Associate Professor of Psychology at University of Richmond

Dr. Catherine Bagwell, a 1994 Richmond graduate, returned to her alma mater to teach in 1999 after receiving master and doctoral degrees in psychology from Duke University. She also completed a 12-month internship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Bagwell has published several papers and book chapters exploring how the friendships children form influence their behavior and development. In 1997, she received a research service award from the National Institute of Mental Health to support completion of her dissertation, "The friendship relations of antisocial boys." She also won the American Psychological Association dissertation award.

Assistant Clinical Professor and Director of Graduate Studies for Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University

Dr. Melanie Bonner is an Assistant Professor who holds dual appointments in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences (Division of Medical Psychology) and the Department of Surgery (Division of Neuro-Oncology Program) at Duke University Medical Center. She also is a faculty member in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University where she serves as the Director of Graduate Studies.

Dr. Bonner has worked with the Duke Pediatric Brain Tumor Program since 1994 and currently serves as the Associate Director of Pediatric Research for the Quality of Life program. As part of this program, Dr. Bonner has developed a number of studies that are focused on survivorship issues. She has particular interest in neuro-cognitive late-effects of brain tumor treatments and in understanding the social struggles that patients face after treatment ends. Her commitment to pediatric neuro-oncology research is also reflected in her work as an associate member of the Children’s Oncology Group.

As a Pediatric Psychologist, Dr. Bonner is also actively involved in the clinical care of patients and their families on a daily basis. She evaluates the neuropsychological functioning of patients, completes school visits to assist with the integration of children back into the school environment, assists in developing appropriate education plans, leads support groups for adolescents, and endeavors to improve the well-being of the patients and their families. As such, Dr. Bonner has had the opportunity to have a first hand look at the victories and the struggles patients with pediatric brain tumors encounter. While continually humbled by the resilience of these children and their families, she is keenly aware of the challenges they face. Therefore, research focused on maximizing the quality of life of these patients, a quality that they deserve, is a research priority.

Dr. Bonner’s research goal is to continue multidisciplinary and translational approaches to understanding the mechanisms underlying the neurocognitive and functional deficits experienced by pediatric cancer survivors. Long-term research goals are to extend this work into the clinical realm by developing effective interventions for this rapidly growing population. Specifically, using advanced technology (e.g., fMRI, DTI, etc.) and models from social cognitive neuroscience, Bonner’s work will focus on the identification of neural and cognitive-affective substrates that impact outcomes in children with cancer.

Dean of College of Health Professions at Temple University and Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Pediatric Psychology

Dr. Ronald T. Brown is Professor of Public Health, Psychology and Pediatrics and is Dean of the College of Health Professions at Temple University. Dr. Brown is a diplomate in Clinical Health Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology, and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the National Academy of Neuropsychology. Dr. Brown has been the recipient of numerous grant awards from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Defense and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services.

Dr. Brown currently is the Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology and serves on the Behavioral Medicine and Intervention Outcomes of the Center for Scientific Review of the National Institutes of Health. He has published over 200 articles, chapters and books related to childhood psychopathology and health psychology. He also has served on the editorial boards of 11 journals related to child and adolescent psychopathology. Dr. Brown also serves as a liaison to the American Academy of Pediatric subcommittee on the assessment and practice guidelines for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Dr. Brown also serves as Chair of the Board of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association and serves on the Council of Representatives of the American Psychological Association.

Pediatric Neuropsychologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Dr. Heather Conklin is an Assistant Member of the St. Jude Faculty and a Pediatric Neuropsychologist in the Brain Tumor Program.

