes for Triple P International, Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation, School Mental Health ASSIST, ON; Centre for Addictions and Mental Health, ON.
In her work, Jacquie brings expertise in the application of implementation science to systems, communities and organizations. Jacquie brings an application perspective informed by many years in management of community-based services and is committed to bringing implementation science into practice.
George Ake, Ph.D
George (Tripp) Ake, PhD is a Licensed Psychologist at the Center for Child and Family Health and Director of Training and Implementation with the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (NCCTS) at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Ake and the NCCTS Training and Implementation Team have extensive experience in providing support and consultation to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network on use of Learning Collaborative and Breakthrough Series Collaborative methodology.
Dr. Ake is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center and an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine. His clinical and research interests are in the areas of trauma, interpersonal violence, and trauma-informed child welfare practice, and implementation science.
Elisabeth Cannata Ph.D
Elisabeth is Vice President of Community-Based Family Services and Practice Innovation at Wheeler Clinic in Connecticut. In this role, she’s overseen the implementation of several EBPs and promising practices for youth and families, and has partnered with model developers in piloting and studying the effectiveness and transportability of model adaptations.
Dr. Cannata has keen interest in workforce development for evidence-based practice in primary and behavioral health care. She created the highly successful graduate course, Current Trends in Family Intervention: Evidence-Based and Promising Practice Models of In-Home Treatment in Connecticut, which is taught in masters’ programs in social work, marriage and family therapy and counseling throughout Connecticut and in New York and Massachusetts.
Elisabeth has received recognition and appointments for her advocacy in promoting the system of care for children and families in Connecticut (CT). She was appointed to tri-chair the legislatively mandated Children’s Behavioral Health Plan Implementation Advisory Board, selected to co-chair the State Advisory Council to Department for Children and Families Advisory Council, and in 2005, received the Connecticut Psychological Association’s Award for Contribution to the Health and Well-Being of Connecticut’s Children. Dr. Cannata has been an active participant in Consortium activities since 2011.
Dan Edwards Ph.D
Dr. Dan Edwards is Senior Director with Evidence-Based Associates (EBA), an award-winning organization that provides technical assistance, implementation and project management support focusing on the high-quality implementation of evidence-based programs for at-risk children and families. Dr. Edwards leads the team’s work with multiple child-serving agencies across several states that have adopted evidence-based programs and are pursuing rigorous implementation and high program fidelity.
Prior to coming to EBA, Dr. Edwards was Clinical Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina and Vice-President at MST Services: he also served on the board of the Association for the Advancement of Evidence-Based Programs (AAEBP). Dr. Edwards holds advanced degrees from Harvard University and the University of Florida, and he has written several book chapters and journal articles on the implementation of high-quality evidence-based programs. Under Dr. Edwards’ leadership, EBA has expanded into new states and new domains, providing consultation to public child-serving agencies on re-entry services, on the implementation of evidence-based programs, and on compliance with federal mandates. He is frequently an invited guest at national conferences and workshops, with occasional blogs that have appeared in the Huffington Post among other outlets. An avid ‘try-athlete,’ he lives in Alexandria, VA, where he enjoys reading creative non-fiction (i.e., memoirs), hiking, volunteering, swimming, and getting lost with friends on long bike rides in the countryside.
Susan Kerns, Ph.D
Suzanne Kerns is a licensed clinical psychologist, and the Director of Transformative Research at The Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse & Neglect at the University of Colorado. Her clinical and research interests focus on enhancing the wellbeing of children and families through ensuring access to proven-effective treatment approaches, including examining the acquisition, implementation, adaptation and sustainability of evidence-based practices. She is a member of the International Evidence-Based Practices Consortium and the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC), and works with Abt Associates with the Title IV-E Clearinghouse.
With other Consortium participants, Dr. Kerns studied the extent to which evidence-based practice is taught in North American MSW curricula, and produced a series of national webinars addressing those findings. With Rosalyn Bertram, she served as co-editor for a 2018 special issue of The Journal of Social Work Education focused on how to integrate evidence based practice and implementation science into academic and field curricula. Together they recently published a book for academic and community service programs, (Bertram & Kerns, 2019), Selecting and Implementing Evidence-Based Practice: A Practical Program Guide. Springer Press, New York.
Cricket Mitchell, Ph.D
Cricket Mitchell is a clinical research psychologist with more than a decade of experience as a research, evaluation, and program performance consultant. She is particularly interested in the sustainable implementation of evidence-based practices in usual care settings, as well as data-driven decision making in clinical service delivery.
Dr. Mitchell is a graduate of the Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology between the University of California at San Diego and San Diego State University. Her areas of expertise are in research design and methodology, quantitative data analysis, behavioral medicine, and cognitive behavioral interventions.
Jennifer Rolls-Reutz
Jennifer Rolls Reutz is Co-Director of the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC, www.cebc4cw.org), at the Chadwick Center for Children and Families at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego.
Throughout her career, Jennifer’s has focused on children receiving services through public sectors of care, including the child welfare and mental health systems, with an emphasis on how to more effectively implement evidence-based practices in real-world settings
She was previously project manager for the ACF-funded California Screening, Assessment, and Treatment (CASAT) Initiative, and a research coordinator at the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center (CASRC), where she managed several NIMH-funded grants, including Caring for Children in Child Welfare (CCCW) and the Implementation Methods Research Group (IMRG) Advanced Center, along with numerous foundation, state, and local projects.
Virginia C. Strand, DSW
Dr. Virginia C. Strand is Professor, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, and formerly Co-Director, National Center for Social Work Trauma Education and Workforce Development. She has over 35 years of experience in social work practice, research, education and training, with recent experience in the implementation of evidence-based trauma treatment. Dr. Strand has authored over 30 journal articles and is co-editor of a recently published book on Trauma Responsive Child Welfare Systems.
Jessie Watrous
Jessie Watrous is Director of Evidence-Based Practice with The Institute for Innovation and Implementation, University of Maryland, School of Social Work. (https://theinstitute.umaryland.edu/) Jessie provides technical assistance to child and family serving systems on system improvement and evidence-based program implementation. She is currently supporting Maryland’s twenty-four local jurisdictions to effectively implement 15+ evidence-based programs. She additionally serves as Multi-systemic Therapy Network Partner Director, as well as project director for Partnering for Success, a practice to improve child welfare social workers’ ability to partner with youth, families and evidence-based treatment providers to improve child mental and behavioral health outcomes.
Prior to joining The Institute, Jessie was a program officer with the Annie E. Casey Foundation for over a decade. Jessie managed a grant portfolio and provided technical assistance to public systems and communities in order to improve public systems’ use of evidence-based programs. Jessie collaborated to design and implement Evidence2Success, a framework for communities and public systems partnership to adopt evidence-based programs and improve community-level indicators. She additionally consulted to state and city child welfare leadership on system reform, including agency strategic plans, training and quality improvement systems.
Child & Family Evidence Based Practice Consortium 