About the Speakers

Presentation Title — Age of Opportunity: Lessons From the New Science of Adolescence

Laurence Steinberg, Ph.D., is the Distinguished University Professor and Laura H. Carnell Professor of Psychology at Temple University. Dr. Steinberg is former President of the Division of Developmental Psychology of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Research on Adolescence. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. An internationally recognized expert on psychological development during adolescence, Dr. Steinberg’s research has focused on a range of topics in the study of contemporary adolescence, including adolescent brain development, risk-taking and decision-making, parent-adolescent relationships, adolescent employment, high school reform, and juvenile justice. He was a member of the National Academies’ Board on Children, Youth, and Families, and chaired the Academies’ Committee on the Science of Adolescence. Dr. Steinberg is the author of approximately 400 articles and essays on growth and development during the teenage years, and the author or editor of 17 books. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the American Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy, and was the first recipient of the Klaus J. Jacobs Research Prize for Productive Youth Development.

Presentation Title — Boys and Adolescent Males of color: Poverty, the Police and Trauma

Kirkland C. Vaughans, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist and a psychoanalyst with a private practice in New York City. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy and first-editor of the two-volume book, The Psychology of Black Boys and Adolescents. He is an associate professor of psychology at the Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies at Adelphi University, faculty member of the Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy Postgraduate Program at Adelphi University, a clinical supervisor at the National Institute for Psychotherapies, and visiting faculty at the Institute for Psychoanalytical Training and Research. He is a school psychologist at Hempstead High School and the former Regional Director of the defunct New Hope Guild Centers of Brooklyn. He has published articles on the intergenerational transmission of trauma among African Americans and presented widely on topics effecting Black youth.

Dr. Aranda is the incoming President of the New York State Psychological Association. He is a clinical, forensic, and neuropsychologist. He is President of Long Island Psychological Consulting, P.C. with several offices in Queens and Long Island. He was an adjunct faculty member at Hofstra University from 1991 to 2006 and developed and taught the course, Psychology and the Law. He has performed hundreds of Competence to Stand Trial, Insanity Defense, and Conditional Release evaluations and was a forensic expert in several high profile cases: “Happy Land Case” in the Bronx (involved traveling to Cuba), “Staten Island Ferry Slasher”, “New York Terrorist Trial” of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and co-conspirators (involved traveling to Puerto Rico), and the “Little Chester Shoe Store Massacre” in the Bronx. He has traveled extensively and made presentations in Russia, Poland, Ireland, Mexico, Turkey, Puerto Rico, and Argentina where he was awarded the honorary status of Visiting Professor at the John F. Kennedy University in Buenos Aires. In April of 2012, he traveled to Cuba in his capacity as Secretary of the Long Island Hispanic Bar Association as part of a cultural-educational program that involved meetings with law school professors and students. He was immersed in crisis work after 9/11 and appeared on many news broadcasts and shows. He created an organization, Sunshine Fund, while attending law school to provide relief to students affected by Hurricane Katrina. He made several appearances on Channel 12 News in 2011 and 2012 in connection to several bodies found in Gilgo Beach that involved the suspicion that they were victims of a serial killer. Dr. Aranda was a member of the New York State Psychological Association’s SAFE Act Committee reviewing the recent gun control law enacted in NY following the Sandy Hook shooting, and presently is a member of the Duty to Protect Working Group Committee. Dr. Aranda, because of his expertise in cultural competence, was invited to participate in the NASW National Think Tank Symposium on Achieving Racial Equality on November 18-19, 2013 in Washington, DC. Dr. Aranda’s list of presentations include Navigating the Turbulent Waters of Immigration: Asylum, Hardship, Removal and U-Visas, and PTSD and Latinos: Assessment, DSM-IV-TR vs. DSM-5, Clinical and Forensic Applications, at the Latino Psychological Association of New Jersey’s conference at The College of New Jersey on November 22, 2013. In addition to a long history of involvement within the New York State Psychological Association (NYSPA), he is involved in the Nassau County Psychological Association (NCPA), Chair of the Psychology and Law Committee of NCPA, Member of Suffolk County Psychological Association and the Psychology and Law Committee, Member-at-Large, Board of Directors of the National Association of Puerto Rican and Hispanic Social Workers, Member-at-Large, Executive Board, Latino Psychological Association of New Jersey, Vice-President of the Long Island Hispanic Bar Association, and is on the Editorial Board of Noticias, the official publication of the Hispanic National Bar Association. He is also President of the Hispanic Neuropsychological Society.