Dr. Conklin’s research interests include:

Cognitive Functioning in Brain Tumor Survivors

• Improving Specification of Cognitive Deficits following Brain Tumor Treatment
• Identifying Neurodevelopmental Changes Following Brain Tumor Treatment
• Delineating Risk and Resiliency Factors with Respect to Cognitive Outcome
• Identifying Interventions that Mitigate Cognitive Deficits

Neuropsychological Test Development

• Improving Behavioral and Neurological Specificity
  
• Improving Ecological Validity

Pampered Chef, Ltd. Endowed Chair in Family Resiliency and Professor and Director, Family Resiliency Center at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dr. Barbara Fiese is The Pampered Chef, Ltd., Endowed Chair in Family Resiliency and Director of the Family Resiliency Center at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign. She is Professor of Human and Community Development and holds affiliated appointments as Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics. Prior to joining the University of Illinois she was Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Syracuse University and Adjunct Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Upstate Medical University, Syracuse New York. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical and Developmental Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association. She is a member of several national committees and boards including the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Children, Youth, and Families (Chair 2007-2008), Society for Research in Child Development Policy and Communications Board, and University of Rochester School of Medicine’s Wynne Center for the Family Board. She serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Journal of Family Psychology and Family Process.

Dr. Fiese’s research focuses on family factors that promote health and wellbeing in children and has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, W. T. Grant Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and March of Dimes Foundation. She is currently engaged in a five year project supported by the National Institute of Mental Health examining the role that family routines and rituals play in promoting medical adherence and reducing anxiety in children with asthma. Her talented team of postdoctoral fellows, graduate, and undergraduate students have observed over 300 families during the course of a regular mealtime. These observations are being used as the foundation for public health initiatives to prevent childhood obesity, and associated risks with asthma, diabetes and cystic fibrosis. Interviews focusing on her work appear frequently in the popular press including the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Parents Magazine. Her latest book, Family Routines and Rituals, Yale University Press, was released in September 2006.

2005 Pulitzer Prize winner, reporter for the Wall Street Journal with a focus on rare diseases, cancer, and patient advocacy & Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Award 2006 (Topic: Improving the Cancer Care Experience for Rare Cancer Survivors)

Amy Dockser Marcus is a reporter for The Wall Street Journal. She was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Beat Reporting for her coverage of the physical, monetary, and emotional costs of cancer. Her project, ``Improving the Cancer Care Experience for Rare Cancer Survivors'' received an Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is also the author of two books about the Middle East, most recently Jerusalem 1913: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict.

Associate Professor of Psychology at University of Cincinnati 

Dr. Laura Nabors obtained her doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology from the University of Memphis in 1993. She completed her internship in community pediatrics at the TEACCH Program at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Her postdoctoral training site was the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. During her postdoctoral years Dr. Nabors also provided clinical services at Chapel Hill Pediatrics.

Dr. Nabors has held an appointment in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cincinnati since 2000. Prior to this she was on the faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry. Her research demonstrates a broad range of interests -- in the areas of pediatric and child clinical psychology. In 2005 Dr. Nabors became a diplomate in Child Clinical and Adolescent Psychology, showing continued excellence in clinical service provision. Her current research focuses on improving functioning for children with chronic illness in community settings and improving health and wellbeing of typically developing children in a broad variety of contexts.

Two Time Brain Tumor Survivor and First Recipient of Lance Armstrong Livestrong Junior Spirit of Survivorship Award, CCC Scholar Alumni, Class of 2010 at Northern Arizona University

My name is Alex Oden. I was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1988. As a kid I grew up loving sports and the outdoors. Starting at a very young age, I played soccer and baseball until I was in seventh grade. Then in 2000, at the age of 12, I was diagnosed with germinoma, a germ cell brain tumor. This type of cancer is the pediatric version of testicular cancer. Between the ages of 12 and 15, I endured eight brain surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, a relapse, a bone marrow transplant (BMT), and more chemotherapy and radiation.

In 2001, depressed and weighing only 68 pounds, I read Lance Armstrong’s book, “It’s not about the bike.” It inspired me to regain my life and to give back to the cancer community. Since then I have focused my life on trying to support cancer research and other cancer patients. In 2001 I helped coordinate children's activities and shared my story for the Raise a Racquet for Kids tennis tournament at the Tucson Racquet Club. In 2002 I began raising money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and for other cancer organizations and have now raised more than $50,000 for various cancer charities.

