Training and Consultation Academy Faculty at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress

Training:

Hannah Blaes-Johnson, LCSW-C,is a licensed clinical social worker specializing in working with individuals and families impacted by violence and trauma. She received her dual master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in clinical social work and non-profit leadership in 2019. She is a former employee of Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress where she provided mental health treatment to children and adults who experienced trauma. She also previously worked with children and families affected by violence at other agencies in Baltimore City, as well as in Pennsylvania and Florida. Currently she provides strengths-based and trauma-informed individual and family therapy for both adults and children at the Washington Center for Women and Children’s Wellness in Bethesda, MD. She is certified in multiple evidence-based treatments, including Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). She has also received additional training through Postpartum Support International on perinatal mental health and is currently in the process of obtaining certification.

Abena Brown-Elhillali, PhD, RYT is a licensed clinical psychologist and registered yoga teacher with 20 years of experience assessing and treating children and families. She is the founder and lead clinician of Safe Space for Family Healing, an integrative, trauma informed mental wellness practice for individuals and families. Dr. Brown-Elhillali is also a former employee of the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute where she served as a supervising psychologist. Dr. Brown-Elhillali received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Howard University. Her clinical expertise includes the use of mind-body strategies to manage stress and treat trauma. Dr. Brown-Elhillali dedicates her clinical time to educating families and communities on trauma, resilience and growth. When not engaged in clinical work, Dr. Brown-Elhillali enjoys exploring local parks and beaches with her family and gardening.

Angela Celano, LCSW-C is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who specializes in mental health treatment for children and adults who have experienced trauma. Celano received her Master’s degree in Social Work at the University of Southern California. She received extensive training through University of Southern California and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in early childhood development and mental health and is certified in Parent Child Interaction Therapy, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy, and Child Parent Psychotherapy. Celano served in Los Angeles County as a mental health clinician on a multidisciplinary team assessing children and infants who had recently been placed in foster care. In Maryland, Celano has advocated for increased mental health services for infants in an effort to prevent trauma and support families. Currently, she provides outpatient therapy to children of all ages who have experienced trauma at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kenndy Krieger Institute.

Laura N. Costa, PhD. ABPP is a board-certified child and adolescent clinical psychologist with over 20 years of experience working with trauma populations, specializing in the assessment and treatment of trauma. She received her master's degree and doctorate in clinical psychology from George Mason University in 2007, also earning a certificate of advanced graduate study in school psychology. Dr. Costa completed her pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship at the Milton Hershey School in Hershey, PA, which is a residential school for at-risk children coming from poverty. Dr. Costa has spent much of her career working at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute, where she is the Assistant Director of Psychology Training. Dr. Costa has supervised psychiatry residents, psychology doctoral interns, postdoctoral fellows, externs, and staff. She employs a variety of evidence-based interventions in her work including Dialectical Behavior Therapy and is certified in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Parent Child Interaction Therapy, and Structured Psychotherapy for Adolescents Responding to Chronic Stress (SPARCS).

Sara Davis, LCSW-C, is a clinical social worker at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute. She received her bachelor's degree in Peace and Conflict Studies in 2001 from Bryn Mawr College and her Master's degree in Social Work in 2009 from the University of Maryland. As a clinical social worker at the Traumatic Stress Center, she provides direct clinical care for children, adolescents and families who have experienced trauma through physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation, neglect, domestic and community violence. In addition to direct clinical work, she provides staff supervision and training for graduate level interns. At the Traumatic Stress Center, Davis coordinates all group therapy services and leads the implementation of Strengthening Family Coping Resources, an evidence-informed multifamily group model, and co-leads the Coalition for Transformative Antiracism and Equity. She holds a special interest in incorporating the expressive arts into treatment and in collaboration with artists and other clinicians has developed curriculum for an Arts Based Psychotherapy Group aimed at helping children develop adaptive coping skills. Davis also believes strongly in partnering with community organizations and in collaboration with New Lens Productions led a project where youth exposed to community violence created short films aimed at preventing violence in their communities.  

