Coexisting with COVID-19: Are the Kids Gonna Be Alright?

Janine M. Jones, PhD, NCSP, LP is a Professor of School Psychology and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Education at the University of Washington. Her research and clinical work center on providing culturally responsive mental health interventions for school age youth. She specializes in the integration of cultural factors that are associated with resilience in racially diverse youth. Her research and clinical work also include the study of racial identity and belonging as critical elements in school engagement for youth of color. Dr. Jones is an author and the editor of The Psychology of Multiculturalism in the Schools: A primer for practice, training, and research. She is a licensed psychologist and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist.

Jill Locke is an Associate Professor in the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the School Mental Health Assessment Research and Training (SMART) Center Co-Director, a licensed child psychologist, and research affiliate at the Seattle Children’s Autism Center. To date, her research has focused on the: 1) presentation of social impairment for youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in inclusive school settings; 2) identification of best practices for youth with ASD; and 3) understanding of successful implementation and sustainment of evidence-based practices (EBPs) for youth with ASD in public school settings. She is currently the: 1) principal investigator of an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) grant (R324A200033) to examine evidence-based practice use to support youth with autism in inclusive settings; and 2) site PI of a Health Resources Services Administration Autism Intervention Research Network on Behavioral Health (AIRB) grant (UT3MC39436 PI: Kasari) to develop and test an implementation strategy (UNITED) to support the uptake and implementation of three evidence-based interventions that focus on early intervention, school-aged children, and adolescents with autism with the goal of promoting access and services for underrepresented and under resourced communities. Her experiences have highlighted the importance of collaborating with public schools and the reality of working within the constraints of publicly funded systems, their timeline (e.g. school calendar year), and with their personnel.

Liliana J. Lengua, PhD, is a child clinical psychologist studying the effects of stress and adversity on children, examining risk and protective factors that contribute to children’s resilience or vulnerability. She examines children’s neurobiological stress responses, temperament, coping, parenting and family contexts as risk and protective factors that account for the effects of adversity on children’s social, emotional and academic well-being.  She has been an investigator on several federally-funded projects examining the development of executive function (NICHD), the effects of low income, neighborhood, family, and parenting  on neurobiological systems of self-regulation, and their effects on preschool and preadolescent children’s social, emotional and academic development (NICHD, NIMH), neighborhood, family and peer effects on adolescent substance use (NIDA), and childhood risk factors for the emergence of adult mental health problems (NIDA). Dr. Lengua is the author of over 100 published papers. She serves on the steering committee for the CDC funded Washington State Essentials for Childhood Initiative, collaborated with the Harvard Center for the Developing Child’s Frontiers of Innovation, and has served on the board of trustees for Neighborhood House, a private, nonprofit anti-poverty organization.