During high school I spent countless hours volunteering with cancer patients, spending time with them in their hospital rooms. In 2004 I was awarded with the Junior Spirit of Survivorship Award by the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and later that year went to Washington D.C. as a representative of LAF to advocate on behalf of cancer survivors on Livestrong Day.

Seeing firsthand the emotional impact of cancer has led me to the study of psychology with the hope of one day counseling cancer patients.

Distinguished Professor of Psychology at University of Wisconsin

I am a developmental psychopathologist. My students and I are interested in understanding the mechanisms through which children's experiences increase biobehavioral development and vulnerability for behavioral disorders. The goal of our work is to use psychopathological processes to help us to understand relative contributions of "nature" and "nurture" to human development and the role of social experience on brain development. These studies seek to understand children's adaptive and maladaptive behaviors by exploring the developmental processes linking emotion, neural plasticity, and mental health.

Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Director of Assessment and Neuropsychology Service and Department of Psychology at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Dr. Jerilynn Radcliffe is a diplomate in Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology of the American Board of Professional Psychology, and is a Fellow in the Pennsylvania Psychological Association as well as a Member of the American Psychological Association and the International Neuropsychological Society.  Dr. Radcliffe is the recipient of numerous grant awards from the National Insitutes of Health, as well as grant-supported through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the William Penn Foundation.  Dr. Radcliffe is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.  She has reviewed articles for a number of peer-reviewed journals in the areas of pediatric and health psychology.  She has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and chapters.  Dr. Radcliffe is Program Director of the Neuropsychology Service at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where she also serves as Director of the Behavioral Neuroscience Core of the Clinical Translational Research Center and Vice Chair of the Institutional Review Board.  

Director of Educational Psychology at University of Connecticut

Dr. Sally M. Reis is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Teaching Fellow in Educational Psychology at the University of Connecticut where she also serves as Principal Investigator of The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented. She was a teacher for 15 years, 11 of which were spent working with gifted students on the elementary, junior high, and high school levels. She has authored more than 130 articles, 14 books, 50 book chapters, and numerous monographs and technical reports. She has traveled extensively across the country conducting workshops and providing professional development for school districts on enrichment programs and gender equity programs. She is co-author of The Schoolwide Enrichment Model, The Secondary Triad Model, Dilemmas in Talent Development in the Middle Years, and a new book published in 1998 about talent development in females entitled Work Left Undone: Choices and Compromises of Talented Females. Sally serves on the editorial board of the Gifted Child Quarterly, and is a past-president of The National Association for Gifted Children.She recently was honored with the highest award in her field, the Distinguished Scholar of the National Association for Gifted Children.

Director of Pediatric Psychology Research at Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center

Dr. Kenneth Tercyak is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Oncology and Pediatrics. He serves as the director of Pediatric Psychology Research and Service in the clinical Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, and is a member of the Cancer Control Program and Fisher Center for Familial Cancer Research at Lombardi. Dr. Tercyak is also an attending psychologist at Georgetown University Hospital where he provides care to children and adolescents with cancer. His primary research interests include the prevention and control of cancer and tobacco risks among youth, behavioral interventions to promote youth health, psychosocial oncology and genetic testing, and cancer survivorship. Dr. Tercyak is principal investigator for two ongoing NIH randomized controlled trials: a telephone-based cancer education and prevention intervention for teens, and a decision making intervention for mothers participating in cancer genetic counseling. He has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers.

For the past several years Dr. Tercyak has served as a reviewer on many study sections for the NIH, ACS, Komen Foundation, and the Dutch Cancer Society including the NIH Behavioral Medicine Interventions and Outcomes study section. He has been an ad hoc reviewer for more than 13 journals and currently serves as Associate Editor for prevention at the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Dr. Tercyak serves as a member of the admissions committee for the Georgetown Experimental Medical Studies Program and co-chairs the GUMC Research Committee.

