KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Alicia F. Lieberman, PhD
Alicia F. Lieberman, PhD is the Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair in Infant Mental Health and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs at the UCSF Department of Psychiatry, and Director of the Child Trauma Research Project at San Francisco General Hospital. She is a clinical consultant with the San Francisco Human Services Agency. She is active in major national organizations involved with mental health in infancy and early childhood. She is president of the board of directors of Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families, and on the Professional Advisory Board of the Johnson & Johnson Pediatric Institute. She has served on peer review panels of the National Institute of Mental Health, is on the Board of Trustees of the Irving Harris Foundation, and consults with the Miriam and Peter Haas Foundation on early childhood education for Palestinian-Israeli children.

Dr. Lieberman is currently the director of the Early Trauma Treatment Network (ETTN), a collaborative of four university sites that include the UCSF/SFGH Child Trauma Research Project, Boston Medical Center, Louisiana State University Medical Center, and Tulane University. ETTN is funded by the federal Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) as part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, a 40-site national initiative that has the mission of increasing the access and quality of services for children exposed to trauma in the United States. Her major interests include infant mental health, disorders of attachment, early trauma treatment outcome research, and mental health service disparities for underserved and minority children and families. Her current research involves treatment outcome evaluation of the efficacy of child-parent psychotherapy with traumatized children aged birth to six and with pregnant women involved in domestic violence. As a trilingual, tricultural Jewish Latina, she has a special interest in cultural issues involving child development, childrearing, and child mental health. She lectures extensive on these topics nationally and in four continents.

Patrice Gaines
As an award winning journalist and former Washington Post reporter, Patrice Gaines has proven that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Amongst her accomplishments, Patrice has written her autobiography Laughing in the Dark: From Colored Girl to Woman of Color -- A Journey from Prison to Power and the inspirational Moments of Grace: Meeting the Challenge. Before achieving these accomplishments, she had to change her lifestyle dramatically. Patrice grew up a self-hating young woman, entering one abusive relationship after another in search of love and purpose. She became a heroin user, went to prison for possession of the drug and was raped and beaten before she began her long contemplative journey to change.  Ms. Gaines details the changes she made to turn away from drugs, abusive men, and low self-esteem to become a confident journalist, author, and national speaker.