Who We Are


History

We are working to build a sustainable network of researchers and practitioners who will 

  1. produce new knowledge
  2. foster the design and evaluation of innovative approaches to the prevention, detection, and treatment of child maltreatment
  3. create interdisciplinary education opportunities and experiences for Penn State students, and
  4. put the products of these efforts to work in communities throughout Pennsylvania and beyond

Further, the Network works to serve as the University’s coordinating entity for the dissemination of relevant communications, public awareness, student engagement, and service pertaining to child protection and well-being information and initiatives.

Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State

The Change Makers

Established in response to the darkest chapter in university history, Penn State’s Child Maltreatment Solutions Network has become a national leader in research designed to influence public policy that better protects vulnerable children from abuse.

Research

The Network's research efforts focus on the causes, prevention, detection, consequences, and treatment of child abuse and neglect. The Network is dedicated to improving the well­being of children, youth and families, while expanding Penn State’s internationally recognized expertise in research, practice and education.

We provide opportunities and support for collaborative and translational science in order to address the complex problems of child maltreatment. Our work covers the spectrum, ranging from research on child development and clinical treatments that foster child health to public policy that promotes child safety and well­being.

Education

Through undergraduate and graduate ­level coursework and with other educational opportunities for faculty, staff, students, and professionals, the Network strives to raise awareness and works to train the next generation of professionals. In addition, the Network facilitates events including an annual conference aimed at increasing awareness, disseminating cutting ­edge research, and supporting innovative programs.

Service

The Network aims to push the bounds of social and public policy through efficient translation of evidence­-based research. By partnering with community providers and public policy leaders at the local, state, and federal levels, the Network's goal is to raise public awareness about the scope and gravity of child maltreatment and to elevate this issue as worthy of significant public health investment. Countering child maltreatment is a community concern that requires community-wide efforts. We engage with a wide array of agencies and organizations to learn more about local needs and to contribute expertise that will lead to safe, healthful environments for all children.

Profile photo for Brian Allen, Psy.D.

Brian Allen, Psy.D.

title

Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry

Director of Mental Health Services, Center for the Protection of Children

Email

Phone

  717-531-4100

Office

Stine Foundation TLC Research and Treatment Center (Hershey/Harrisburg)

Penn State Research Profile

Penn State Health Profile

Brief Bio

Brian Allen, Psy.D.,is an associate professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the Penn State College of Medicine and Director of Mental Health Services in the Center for the Protection of Children at the Penn State Children's Hospital. His research focuses on the developmental impact of childhood trauma and maltreatment, including the efficacy of mental health interventions in ameliorating that impact. More specifically, he investigates the role of attachment processes in post-maltreatment development and treatment outcome, the etiology and treatment of problematic sexual behavior in pre-teen children, and the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatments. He is responsible for directing the provision of clinical services at the Stine Foundation TLC Research and Treatment Center, an outpatient mental health program serving maltreated children and their families.


Education

2002, B.A., Psychology, Hillsdale College

2004, M.S., Clinical Psychology, Eastern Michigan University

2008, Psy.D., Clinical Psychology, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

2008, Internship, Clinical Psychology, CAARE Diagnostic and Treatment Center, UC Davis Children's Hospital

2009, Fellowship, National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, UCLA & Duke University


Expertise

child sexual abuse; child physical abuse; developmental sequelae of sexual and physical abuse; attachment theory; childhood problematic sexual behavior; trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy; parent-child interaction therapy


Research Interests

mediators and moderators of treatment outcome; the role of attachment processes in development and treatment; problematic sexual behavior of preteen children; application of evidence-based treatments to understudied populations; historical context of child abuse


Profile photo for Christian M. Connell, Ph.D.

Brief Bio

Christian M. Connell, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, the Director and a faculty member with the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State University. Dr. Connell received his Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina and completed pre- and postdoctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. His research focuses on the experiences of youth who have been maltreated, as well as those who become involved in the child welfare system and other child-serving systems (e.g., mental health, juvenile justice). His research examines individual, family, and contextual risk and protective processes that impact child behavioral health and wellbeing following incidents of maltreatment or child welfare system contact, as well as community-based efforts to prevent or treat the negative effects of maltreatment and other traumatic experiences in children and adolescents. Dr. Connell’s research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, Administration for Children and Families, and State and local contracts.


