Patricia Chamberlain, PhD, a senior research scientist at the Oregon Social Learning Centre, is the developer of effective preventive intervention models designed to prevent negative outcomes for some of the highest risk children and adolescents in society, including children in foster care, youth in state mental institutions, and youth in the juvenile justice system. These include the widely implemented Treatment Foster Care Oregon model, and the KEEP model for supporting and building skills in foster and kinship families. Her work has changed the landscape of services and social policy, has advanced theory and provided a model for how to evaluate the underlying “moving parts” of an intervention. Her current focus is on implementation research exploring what it takes to integrate and scale-up evidence-based practices into real-world agencies and systems. Dr. Chamberlain is a Senior Fellow at the Society for Prevention Research and has received the Prevention Science award for leadership and promoting positive public health impacts.

David Olds, PhD, is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado where he co-directs the Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health. He has developed and tested a program of home visiting by nurses known as Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) in three randomized clinical trials with different populations, living in different contexts, and with decades of longitudinal follow-up. NFP is designed to improve the outcomes of pregnancy, children’s health and development, and women’s health and life-course. NFP meets the “Top Tier” of evidence established by Evidence-Based Programs and is acclaimed for its prevention of child maltreatment. Today, NFP serves over 60,000 families per year in the US and 18,000 per year in seven other countries. Dr Olds has received numerous awards for his work, including the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health and the Stockholm Prize in Criminology.

Jack P. Shonkoff, MD, is the Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education; Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital; and Founding Director of the university-wide Center on the Developing Child at Harvard. He chairs the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, whose mission is to bring credible science to bear on public policy affecting young children, and the JPB Research Network on Toxic Stress, which is developing new measures of stress effects and resilience in young children. He has received multiple honors, including elected membership to the National Academy of Medicine (USA), the C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development from the American Academy of Pediatrics; the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy for Children from the Society for Research in Child Development, and The Lego Prize. He has authored more than 180 publications.

Mark Dadds, PhD, is Director of Growing Minds Australia, Australia’s Clinical Trials Network in Child and Youth Mental Health, a Principal Research Fellow of the NHMRC, Professor of Psychology at the University of Sydney and Founding Co-Director of the Child Behaviour Research Clinic, which develops state-of-the-art treatments for children and adolescents with MH problems. His expertise and interests are in child, youth and family MH, parenting/family processes, prevention and early intervention. He has been National President of the AACBT, Director of Research for the Abused Child Trust of Queensland, Professor of Parenting Research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College London. He has been the recipient of several awards including an Early Career Award from the Division of Scientific Affairs of the Australian Psychological Society, the Ian Matthew Campbell Award for Excellence in Clinical Psychology, Distinguished Career Award of the Australian Association of Cognitive and Behavioural Therapy, and the APS President’s Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology. He has authored 4 books and over 280 papers on child and family psychology.

Sheila Manji is an early childhood development specialist consultant, working with field-based teams, partners, and government to ensure access to quality early years programmes and services and primary education in over 15 countries. She has authored scientific, policy, clinical and teaching resources, and has extensive experience teaching children and adults, facilitating workshops and parenting programmes, and training and mentoring stakeholders at multiple levels online and face to face. She has led a global initiative which catalysed a deeper understanding of the importance of the early years and encouraged collaboration across sectors, geographies, and stakeholders at all levels.

Ron Prinz, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the University of South Carolina. He established the UofSC Research Center for Child Well-Being (RCCWB) which conducts prevention research impacting the well-being of children ages 2 to 10, with the dual goal of: reducing risk for social, emotional, and behavioral problems, and decreasing unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. He is Co-Director of the UofSC’s longest funded NIH T32 predoctoral research training program, which provides extensive training in epidemiology, exercise science, and psychology doctoral programs. His major research interests are in the areas of prevention science and the well-being of children, focusing extensively on understanding, preventing, and reducing behavioral-health related problems in children and families. His research has addressed parenting interventions, prevention of child maltreatment, assessment of child and parent behaviors, parental substance use, and violence prevention.