Author of five books about The Courage to Give, CNN Millennium Hero, and multiple appearances on Oprah

Jackie Waldman was living the “perfect life” with three healthy children, a loving husband and a thriving business when she discovered she had multiple sclerosis. After dwelling on her limitations for too long, she finally saw new possibilities and used her energy to begin a new career in volunteerism. Jackie co-founded Dallas’ Random Acts of Kindness Week. She has appeared twice on Oprah! Jackie was chosen by CNN as one of their Millennium Heroes. She is a recipient of the 1999 Girls Inc. “She Knows Where She’s Going” Award. She is a National Ambassador for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

The author of five books, The Courage to Give, Teens with the Courage to Give, America, September 11: The Courage to Give, Teachers with The Courage to Give, and People with MS with The Courage to Give, Jackie inspires others to give through volunteering—no matter what—and to discover that they, too, can triumph over tragedy to make a difference in the world.

Jackie completed a four year speaking tour visiting 150 cities speaking with MS patients and caregivers sharing the courage to give message.

She lives in Dallas, Texas, with her husband, Steve. They have been married thirty five years. Jackie’s family is ever growing—Melissa and Bart Plaskoff, Todd Waldman, Natalie and Michael Waldman, three grandchildren, Hudson, Charlie, and Parker and a long hair Chihuahua named Bambi.

President and CEO of Judge Baker Children's Center at Harvard and Professor of Psychology at Harvard College of Arts & Sciences and Harvard Medical School

Dr. John Weisz has been President and CEO of the Judge Baker Children’s Center since 2004. He is also Professor of Psychology in the Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences and in Harvard Medical School. Previous faculty positions include Cornell, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the University of California at Los Angeles, where he served for a term as Director of the Graduate Program in Clinical Psychology and Director of the Psychology Clinic. He grew up in Mississippi and received his BA from Mississippi College. After serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, he studied at Yale, where he received a Ph.D. His written work includes books and articles focused primarily on child mental health care. His most recent book is Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents: Evidence-Based Treatments and Case Examples, published by Cambridge University Press.

Professor of Psychology at Tufts University

Dr. Donald Wertlieb is Professor and former Chairman of the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, Tufts University, Medford, MA, founded and directed the Center for Applied Child Development (CACD), the structure by which the considerable expertise and resources of the community of child development scholars based at Tufts infuses community agencies, schools and other educational and human service settings with child development theory and research. CACD holds contracts with school systems and educational settings in the New England region, creating a substantial network for the diffusion of educational reform. Emphases are upon “developmentally-appropriate practice” as a vehicle for optimizing learning environments, teacher-learner interactions, and inclusion of wide range of children and families with varying interests and special needs. Internationally, Wertlieb’s work emphasizes collaboration and exchange in the development of mental health and integrated human services frameworks, with particular attention to children and families placed at risk. Notable are partnership projects in Haifa, Israel (Mercaz Gil Center for Learning) and in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine (Educational Resource Center for Children with Disabilities). Wertlieb is a Fulbright Senior Specialist partnering with institutions of higher education abroad on topics of child and family health, social service systems, and leadership.

Dr. Wertlieb is a pediatric psychologist whose major research interest has been understanding the complex processes by which children and families cope with the stresses of marital separation and divorce. A second focus is how children and families cope with chronic illness, with specific emphasis upon adaptation to insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

Reports of his research have appeared in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Health Psychology, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Zero-to-Three, Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, Journal of Pediatric Psychology, and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, among others. In addition, he is committed to dissemination of research to policy makers and the public, and works with the mass media on a regular basis. He served on the steering group of the National Forum on the Future of Children and Families, a joint program of the National Academy of Science’s Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education (CBASSE) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Wertlieb was President of the Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP) (1996-99), a professional membership organization of over 1000 scholars and practitioners committed to the improvement of health care research and services for children and families. Most recently, with colleagues Francine Jacobs and Richard Lerner, Wertlieb edited the four volume Handbook of Applied Developmental Science, as well as Applied Developmental Science: An Advanced Textbook. (Sage, 2005)

