Our Advisory Board 

Pat is the joint founder and Director of the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre and an Academic Director of the MA in Family Support Studies at NUI Galway. He holds the prestigious UNESCO Chair in Children, Youth and Civic Engagement, the first to be awarded in the Republic of Ireland. He has worked with and for families as a practitioner, service manager and academic for over 20 years, and completed an extensive body of research on family issues and published in a wide range of academic publications. 

Xiangming is Professor and Director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at China Agricultural University. He also holds a joint appointment in the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. Prior to this, he served as a Senior Health Economist with the Division of Violence Prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He serves on four journal editorial boards, including the International Journal on Child Maltreatment: Research, Policy and Practice. Previous awards/honours include the Paula and Gregory Chow Best Paper Award by the Chinese Economists Society, the Kaafee Billah Memorial Award from the CDC, recognition for the Most Cited Paper from the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, and the Best of UNICEF Research award from UNICEF Innocenti. 

Peter is Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at UCL and former Chief Executive of Anna Freud; Senior Clinical Advisor on Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYMPH) NHSE; Director of Mental Health and Behaviour Change, UCL Partners Academic Health Sciences Network; and holds visiting professorships at Yale and Harvard Medical Schools. He has published over 640 scientific papers, 290 chapters and is the author or co-author of 21 books.

Alice is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University. Her research focuses on perinatal mental health and the effects of early adversity on brain development and risk for mental health disorders. She published the first study using functional MRI to understand the developing brain in the context of family conflict. She is a founding member of the Fetal Infant and Toddler Neuroimaging Group and a Principal Investigator on the Healthy Brain and Child Development Study, a national effort across the USA.

Ross is a clinical psychologist and the originator of the evidence-based, innovative approach called Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS), as described in his renowned books Raising Human Beings, Lost at School, Lost & Found, and The Explosive Child. He also developed and executive produced the award-winning documentary film The Kids We Lose, released in 2018. Ross was on the faculty at Harvard Medical School for over 20 years and is now founding director of the non-profit Lives in the Balance. He is also currently adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech and adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Science at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia.

Sophie is a child clinical psychologist and the Leader of Tuning in to Kids (TIK) – Research and Dissemination at the University of Melbourne, and Co-Chair of Words Matter’s Australia Board. TIK is an emotion-focused, evidence-based parenting programme that she developed with co-author Ann Harley. The programme aims to improve parents’ emotion socialisation practices, including how parents respond to emotions in themselves and their children, to improve children’s emotional functioning and reduce or prevent behavioural and mental health difficulties. Sophie supervises researchers and professionals evaluating TIK around the world. She is also a Director of the Parent and Family Research Alliance, a group of Australian researchers working collectively to advocate for evidence-based parenting programmes.

Gabor is a renowned trauma specialist, speaker and bestselling author who is highly sought after for his expertise on a range of topics including addiction, stress and childhood development. He was awarded the Order of Canada, his country’s highest civilian distinction, for his ground-breaking medical work and writing, and received the Civic Merit Award from his home town, Vancouver.

Jessica has a PG in Child Adolescent & Family Mental Wellbeing and an MA in Psychological Therapies. She is a psychotherapist and specialist education consultant working with children, adolescents, families and schools. She is also founder of the Child and Adolescent Development Centre, London. She has in-depth experience of supporting children and young people with Specific Learning Difficulties, Autistic Spectrum Conditions, ADHD and other social communication difficulties.    

Stephen is Professor of Child Health and Behaviour at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London, teaching hospital consultant at the Maudsley Hospital, London, and a consultant psychiatrist specialising in conduct problems and adoption and fostering. He is also Director of the National Academy for Parenting Research, London. He is a co-author of the bestselling introductory textbook Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and author and editor of the authoritative textbook Rutter’s Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He is also a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Joshua is a Child, Adolescent, and General Psychiatrist, and executive director of the Brazelton Touchpoints Center (BTC) in the Division of Development of Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, He also holds an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry and is associate professor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, part time. He has led numerous governmental and philanthropic research, training and technical assistance grants, and advised government agencies, non-profits, academic centres, and philanthropies. He has given hundreds of lectures nationally and internationally, written numerous scholarly papers, as well as nine books translated into more than 20 languages, and hundreds of articles for the general public.

Ashley is Assistant Professor and scientist at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba and the Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba. Her research programme aims to prevent child maltreatment by implementing evidence-based interventions to promote healthy child development, enhance family relationships and support community wellbeing. Trained in social work and public health, her research spans 19 countries throughout Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, North America, and South East Asia. She is a strong advocate for children’s rights to participation and protection and has published widely on the impact of punitive violence and adverse childhood experiences.

Martin is Director of the Developmental Biopsychiatry Research Program at McLean Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. He is a member of several editorial boards, including the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and a board member of organisations including the Trauma Research Foundation. He has published more than 200 articles and been awarded 19 US patents. Recent awards include the Robert S Laufer, PhD, Memorial Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and the Pierre Janet Writing Award from the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation.

Li Wei is Director and Dean of the Institute of Education (IOE), UCL’s Faculty of Education and Social Research, Chair in Applied Linguistics and a Fellow of the British Academy, Academia Europaea, Academy of Social Sciences, UK, and the Royal Society of Arts, UK. He is Editor of the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism and Applied Linguistics Review. His book: Translanguaging: Language, Bilingualism and Education, with Ofelia Garcia, won the 2015 British Association for Applied Linguistics Book Prize.