| Stephen J. Cozza, M.D., COL, U.S. Army (Ret.) is Professor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University where he serves as Associate Director, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He received his medical degree from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He completed his residency in General Psychiatry and fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. Dr. Cozza is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in the specialties of General Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He has served in a variety of positions in the Department of Psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, including Chief, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Service, Program Director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship Program, and Chief, Department of Psychiatry. He retired from the U.S. Army in 2006 after 25 years of military service. Dr. Cozza’s professional interests have been in the areas of clinical and community response to trauma and the impact of deployment and combat injury, illness, and death on military service members, their families, and their children. He was instrumental in organizing and executing the initial mental health response to the September 11, 2001, attack on the Pentagon. Under his leadership, the Walter Reed Department of Psychiatry spearheaded the initiative to provide mental health services, support, and follow-up to the many injured service members, their families, and their children who receive medical treatment. Dr. Cozza has highlighted the impact of deployment, injury, illness, and death on the children and families of military service members. He is published in the scientific literature and has presented on these topics at multiple national and international scientific meetings. Dr. Cozza serves as a scientific advisor to several national organizations that focus on the needs of military children and families.
Cathy Grace, Ed.D., Professor and Founding Director, National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives, Early Childhood Institute, Mississippi State University, began her career in early childhood education in 1972 in eastern Arkansas, teaching first grade at Wedlock Elementary School in West Memphis and holding "summer school" on the front porch of her father's general store in the tiny town of Proctor.
Having had her own first child at the age of 17, Grace already knew a lot about rural life, poverty, and at-risk children. After earning a bachelor's degree at the University of Arkansas, she came home to teach, so that her parents could help care for her son, and entered graduate school at Arkansas State University. She tempted her young pupils to her front porch program with popsicles and helped them learn the alphabet and numbers while reading to them.
In the three decades since then, Grace has taught at the university level; been executive director of a regional professional development association for early childhood educators; and created and directed a comprehensive family support agency for Lee County, Mississippi. When Mississippi became the last state in the country to require school districts to offer kindergarten in 1985, Grace led the kindergarten implementation as early childhood coordinator for the state Department of Education. She has been an advisor to governors, to legislative leaders, to members of the United States Congress, to state departments of education and human services, to the Public Broadcasting System, and to school districts, and has made hundreds of presentations to audiences around the nation.
Grace joined Mississippi State University (MSU) in 1999 as an associate professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction of the College of Education and director of its Early Childhood Institute. Since that time, she has obtained millions of dollars from private, local, state, and federal sources to conduct and evaluate a variety of technical assistance models for child care programs, preschool and elementary programs, community colleges, and four-year universities in Mississippi.
When MSU obtained an additional grant of $2.1 million from the United States Department of Education in 2004, it appointed Grace to direct the National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives within the MSU Early Childhood Institute. She leads a team of researchers at MSU and at partner universities and agencies to study gaps in early childhood services in rural communities and how technical assistance models can be replicated and adapted in diverse rural areas.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Grace spearheaded a multi-million dollar effort to rebuild and equip damaged and destroyed early childhood programs in the Mississippi Katrina region. Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi appointed Grace in June 2008 to the Mississippi Early Childhood Advisory Council.
Inga Jelescheff, Senior Director, Operations and Program Management Preparedness and Health and Safety Services American Red Cross National Headquarters. For the past 12 years, Inga has worked in diverse positions throughout the American Red Cross. During her time with the organization, she has held both frontline and leadership volunteer and employee roles at domestic and overseas military stations and at national headquarters.
Inga first began her Red Cross career as a volunteer at Yokota Air Base in Japan; while there she was offered the position of Hub Chairman, and, in that capacity, she provided leadership to staff at 12 American Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services throughout Asia. In 1997, Inga returned to the United States as a Red Cross employee and was assigned as Hub Manager at Ft. Belvoir, Virginia. She took a position in Health and Safety Services at national headquarters in 1997.
Today, Inga leads the Operations team in Preparedness and Health and Safety Services, a team of accomplished and energetic staff who support chapters and the American public with education and training programs that help people lead safer and healthier lives at home, in school and in the workplace. While in this position, she has had the opportunity to lead the American Red Cross roles at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City and at Super Bowl XLI in Miami. She is the currently the Preparedness and Response lead for ARC One.
Inga lives in Gainesville, Virginia with her husband, Bob, a former US Navy Flight Officer. They have four children and two grandchildren, and, when time permits, the family enjoys traveling and the outdoors.
Dr. Evelyn Gruss Lipper, Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medical College, specializes in the field of developmental and behavioral pediatrics. She is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and has served as Director of the Division of Developmental Pediatrics at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and the New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Lipper has four adult daughters and three grand children.
Michael McGrady, Interim Executive Director, Head Start, currently serves as the Interim Executive Director of the National Head Start Association (NHSA). He previously served as the Deputy Director for NHSA for 12 years. In addition to his duties in directing the office’s day-to-day operations and staff, Michael serves on two committees: the National Center for the Child Care Workforce and the National Fathers Practitioners Network.
Michael has worked with AmeriCorps as the training coordinator for the southeast and prior to that was the Virginia State Head Start Coordinator for the Commonwealth of Virginia Collaboration project. His experience includes nine years as Head Start Director of the Community Action Start Program in Troy, Alabama.
