Melissa K. Runyon, Ph.D. is currently a licensed psychologist in Prospect, Kentucky. Dr. Runyon began her career in 1997 at the Miami University School of Medicine’s Child Protection Team in Miami, Florida where she founded and directed the Family and Child Treatment Services (FACTS) program. In 1999 she took a position as Treatment Services Director of the CARES (Child Abuse Research Education and Service) Institute where she achieved the rank of professor of psychiatry at Rowan SOM. For nearly 16 years, Dr. Runyon provided oversight of clinical activities related to the delivery of the two evidence-based therapies (EBTs), Combined Parent-Child Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CPC-CBT) and Trauma-focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), developed at the CARES Institute. Dr. Runyon has been the principal investigator or Project Director on grants supporting research or services from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Substance Abuse Mental Health and Services Administration, and private foundations to support their research, training and service efforts. Dr. Runyon provides consultation in the development of systems of trauma-informed care and to organizations that are developing programs to address the needs of children exposed to trauma, abuse and violence. Dr. Runyon also provides training and consultation in the United States and abroad to mental heath therapists in CPC-CBT and TF-CBT. In order to increase children and families access to care, training is also provided to child protection case workers, intake workers, and treating therapists in evidence-based engagement strategies to increase the likelihood that children and families involved in the child welfare system seek services, attend initial intake appointments and follow through with services.
Network Members
This listing of NCTSN members includes current grantees as well as NCTSN Affiliates, former grantees who have maintained their ties to the Network.
Runyon, Melissa, PhD
Rutgers University-Children's Center for Resilience & Trauma Recovery
The Rutgers Children's Center for Resilience and Trauma Recovery (CCRTR) is a grant funded agency focused on engaging mental health professionals, community members, and caregivers in educational opportunities that increase the knowledge of youth mental health needs and provide the practical evidence-informed skills needed to support youth with mental health concerns. It is our mission to invite all voices into discussions about youth mental health and the best strategies to support them within their communities so that we truly create healing environments.
Ryan, Caitlin, PhD, ACSW
Caitlin Ryan, PhD, ACSW is a clinical social worker, researcher and director of the Family Acceptance Project (FAP) who has worked on LGBTQ health and mental health for more than 40 years. She conducted the first research on LGBTQ youth and families and developed the first evidence-based family support model to prevent risk and promote well-being for LGBTQ children and youth. FAP's family support model helps ethnically, racially and religiously diverse families to support their LGBTQ children to prevent risk and promote well-being in the context of their families, cultures, and faith communities. Her work shows how specific family rejecting and accepting behaviors contribute to risk and well-being for LGBTQ children and youth and helps caregivers understand the traumatic impact of family rejecting behaviors that many parents use to try to change, prevent and minimize their child's LGBTQ identity to try to help their LGBTQ children fit in, stay connected with their cultural and faith traditions and be accepted by others. FAP's approach to increasing family support for LGBTQ children and youth was designed to be implemented across systems, including behavioral health, school-based services, primary care, out-of-home care and pastoral care. Dr. Ryan collaborated with Allegheny General Hospital's Center for Traumatic Stress in Children & Adolescents and the developers of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) to integrate FAP's family support model and TF-CBT to develop a new integrated family-based treatment model for care of LGBTQ children and youth who have experienced trauma. She has developed multilingual evidence-based family education resources and trains on this work across the U.S. and in other countries.
Salek, Jenna, LCSW
Jenna Salek is a licensed clinical social worker currently working in private practice with children, adolescents, and adults. She is a nationally certified provider of TF-CBT and previously worked in community mental health in Boston and Chicago. She most recently worked at the Kovler Center Child Trauma Program, an NCTSN funded site in Chicago that provides trauma-informed services to immigrant and refugee youth from around the world. She has experience providing direct clinical care, supervision to graduate students, and trainings to a variety of audiences including immigration attorneys, interpreters, and staff working in unaccompanied minor shelters. She is passionate about providing trauma-informed services to youth and training and support to professionals and looks forward to continuing her involvement with the NCTSN, especially the Forcibly Displaced Community of Practice.