Dr. Wertlieb has been Interim-chairman of the Department of Education at Tufts, and a Lecturer, Department of Social Medicine and Health Policy, Harvard Medical School. His undergraduate education and first master’s degree are from Tufts University. He is a graduate of the Clinical and Community Psychology Program at Boston University. Prior to joining the Tufts faculty, he served on the faculty of the Judge Baker Guidance Center. He is active in organized psychology at the national, regional and state levels, including American Psychological Association, Division of Child, Youth and Family Services; Section on Clinical Child Psychology; Society for Pediatric Psychology; New England Psychological Association; and Massachusetts Psychological Association. He provides mental health services to individuals and families as well as consultation to schools and human service agencies in his independent practice in Wellesley Hills, MA.

Assistant Professor of Psychology at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Dr. Whitney P. Witt is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the School of Medicine and Public Health at University of Wisconsin, Madison and the Co-Director of BioPop: Integrative Biopsychosocial Research in Population Health. She holds a PhD in health services research and a MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a BA in women's studies and law from Hampshire College. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School in the Pediatric Health Services Research Program at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children. Prior to her current position, Dr. Witt served as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine and the Acting Director of the Section on Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Buehler Center on Aging.

Dr. Witt brings an interdisciplinary approach to studying the social, behavioral, and psychological factors that contribute to human development and disparities in family health and well-being across the lifespan. Her research addresses how familial relationships influence health behaviors, health and mental health status, and healthcare services use of individuals over time. Moreover, the goal of her research is to understand the physiological, behavioral, and social pathways by which health perceptions affect the health and healthcare use of family members and individuals living with illness.

She is currently exploring three primary lines of research: 1) the impact of childhood illness on the family; 2) maternal mental health and the impact on long-term health behaviors, health, and economic outcomes of mothers and children; 3) psychobiology of family caregiving across the lifespan. Dr. Witt is building a research program to examine mind-body interactions and how such interactions may help explain health disparities within and between families. Together, this information will help in constructing effective interventions for these families to improve patient health outcomes, reduce health inequalities, and address family burden.

Professor of Pediatrics at UCLA School of Medicine and Associate Director of Patients and Survivors Program at UCLA Cancer Center

Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer is a Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Director of the Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care Program at the Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA, Associate Director of the Patients and Survivors Program, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control Research, UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, and past-medical director of Trinity KidsCare Pediatric Hospice. Her program’s research focuses on pediatric chronic pain, end of life care in children, complementary and alternative therapies, and quality of life in survivors of childhood cancer.  She has guided many collaborative clinical trials in analgesics in children, and is on the steering committee of the NIH-funded Childhood Cancer Survivor Study. She is the Past-Chairman of the Cancer Control and Prevention: Psychosocial and Behavioral Research (CPPB) Study Section of the American Cancer Society and an NIH study section (BMIO) member.

Dr. Zeltzer has received many awards, including a WT Grant Faculty Scholar’s Award, a Research Career Development Award from the NCI, the 2002 Physician Excellence Award from Trinity Hospice, the 2003 UCLA Helene Brown Award for Excellence in Cancer Control Research, a 2005 Mayday Pain and Policy Fellowship, the 2005 American Pain Society’s Jeffrey Lawson Award for Advocacy in Children’s Pain Relief, and is president-elect of the Pediatric SIG of the International Association for the Study of Pain. She is immediate past-Secretary of the American Pain Society and on the board of directors of the American Pain Foundation. She has over 300 publications, including her book, “Conquering your Child’s Chronic Pain: a Pediatrician’s Guide for Reclaiming a Normal Childhood,” (HarperCollins, 2005). She has been in the media, with recent examples including National Public Radio, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, Discovery Health Channel, and the Evening News with Peter Jennings. She has founded a non-profit dedicated to increasing awareness and treatment of children’s pain, The National Children’s Pain Center.