Kadija Johnston, LCSW, is an independent consultant and Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Child and Human Development contributing her expertise and experience in early childhood mental health consultation to the SAMHSA supported Center of Excellence in ECMH Consultation and the National Center of Health Behavioral Health and Safety for Head Start. Ms. Johnston is the past Director of the Infant-Parent Program at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) where she pioneered the program’s approach to Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation and has disseminated the approach nationally and internationally. Ms. Johnston writes and lectures nationally on infant and early childhood mental health. She co-authored the book Mental Health Consultation in Child Care: Transforming Relationships With Directors, Staff, and Families. She serves as a subject matter expert on perinatal, infant, and early childhood mental health, trauma informed and healing practices in early childhood education, reflective supervision, and equity and anti-racist practices in early childhood settings and systems.

As a board-certified general pediatrician, child abuse pediatrician, and integrative medicine specialist, Dr. Gilgoff brings a multidisciplinary approach to ACEs, toxic stress, healing, and well-being. Over the course of her career, she has been a co-investigator of the Pediatric ACEs Screening and Resilience Study (PEARLS), the Medical Director of the Clinical Innovations and Research Team within Center for Youth Wellness, and co-founder of the National Committee on Asthma and Toxic Stress. She co-developed the Resiliency Clinic, a group clinic intervention model to treat toxic stress, and more recently, co-created VITAL: Relational Health, a free, on-line learning series on the science and practice of relational health.  She is currently an advisor with the California Aces Aware Initiative and the Office of the California Surgeon General, and a co-PI on “Systems-based, Multidisciplinary Assessment of Adversity and Toxic Stress for Individualized Care (The SYSTEMAATIC Project),” an ACEs and Precision Medicine research project through the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine (CIAPM).  Dr. Gilgoff is dedicated to addressing health issues resulting from child abuse and toxic stress, creating systems of care that incorporate the science of stress biology and wellness, and collaborating across sectors to develop multidisciplinary, integrative, human-centered, and holistic approaches to healing.

Born and raised in Sacramento, Sade grew up being witnessed on how power and policy moved in the lives of marginalized communities. Seeing the disparities of her community and those alike, she grew passionate about liberation, inclusion and redistribution of wealth. She received her B.A in African American Studies with a minor in Public Policy from UCLA. Her previous involvements include: Million Dollar Hoods, Community Coalition, and Justice LA work group. Upon her relocation to Sacramento, she is passionate about paying it forward and working with youth communities of Sacramento. Sade currently serves as the Program Coordinator for United College Action Network’s Girls Empowerment Mentoring and Support Program (GEMS) and President’s Youth Council Member for the California Endowment. She is focused on challenging the punitive effects adultification bias has on girls of color, and actively creating mental wellness solutions. Her long term career goal is to receive her Juris Doctorate degree from Georgetown Law.

Joyce Dorado is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, UCSF-Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and the Co-Founder and Director of UCSF Healthy Environments and Response to Trauma in Schools (HEARTS). Dr. Dorado is a nationally recognized expert in partnering with schools and other youth-serving systems to create trauma-informed, equitable, and healing organizations. She serves as an appointed member of the California State Supreme Court Justice’s statewide steering committee for the Keeping Kids in School and Out of Courts initiative. She is also the Lead Curriculum Developer, a Master Trainer, and a member of the founding workgroup for the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) Trauma-Informed Systems Initiative, and provides training and consultation across the Bay Area in collaboration with Trauma Transformed: Bay Area Regional Trauma-Informed Systems Center. Additionally, she has served as a lead consultant in CLEAR California, a partnership between the Washington State University CLEAR program and UCSF HEARTS.

Ricky Robertson (he/him) is an educator, author, and consultant who assists schools across the country in developing culturally responsive trauma-informed systems of support that foster resilience and success for staff, students, and families. Ricky has guided schools, districts, and state departments of education in learning about the impact of ACEs and trauma and the critical role of protective factors in fostering resilient schools and communities. He has assisted schools in developing and implementing trauma-informed practices that have positively impacted student behavior, academic achievement, and social-emotional development, while cultivating educator well-being and efficacy. 

Dr. Natalie Turner-Depue is a licensed mental health counselor and a nationally-certified trainer in the Attachment, Self-Regulation and Competency (ARC) Framework. To date, she has provided training and consultation to over 15,000 people on how complex trauma exposure can impact early childhood development, behavior, learning and socialization. For the past fourteen years, Dr. Turner-Depue has directed multiple CAFRU projects, including leading a large multi-year State of Washington evaluation of a large consortia program addressing high-risk children in schools and co-developing the Collaborative Learning for Educational Achievement and Resilience (CLEAR) model for implementing trauma-informed practices through a whole-systems approach.