Salvador, Diana
Samulski, Anna
Anna Samulski (she/her/hers) is a current MSW candidate and Kiphart Scholar of Global Health and Social Development at the University of Chicago. Ms. Samulski is experienced working in humanitarian emergency settings, and her clinical interests include global mental health and psychosocial support, conflict and migration related trauma, and working with young people. Currently she is a Mental Healthcare Clinical Consultant with the Marjorie Kovler Child Trauma Program, where she provides trauma-informed individual therapy, case management, and psychological affidavit support for her clients.
SCAN, Inc.
The Border Traumatic Stress Response Center is a program of Serving Children and Adults in Need (SCAN) in Laredo, TX. The Center provides individual counseling services to youth that have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event including sexual and physical abuse, traumatic grief, and exposure to family, community or school violence. The target population is trauma exposed youth ages 3 to 17 including children of military families, children involved in the child welfare system, children of caregivers with substance use disorders who receive outpatient trauma treatment, children receiving shelter services through SCAN's Emergency Youth Shelter, and adolescents ages 12 to 17 with co-occurring trauma and substance abuse that are involved in the juvenile justice and/or child welfare systems and are receiving residential substance abuse treatment at SCAN. The target population is composed almost entirely of first-generation Mexican Americans or Mexican immigrants who are bilingual or primarily Spanish speaking. The evidence-based interventions being implemented include TF-CBT and ICARE, with cultural modifications made to ensure that all services are culturally and linguistically relevant. The Center partners with community stakeholders representing local school districts, law enforcement, juvenile justice, behavioral health and substance abuse treatment, and child welfare.
Schacht, Megan, PhD
Megan Schacht is the Director of Family & Clinical Services with the St. Louis County Family Court. Previously, she was the Clinical Manager at Children's Advocacy Services of Greater St. Louis. She remains active with the NCTSN in the areas of juvenile justice and complex trauma.
School of Social Work
The Complex Trauma Training Consortium (CTTC) is a national trainer-training and workforce development initiative that will establish sustainable expertise in complex trauma understanding, assessment, and treatment within each of the 50 US states, the 5 territories, DC, and the four largest US metropolitan areas. The CTTC will create a self-sustainable network of over 200 state and territory-based trainers across 60 affiliate organizations nationwide, increasing access to resources and addressing behavioral health disparities in underserved areas with historically limited NCTSN presence. The 20-module, 40-hour CTTC curriculum spans a comprehensive range of topics, including the intersection of complex trauma with such adverse life experiences such as ancestral trauma, systemic racism, and substance abuse, and emphasizes the effects of complex trauma on high-risk and marginalized groups including immigrants, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ youth and families. The CTTC will conduct over 1,000 training events, delivering training to over 20,000 multidisciplinary providers, consumer and allied professionals nationwide. The CTTC is a partnership between Adelphi University, Alaska Behavioral Health, the Foundation Trust, and the University of Chicago, and is comprised of a faculty of over two dozen subject matter experts diverse in race, culture, language, geography and lived experience.
Seasons Center for Behavioral Health
Seasons Center is a comprehensive Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) and Certified Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) offering a broad range of psychiatric and behavioral health services (medication management, outpatient therapy, substance use treatment, crisis services, specialized trauma care, specialized family services, wraparound services, nursing support, school-based services, Assertive Community Treatment, Intensive Psychiatric Rehabilitation, education and outreach, and specialized services for foster, adoptive, and kinship families) to individuals, families, and communities in Northwest Iowa since 1959. Seasons Center serves 19 (rural) counties, and 1 (urban) county with offices in 11 of these counties across Northwest Iowa. Mission: Guiding Individuals and families toward a meaningful and fulfilling life. Values: Innovation, Impact, Influence. Through the SAMHSA NCTSI - Cat III funding, Seasons Center is working to enhance partnerships in rural Northwest Iowa with local child-serving agencies to increase access to specialized, trauma-informed, and evidence-based mental health services for foster, adoptive, and kinship children and their families. By walking alongside families to provide family-centered service to support and resolve the unique challenges families are facing.