Emily Driscoll-Roe, LCSW-C, is a Social Work Manager at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore. She received her undergraduate degree from Fordham University in 1993, and her master’s degree in Social Work from New York University in 1996. She has provided therapeutic services to children, adolescents and their families since 1996, and has practiced in New York City; Dayton, Ohio; and Baltimore, MD. At the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress, she received extensive training in the field of trauma treatment, with particular expertise in the area of sexual abuse. Through her work at the Traumatic Stress Center, Driscoll-Roe became especially interested in the impact of vicarious trauma on clinicians working with traumatized families. She co-founded the Center’s Vicarious Trauma Processing Group and provides training on managing vicarious trauma and burn-out to mental health professionals.

Sarah A. Gardner, LCSW-C, is the Director of Clinical Services at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute. Gardner has over 35 years of experience with direct service, supervision, consultation, emergency management, administration and leadership in a mental health clinic serving traumatized children and families involved with multiple systems. Gardner’s primary area of expertise is intergenerational trauma patterns and engaging families who experience marginalization related to racism, poverty and other negative social conditions. Gardner developed FamilyLive, an innovative family therapy model which helps caregivers with unresolved trauma histories develop parenting skills.

Through the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), Gardner has led national efforts and developed multiple resources to reduce barriers to accessing mental health services through consumer partnerships. Gardner has delivered dozens of professional presentations and co-authored articles on family trauma in peer reviewed journals.

Lyda Holguin-Gaviria, PhD, LCPC, NCC, is a counselor educator and supervisor, who is a licensed clinical professional counselor in Maryland, and a National Board-Certified Counselor. Dr. Holguin-Gaviria completed her Ph.D. in counseling at The George Washington University and Master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling at Villanova University. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from The Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Cali-Colombia.  She also attended the English Language Institute at the University of Delaware where she learned English as a second language and with academic purposes. Currently, she is completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Florida Atlantic University teaching counseling courses for Master level students. She is trained in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Parent Child Interaction Therapy, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) evidence-based interventions to support children and families exposed to single and complex trauma. Dr. Holguin-Gaviria has experience providing clinical services in outpatient, inpatient, community-based, school, and private practice settings. Her clinical and research interests are dedicated to understanding mental health issues in immigrants and minoritized populations compromised because of trauma, poverty, micro- and macro aggressions, and other remarkable factors associated with the process of cultural adjustment (e.g., barriers with language, legal status, finding jobs, and accessing education and health). Dr. Holguin-Gaviria is also interested in promoting research that is more inclusive and accurately represents the heterogeneity and diversity of Latinxs in their research samples.

Daniel Hoover, PhD, ABPP is a board certified clinical child and adolescent psychologist at Kennedy Krieger Institute and is on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has 30 years of experience as a service provider, trainer, and clinical supervisor. He directs doctoral internship and postdoctoral psychology training at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress. Dr. Hoover founded and is Director of the Horizons Clinic, treating children with developmental disabilities who are exposed to trauma, one of the few such treatment clinics nationwide. Dr. Hoover consults on a SAMSHA National Child Traumatic Stress Network grant entitled: Supporting Trauma Recovery for Youth with Developmental Disabilities. He lectures nationally, has published numerous papers, chapters and a treatment manual and developed the Interactive Trauma Scale, a web-based tool for assessing trauma responses in children with autism and developmental disabilities.

Sheryl Jefferson, MSW, LCSW-C is a Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical and a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Social Work. Jefferson has extensive experience providing mental health services to children and families. Her work includes a variety of settings, including residential, school, private practice, and outpatient clinical settings. For the past fourteen years, she has provided trauma informed, evidenced based mental health services to children of all ages and their families at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute. Her training includes the following treatment modalities: Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Strengthening Family Coping Resources, Chicago Parenting Program, and Child Parent Psychotherapy interventions. Jefferson is rostered and is a Regional Trainer for Child Parent Psychotherapy intervention. In addition, Jefferson is a Clinical Supervisor, providing supervision to Clinical staff members and MSW student Trainees, while also providing Reflective Supervision to Child Parent Psychotherapy trained Clinicians.