Education

2001 Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine

2000 Predoctoral Fellowship, Department of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine

2000 Ph.D., Clinical-Community Psychology, University of South Carolina

1993 B.S., Psychology, Pennsylvania State University


Expertise

child welfare outcomes, administrative data systems, community-based research methods, program and service system evaluation


Research Interests

individual, family, and contextual risk and protective processes that impact child behavioral health and wellbeing following incidents of maltreatment, child welfare system contact, or other traumatic experiences; evaluation of community-level evidence-informed efforts to prevent or treat the negative effects of maltreatment and other traumatic experiences in children and adolescents; use of administrative data systems to inform child welfare system practice and policy initiatives


Labs


Courses

CMAS 466

Community and System Response to Child Maltreatment

HDFS 503

Human Development Intervention: Analysis of Theories and Approaches

HDFS 553

Child Maltreatment: Policy, Administrative Data Systems, Prevention and Treatment

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Brief Bio

My research seeks to understand the individual, familial, community, and system factors that promote or inhibit immediate and later life success among youth who experience maltreatment or foster care placement. Within this agenda, I have focused on three issues: (1) determinants of wellbeing among Child Protective Services (CPS)-involved and foster care youth; (2) implications of measurement for understanding causes and consequences of maltreatment and child welfare events; (3) the role of social disadvantage in child maltreatment.


Education

Postdoctoral fellow, 2016, University of Texas at Austin

Ph.D. in Social Welfare, 2014, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Master of Social Work, 2008, Western Michigan University

Bachelor of Social Work, 2007, Western Michigan University


Expertise

foster care, child welfare, child maltreatment, child protective services


Research Interests

care, child welfare, child maltreatment, child protective services


Courses

CRIM 597

Special Topics Seminar – Crimes Against Children

CMAS 258

Introduction to Child Maltreatment and Advocacy Studies

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Brief Bio

Yo Jackson is a Professor in the Clinical Child Psychology Program in the Psychology department at Penn State University and the Associate Director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of resilience for youthexposed to trauma and developing models of the process from exposure to outcome for youth and families. She also studies intergenerational transmission of trauma and methods and measurement in child maltreatment research. She is a reviewer for numerous journals and serves as an Associate Editor for Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology and Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.


Education

Ph.D., Clinical Child Psychology, University of Alabama


Expertise

trauma assessment, nature and mechanisms of trauma impact on youth development, child maltreatment, foster care systems and foster care youth, evidence-based interventions, influence of cultural on mental health, program evaluation, competency development in clinical child psychology


Research Interests

mechanisms of resilience for youth exposed to trauma, intergenerational transmission of trauma, foster care youth and families, assessment of trauma and child maltreatment


Profile photo for Erika Lunkenheimer, Ph.D.

Brief Bio

Dr. Lunkenheimer is an Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology and an Associate Director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network. Her research program revolves around risk and protective processes in the parent-child relationship, with the dual goals of (1) understanding how mother-child and father-child interactions and regulatory processes contribute to developmental psychopathology and (2) uncovering malleable relationship processes that aid in the tailoring and improvement of preventive intervention programs for families at risk, particularly risk for child maltreatment. This work is grounded in dynamic systems theory and dyadic and time series analytic methods, and has provided an understanding of parent-child biobehavioral coregulation in early childhood and its association with family risk.


Education

2006 Ph.D., Developmental Psychology, University of Michigan

1999 M.S., Marriage and Family Therapy, Northwestern University

1996 B.A., Psychology, Northwestern University


Expertise

parenting, parent-child interaction, self-regulation, child behavior problems, observational methods, dynamic systems theory and methods, developmental psychopathology


Research Interests

parent-child coregulation, parent and child self-regulation, parent mental health, stress physiology, autonomy support, harsh parenting, child maltreatment risk, maltreatment severity


Labs


Courses

PSYCH 212

 

PSYCH 547

Fundamentals of Social Development

CMAS 493

Child Maltreatment Minor Capstone Course

PSYCH 529

Maltreatment and Child Development

Profile photo for Sheridan Miyamoto, Ph.D.

