M. Carolina Velasco-Hodgson, MSW. Is a bilingual clinician with more than 14 years of experience. She is from Chile where she was trained and practices as a clinical psychologist; after obtaining a Fulbright Scholarship, she completed her master’s in Social Work at Boston College, and currently she is a Public Health PhD’s student. She was a social work intern for two years at Child Witness to Violence Project and a family specialist for the first year of Project Dulce. She is also an active member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Translation Review Committee since 2010 and an Individual Affiliate to the network since 2014.

Carolina currently works in Chile as adjunct assistant professor at the School of Social Work, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and she is an infant and child psychotherapist in private practice. Her interests include trauma prevention and intervention, immigration, cultural child development, and child–parent bonding and attachment.

Carmen Rosa Noroña, LCSW, MS. Ed., CEIS is from Ecuador where she trained and practiced as a clinical psychologist. For over 20 years, Carmen Rosa has provided clinical services to young children and their families in a variety of settings including early intervention, home-based and outpatient programs. She currently is the Clinical Coordinator of the Child Witness to Violence Project and the Associate Director of the Boston Site Early Trauma Treatment Network at Boston Medical Center. She is a Child-Parent Psychotherapy National Trainer, a Zero to Three DC 0-5 Expert Faculty and a member of the Diversity Informed Infant Mental Health Tenets Workgroup. Her practice and research interests are on the impact of trauma on attachment; the intersection of culture, immigration, and trauma; tailoring mental health services to new immigrant families; and cross-cultural reflective supervision and consultation. She is a co-chair of the Culture Consortium of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, and has adapted and translated materials for Spanish-speaking families affected by trauma, including the series Trinka y Juan. Carmen Rosa has also contributed to the literature in infant mental health and diversity.

Arú González, Ed.M. is interested in the intersection between art, science, and social justice, particularly in the expression of embodied emotion in early prevention programs. He is experienced in translation and interpretation across diverse settings.  

Luis E. Flores, M.A.LPC, LCDC, LCCA, RPT-S, is the Executive Vice President of SCAN Inc. (Serving Children and Adults in Need). He has been working in the adult and children substance abuse and mental health fields for the past twenty-seven years. He has a master’s degree in counseling psychology and is licensed in in Texas as a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and Licensed Childcare Administrator. In the past twenty-seven years, he has devoted his energies to developing culturally-responsive community-based programming for Mexican American families along the Texas-Mexico border area. Since 2002, he has been the project director for 16 projects funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. He was born and raised in the Mexican side of the border and has lived in the US side of the border for the past 40 years. He is a founding member of the Translation Review Committee that is part of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. As a member of this committee, he has supported the Network in its efforts to increase linguistic competence and has helped in the translation of various English resources into Spanish.

Clint (he/him/his) is a pre-doctoral intern at Hopewell Health Centers in rural Ohio. He will complete the requirements for his doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology in August 2020 from Eastern Kentucky University. Clint is also training for certification in various trauma-focused therapies for children, adolescents, and adults. He holds a Bachelor's degree in ASL and English Interpreting, and has provided therapy to hearing and Deaf individuals in Kentucky and Ohio. On weekends, you'll likely find Clint reading comic books or working on a craft project. He loves superheroes, and his favorite superhero is Hawkeye (Marvel's first Deaf superhero).

Salam Soliman, Psy.D.'s work has primarily focused on children, with particular interest in disrupted attachments and the long-term effects of trauma on children. Dr. Soliman is a licensed clinical psychologists and has been working in the field since 1996. Raised in Montreal, she obtained her Bachelor’s in Psychology from McGill University and went on to get a Master’s in Education from the University of Ottawa in 1998 as well as a Masters in Experimental Psychology (ABD) from Carleton University. Dr. Soliman received a third Master’s in Science with a focus on Education in 2004, and went on to receive a doctorate in Clinical and School Psychology in 2006 from Pace University. Over her careers, she has since worked in schools, hospitals, outpatients clinics and universities. Currently, Dr. Soliman spends much her time providing reflective clinical supervision and consultation to the 15 Child First sites across Connecticut, as well as serves a national advisory and training role within Child First, Inc.

Gerald has spent half his life in Germany and half in the United States. He studied industrial design and has over twenty years experience creating visual effects for movies. He has also written and directed four short films. Whether it’s designing a chair, directing a film, working on parts of a larger film, or translating a book, he enjoys creating things with a team and sharing it with others.

Gamze Akcarca

In 2011, Gamze Akarca graduated from Istanbul Bilgi University Psychology Department. Between 2011 and 2014, she continued to work with children who have special needs in several rehabilitation and special needs education centers. She got her masters degree in 2014 in Trauma Focused Clinical Psychology from Okan University. Since 2014, she has worked actively in the field as a psychosocial support provider on crisis and disasters. She attends to creative writing workshops for children and writes therapeutic stories.