Accomplishments include receipt of the Outstanding Achievement Award from the Virginia Department of Social Services; development of the Virginia Long Range Expansion Plan, assisting in the development of the joint services application between Head Start, Medicaid, WIC and the Department of Social Services. Michael also coordinated the development of the application agreement between the Virginia Department of Education and Head Start to blend Head Start and Title I classrooms. In 1992 Michael was selected as Region III Head Start Humanitarian of the Year.
Currently, Michael serves as spokesman on behalf of NHSA. He keeps the Board of Directors abreast of legislative issues affecting the Head Start Programs as a whole. He is also responsible for training Head Start staff on numerous issues including grant writing, membership development employer and employee rights, and developing collaboration between Head Start and non-profit organizations.
Dr. Sheryl L. Pipe, Ph.D., Senior Director, Humane Education American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), holds a Ph.D. in Clinical and School Psychology—her dissertation research, supported by the Iams Company, examined how the presence of a dog impacts rapport development.
Sheryl shares her home in New Jersey with her husband David, son Joshua, dog Bailey and cats—Alex, Maxine, Moshe, Samantha and Zachary.
Beverly Schmalzried, Ph.D., Director of Strategic Initiatives National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies & Professor, Milligan College, TN., began teaching at Milligan in 2003 after a 20-year role with the United States Air Force where she was the senior manager responsible for all planning, policy and resource management of the Air Force's programs for children and youth. This included 143 child development centers, 85 family day care programs, 83 after school programs, 85 youth programs, 69 community centers around the world, and a budget in excess of $300 million per year. She has completed several publications on disaster preparedness for child care resource and referral agencies.
Schmalzried holds an M.S. in family and child development from Kansas State University and a Ph.D. in child development from Florida State University.
Erin Streeter, Director, Ready Campaign, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, is the Director of the Ready Campaign, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s national public service advertising campaign designed to educate and empower Americans to prepare for and respond to emergencies including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks. In this position, Ms. Streeter leads the operations and outreach strategy of the campaign which includes Ready America, Ready Business, Ready Kids, Listo, the Spanish version of the campaign and the National Preparedness Month initiative. In addition, she serves as the Ready campaign spokesperson.
Ms. Streeter joined Homeland Security in July of 2006, as Director of Communications of the Preparedness Directorate. In this position, she oversaw the communications for Homeland Security grants to state and locals, infrastructure protection, cybersecurity and telecommunications, the National Capitol Region Office and the State and Local Office.
Before joining Homeland Security she was the Director of Communications at the YMCA of the USA where she helped lead the YMCA’s national health and wellness campaign, Activate America. Ms. Streeter has also worked as a television reporter and producer but started her career in DC as Deputy Press Secretary to Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA).
Ms. Streeter earned her Bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kansas. She lives in Alexandria, VA with her husband and two daughters.
J.R. Thomas, Save the Children, Associate Vice President, Domestic Emergencies Unit, was with the Emergency Management Agency for Franklin County (Columbus), Ohio for 20 years, serving as the director for 12 of those years. During that time, he was elected president of the Emergency Management Association of Ohio (organization of county emergency management directors) and the 2003 president of the 2,500-member International Association of Emergency Managers. Before leaving the agency, J.R.’s last task was to bring together Juvenile and Probate Courts, Children’s Hospital, Children’s Services, Columbus Public Schools, the American Red Cross, and the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board to write a plan concerning children and disasters. He came to Save the Children in 2007 from Columbus State Community College where he taught several emergency management courses.
Mary J. Ward, Associate Research Professor of Psychology in Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, received a bachelor’s degree in psychology summa cum laude from Bucknell in 1978 and earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota in 1983. She came to Cornell University Medical College (now Weill Cornell Medical College) in 1983 as a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Pediatrics. She was promoted to assistant professor of psychology in pediatrics in 1985 and to associate research professor of psychology in pediatrics and psychiatry in 1991 and 1993.
Dr. Ward’s primary activity at Weill-Cornell has been conducting research on issues relevant to the lives of young children, using methods from basic developmental science. The central theme of Dr. Ward’s research has been the study of special populations of infants and young children. In the past 25 years, she has studied children with malnutrition, adolescent mothers and their children, children adopted from overseas, and the grandchildren of adults with HIV. She has remained at the forefront of research on attachment, including assessment of attachment in infants, preschool children, adolescents, and adults. Her work has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and private foundations and her work is published in peer-reviewed journals.
In addition to her research activities, Dr. Ward has maintained a strong commitment to education at Weill Cornell, providing didactic instruction to medical students and residents and mentoring pediatric residents and fellows, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in psychology. She serves on the Weill Cornell Institutional Review Board, The Pediatric Scientific Advisory Committee of the Clinical and Translational Research Center, the Pediatrics Resident Research Oversight Committee, and the Pediatrics Scholarship Oversight Committee.
Her greatest pride derives from her work on a community service project, in partnership with Dr. Evelyn Lipper: the Heads Up! literacy development program, which serves over 8,000 children in New York City each year, providing free books and parent guidance about the importance of reading aloud.
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