Brief Bio

Sheridan Miyamoto is an Associate Professor in the College of Nursing and faculty in the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at Penn State. She is founder and director of the Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Telehealth (SAFE-T) System, a nurse-led telehealth program designed to enhance access to quality forensic sexual assault care in rural and underserved communities. The SAFE-T System program and evaluation has been funded by the Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, HRSA, the Hillman Foundation and NICHD. · · A pioneer of telehealth models of care for sexual assault, Miyamoto's work as a clinician, educator, and researcher enhances access to quality nurse-led specialty sexual assault care by providing expert, live, interactive mentoring, quality assurance, and evidence-based training to less experienced nurses via telehealth technology. Her clinical work as a Nurse Practitioner at UC Davis generated the foundational research to demonstrate the efficacy and effectiveness of telehealth sexual assault programs. Miyamoto's research focuses on producing sustainable, scalable improvements in access and quality care for vulnerable populations, including rural communities, and children at risk for sexual exploitation and trafficking. Miyamoto is a fellow with the Betty Irene Moore Fellowship Program for Nurse Leaders and Innovators and is a former Jonas Scholar and Doris Duke Fellow.


Education

2014 University of California Davis, Davis, CA

Doctorate of Philosophy, Nursing Science and Health Care Leadership

Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing

 

1996 Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Master of Science, Nursing

Family Nurse Practitioner Program

 

1994 University of California Davis, Davis, CA

Bachelor of Arts, Psychology

 

Post–Graduate Coursework 

University of California Davis Health System, 

Sacramento, CA 

Pediatric Evidentiary Exam Training

Adult Sexual Assault Evidentiary Training


Expertise

child sexual abuse, sexual assault, telehealth, telemedicine, forensic nursing, child maltreatment, commercial sexual exploitation of children


Research Interests

sexual assault, sexual abuse, telehealth, mhealth, commercial sexual exploitation of children


Labs


Courses

CMAS 466

Community and System Response to Child Maltreatment

Profile photo for Carlomagno Panlilio, Ph.D.

Brief Bio

Carlomagno C. Panlilio, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education and a faculty member with the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network at the Pennsylvania State University. The overarching goal of Dr. Panlilio’s program of research is to understand the dynamic interplay between maltreatment, context, and development, and how these processes influence individual differences in learning. His research is guided by an interdisciplinary approach that draws from Developmental Science, Educational Psychology, Statistics, and Social Welfare to examine the multisystemic influences on early adversity and children’s development and learningover time. More specifically, he is interested in further explicating self-regulation and self-regulated learning as key developmental and learning processes that explain variability in the academic outcomes of children with a history of maltreatment.


Education

2000, B.A., Psychology, California State University Long Beach

2005, M.S., Family Studies, University of Maryland College Park

2015, Ph.D., Human Development, University of Maryland College Park


Expertise

child abuse and neglect, self-regulation, maltreatment and learning processes, academic competence, trauma-informed classrooms, dynamic and person-centered methodologies


Research Interests

practice and policy implications of child maltreatment, self-regulation, school readiness & academic achievement, parenting and family processes in at-risk environments, student-teacher relationship, maltreatment and learning processes


Courses

EDPSY 010

Individual Differences and Education

EDPSY 101

Analysis and Interpretation of Statistical Data in Education

CMAS 493

Child Maltreatment and Advocacy Studies Capstone Experience

EDPSY 521

Learning and Cognition

Profile photo for Hannah M. C. Schreier, Ph.D.

Brief Bio

Dr. Schreier received training in health psychology and is currently an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State. Broadly speaking, she is interested in how experiences during childhood and adolescence shape long-term chronic disease risk. Her research focuses primarily on the impact of growing up in low socioeconomic environments, of different family-level influences, and of exposure to child maltreatment and how these influence metabolic and inflammatory markers of chronic disease risk in youth. She is also interested in exploring the potential role that social interventions may be able to play in actively improving physiological outcomes among at-risk youth.