Presentation Title: Complex Trauma in Childhood: Symptoms and Biological Adaptations

Dr. D’Andrea’s research focuses on outcomes associated with sustained exposure to childhood abuse, also known as complex trauma/complex PTSD, cumulative trauma, and adverse childhood experiences. She uses techniques from cognitive and affective psychophysiology to examine the functional impairment associated with complex trauma, as well as psychotherapy processes associated with change. In particular, she examines the spectrum of threat reactivity with an eye towards elucidating mechanisms of hypo-reactivity to threat. Her work on threat reactivity emphasizes dissociative processes and their consequences for cognition, emotion, social behavior, and physical health. She has also studied these topics in the context of psychotherapy research. Taken together, this work allows her to examine a)the human potential for adaptation to one’s environment; and, b)the degree to which our emotional, cognitive, and other capacities are inter-related versus independent.

Presentation Title: Biopsychosocial Influences that Promote and Impede Social Brain Maturation

Dr. Eslinger is professor of neurology, pediatrics, and public health sciences at the Penn State University Hershey Neuroscience Institute and College of Medicine. His major research projects have focused on delineating the neural structures and networks mediating social cognition, social emotions and executive functions through studies of typically developing children and adolescents as well as those who have suffered damage to diverse regions of the brain. These networks provide the neurobiological substrate for human socio-moral development and maturation. His studies of clinical cases have revealed that such development is particularly critical in early childhood years when damage or dysfunction in these brain regions can cause lifelong social and behavioral impairments and is unrelated to general intelligence. This is followed by a second wave of maturational challenge in adolescence when neuroplasticity processes in these regions are critically shaping socio-moral skills and sentiments such as theory of mind, empathy, guilt, and gratitude. He is the editor of the journal Social Neuroscience.

Presentation Title: Science and Juvenile Efforts in New York State

Tom Andriola serves as the Chief of Policy and Implementation for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. In that capacity, he is responsible for facilitating the progress and implementation of the juvenile justice reform initiatives included in the Strategic Planning Action Committee’s (SPAC) strategic plan, and advising the Division and the Governor’s Office on other key public safety and cross systems initiatives. He is also a representative of the New York State Children’s Justice Task Force and the New York State Interagency Task Force on HIV/AIDS. Previously, Mr. Andriola served as a member of the Mohonasen Board of Education in Rotterdam, New York,as Director of Policy and Implementation for the Office of the Deputy Secretary for Public Safety, as Assistant Chief Budget Examiner for the New York State Division of the Budget, and as Deputy Budget Director for the New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committee. He also spent some time working in the private sector prior to joining public service. Mr. Andriola received an M.A. in Economics from the State University of New York at Albany in 1996 and a B.S. in Economics in 1993 from Siena College, which included a semester abroad at the Institute for American Universities in Aix-en-Provence, France.

Presentation Title: Containing Rage, Terror, Rage and Despair: The Traumatized Adolescent and the Therapeutic Hold

Dr. Amelio A. D’Onofrio is clinical professor and founding director of the Psychological Services Institute in the Graduate School of Education at Fordham University where he trains doctoral students in the art and science of the practice of psychotherapy. His work focuses on the treatment of complex forms of trauma and is informed by contemporary attachment theory, object relations theory, and interpersonal neurobiology. He is currently the recipient of a Department of Health and Human Services Graduate Psychology Training grant where he and his team provide trauma treatment to students in a number of underserved, inner city schools in the Bronx. He also is director of The Florence Seminars in Mental Health held each summer in Florence, Italy and is author of Adolescent Self-Injury: A Comprehensive Guide for Counselors and Healthcare Professionals.

Presentation Title: Topic: Psychiatric Issues among Adjudicated Youth: Challenges, Failures, and Successes

Akeem Marsh, MD is an Attending Psychiatrist who is Board Certified in both Adult and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He is a member of the Bellevue Juvenile Justice Mental Health Team. In this capacity he provides direct trauma informed clinical care for youth at a juvenile detention center in New York City. Dr. Marsh is also Clinical Assistant Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU School of Medicine and works as a Per Diem Psychiatrist for the North Shore-LIJ Health System.

Presentation Title: Practical Translation: Communicating Trauma-Informed Clinical Practices Between Multiple Systems

Dr. Isaiah B. Pickens is a licensed clinical psychologist who is currently Assistant Director of System Services at the University of California, Los Angeles National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. In this role, he is responsible for supporting the development of trauma-informed systems in school, child welfare, and juvenile-justice settings around the country. He is former faculty at New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Center in the department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry where he specialized in treatment of juvenile offenders who have a history of psychological trauma. In addition to Dr. Pickens’ academic work, he is passionate about merging his interest in youth with creative public health messaging platforms. In the summer of 2010, he founded iOpening Enterprises, a multi-media company specializing in creating books, films, and life skills workshops that promote healthy living for teens and the adults who care for them.