Teresa Loya, LCSW-C is a clinical social worker who has specialized in addressing the needs of families and children responding to intergenerational trauma for over 20 years. Through her work with the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore Maryland, Loya provides trauma informed therapy including Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). She is a certified reflective supervisor for CPP and oversees PCIT services and training at the Center. Loya has also spoken both locally and nationally on PCIT. In addition to PCIT, Loya’s other training efforts have focused on trauma informed care, secondary traumatic stress, and trauma focused therapy with young children and their families. Loya uses her role as a social worker to focus on improving access to and quality of care for marginalized populations. As a provider, supervisor and trainer, she has a passion for helping caregivers and clinicians alike find and develop their own voices.

Jennifer Shepard Payne, PhD, LCSW-C, is a Research Scientist at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress (CCFTS) and the Center for the Neuroscience of Social Injustice. She is also an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine within the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Payne received her doctorate in Social Welfare from UCLA and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with many years of experience in mental health clinical practice and administration. For several years, Dr. Payne has been working on culturally tailoring Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for African American communities experiencing racial trauma. She developed a culturally tailored version of ACT called POOF. Dr. Payne is actively involved with the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, the premier organization for ACT (ACBS). She is on the ACBS Board and is also a Board member of NACSW and MEND.

Cynthia Rollo, LCSW-C, is a trainer, supervisor, and clinician specializing in services for youth and family systems with a focus on trauma. Rollo has been involved in bringing trauma‐informed, healing-centered training and system change to mental health professionals, administrators, graduate students, child welfare workers, case managers and support staff who provide care in a range of community and residential settings and serve diverse populations. She is a national trainer for Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF‐CBT), trainer for the Complex Trauma Training Consortium (CTTC) of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), and co‐developed and implemented a graduate level course on Evidence‐Based Mental Health Treatment with Children and Adolescents.

Jennifer M. Serico, PhD, is a clinical psychologist specializing in child and adolescent trauma at the Center for Child and Family Traumatic Stress at Kennedy Krieger Institute and an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Serico is a certified Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) within-agency trainer and a Child Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) trainer. Dr. Serico offers culturally humble, evidence-based mental health interventions (i.e., PCIT, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy) and services for youth and families who have experienced trauma. Her research interests focus on trauma-informed caregiving strategies to enhance services for children and adolescents with significant emotional and behavioral dysregulation as a result of trauma. Dr. Serico offers education, training, supervision, and consultation in antiracist, evidence-based, trauma-informed care with an emphasis on improving outcomes for at-risk youth across contexts.

Elizabeth Thompson, PhD (Thompson Leadership Consulting, LLC) is a consulting psychologist with an established record of facilitating racial justice initiatives in teams and organizations. Dr. Thompson is a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s anti-racism’s faculty that co-developed Principles of an Anti-Racist, Trauma-informed Organization (2022), and is currently working with several agencies on their efforts in this arena. Since 2015, Dr. Thompson has made both national and international presentations on dismantling systems that perpetuate racism. Prior to founding her private consulting practice, Dr. Thompson had a 30-year history as a mental health executive in the child traumatic stress field.

Aminah Wells LCSW-C, is a clinical social worker in private practice who has over 20 years of experience in outpatient and school based mental health settings. Wells has extensive training and experience in the field of grief and loss and providing crisis support to schools and communities navigating traumatic losses. She has developed policies and protocols to support students with complex mental health needs and curriculum to support high school peer education programs. In her private practice, Wells' primary focus is on treating adults coping with loss, chronic ill-ness, and traumatic childhood experiences.