Education

2006, B.A.Hon., Psychology, McGill University

2008, M.A., Health Psychology, The University of British Columbia

2012, Ph.D., Health Psychology, The University of British Columbia


Expertise

health disparities, child and adolescent health, immune, endocrine, and metabolic functioning


Research Interests

adolescent health and well-being, cardiovascular disease risk, inflammation, immune functioning, socioeconomic health disparities, social interventions, family functioning


Labs


Courses

BBH 311

Interdisciplinary Integration of Biobehavioral Health Research

BBH 310

Research Methods

BBH 497

Special Topics Seminar - Biobehavioral Aspects of Aging 

BBH 552

Child Maltreatment: Developmental Processes and Biological Embedding

Profile photo for Idan Shalev, Ph.D.

Brief Bio

Shalev’s research entails an interdisciplinary approach to identify mechanisms underpinning the biological embedding of stress across the lifespan. His research combines the disciplines of molecular genetics, endocrinology, neurobiology and psychology. This systems approach integrates data sources across multiple levels of genomic, biomarkers and phenotypic data. Specifically, using innovative research designs, his research tests the effects of stress from early life on change in telomere length and other biomarkers of aging across the life course, and the consequences of change in telomere length for physical and mental health problems. In the first study of children, Shalev and colleagues showed that cumulative violence exposure was associated with accelerated telomere erosion, from age 5 to age 10 years, for children who experienced violence at a young age. This finding provided initial support for a mechanism linking cumulative childhood stress to telomere maintenance, observed already at a young age, with potential impact for life-long health. Shalev is the Mark T. Greenberg Early Career Professor for the Study of Children's Health and Development and an author of more than 50 scientific articles and chapters.


Education

2004, B.Sc., Natural Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel 

2007, M.Sc., Neurobiology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

2010, Ph.D., Genetics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

2013, Postdoctoral, Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University


Expertise

stress biology, telomere science, genomics, biological embedding, biological aging, biomarkers, evolutionary theories of aging, experimental designs


Research Interests

stress biology, aging, telomeres, genomics


Labs


Courses

BBH 497

Special Topics Seminar - Biobehavioral Aspects of Aging 

BBH 432

Biobehavioral Aspects of Stress

Profile photo for Chad Shenk, Ph.D.

Brief Bio

Chad Shenk, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Departments of Human Development & Family Studies and Pediatrics at Penn State. He is also a licensed clinical psychologist with specialty training in trauma exposure and pediatric psychology who actively sees patients exposed to child maltreatment through Penn State’s Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Shenk’s basic science research is centered on improving methods for risk estimation and target identification in prospective cohort studies of child trauma and adverse health across the lifespan. This work identifies biomarkers and mechanisms of various health conditions in the child trauma population using a multiple levels of analysis approach (e.g., biological, behavioral, environmental). His clinical trials and translational research therefore centers on the optimization of behavioral interventions applied following exposure to child trauma by engaging identified targets and mechanisms more effectively.


Education

2010 NIH T32 Postdoctoral Fellow, Child Maltreatment, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

2007 Doctor of Philosophy/Master of Arts, Clinical Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno

2007 Predoctoral Intern, Child Clinical Psychology, University of Rochester Medical Center

1998 Bachelor of Arts, Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University


Expertise

Prospective cohort and clinical trials methodology; long-term health consequences of child maltreatment; etiology, prevention and treatment of psychiatric disorders following exposure to child trauma


Research Interests

Controlling contamination bias in child maltreatment research; transdiagnostic biomarkers and mechanisms of psychiatric disorders across multiple levels of analysis (biological, behavioral, and environmental); identifying the active treatment components and mechanisms of action of preventive and clinical interventions for child trauma


Courses

CMAS 258

Introduction to Child Maltreatment and Advocacy Studies

CMAS 465

Child Maltreatment: Prevention and Treatment

HDFS 553

Child Maltreatment: Policy, Administrative Data Systems, Prevention and Treatment

Profile photo for Diana Malcom
staff

Senior Administrative Support

Profile photo for Cheri McConnell
staff

Education Coordinator, Child Maltreatment Solutions Network

Profile photo for Kassidy McElwee
staff

Project Manager, Child Maltreatment Solutions Network

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