Plenary Presentations

Opening Address: Returning to the Neighborhood (and the Neurons) 12 Years Later

This keynote presentation will re-examine the key findings and recommendations from Neurons to Neighborhoods in light of policy and research developments in the intervening 12 years. What endures? What has changed? What can we now say even more firmly? What needs major revising? Three themes will guide this discussion:

(1) the centrality of the stress response system and the “biology of misfortune” to human development,"

(2) relationships with parents/caregivers/teachers as the active ingredient of environmental influence; and

(3) the importance of taking individual differences into account.

Faculty: Deborah Phillips, PhD, Georgetown University, Washington, DC

Policy Plenary: Transforming Early Learning: Creating a Path to Quality for our Youngest Children

The Honorable Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services (Invited)

The Honorable Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education (Invited)

The creation of the Early Learning Challenge marked a major milestone for early childhood development. It also highlighted the historic partnership on early learning between the Departments of Health and Human Services and Education. The policy plenary will focus on this exciting opportunity to build on the federal and state programs for early childhood development and transform early learning into a quality system for young children starting from birth.

Luncheon Plenary: Adverse Childhood Experiences

The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study is a long term, in-depth analysis of over 17,000 adult San Diego members of Kaiser Permanente, matching current health status against 10 categories of adverse childhood experiences a half-century earlier. We found that: adverse childhood experiences are common although typically concealed and unrecognized; they still have a profound effect 50 years later, although now transformed from psychosocial experience into organic disease and mental illness; and adverse childhood experiences are the main determinant of the health and social well-being of the nation.

Click here to watch an interview featuring Dr. Felitti describing the ACE Study and the effects of childhood trauma.

Faculty: Vincent Felitti, MD, The California Institutes of Preventive Medicine, La Jolla, CA

Special Address: How to Implement Complex Evidence-based Practices with Fidelity: Home Visiting as a Case Study

Decision-makers are called upon to adopt evidence-based practices and programs and to implement them with fidelity so that intended outcomes are achieved. This is a tall order, especially for complex interventions. Using home visiting as an example, this presentation will explain how stakeholders can use the principles of implementation science to promote fidelity and positive impact on outcomes when taking evidence-based interventions to scale.

Faculty: Anne K. Duggan, ScD, John Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD

Research Plenary: Recovery Following Severe Early Adversity: How Much Is Possible?

This presentation will review research on severe early deprivation and its effects on brain and behavioral development, including the concept of sensitive periods and reversibility. The question will be posed from the perspective of both researchers and clinicians with implications drawn for policy makers.

Faculty: Charles Zeanah, MD, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA

Practice Plenary: Extending Our Reach

The focus of this panel presentation is on the ways we can increase awareness of child traumatic stress in communities and in new areas of practice. Presenters will discuss new training models for diverse audiences and the panel will also include moderated discussion on how an awareness of child traumatic stress can better be incorporated into all the work we do with infants and toddlers.

Faculty: Dolores Bigfoot, PhD, Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Oklahoma City, OK; Paul Spicer, PhD, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK; and Betsy McAlister Groves, PhD, Boston Medical Center, Boston, MA