Meet Elissa Brown, Ph.D.

Autobiography

I am a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Child HELP Partnership at St. John’s University, a clinical research program dedicated to child trauma (www.childhelppartnership.org). Our mission is to make best practices in the prevention and treatment of trauma accessible to families. We educate the public about trauma and its impact, provide free evidence-based therapy, and train professionals across the US. We evaluate our programs for continued improvement and integrate feedback from cultural experts to tailor their implementation.

I have received over 50 federal, state, and private grants to provide and study prevention and therapy programs for trauma-related mental health problems. I have been a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network since 2001 and was on the Board of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. I most enjoy mentoring the next generation of trauma psychologists and have trained over 1000 clinicians on trauma-specific CBTs.

I have been an active ABCT member since the 1990s, attending and presenting at almost every conference. Over the years, I have been on the Poster Session Committee, a member of several Special Interest Groups and Chair of the Women in Behavior Therapy, and published in the Behavior Therapist, Behavior Therapy, and Cognitive and Behavioral Practice. Lastly, I conducted a webinar for ABCT on CBT for traumatized youth. As a single-mom-by-choice to a child who has left the nest, I am excited to put additional time into my professional home, ABCT, by serving as Representative-at-Large.

Position Statement

As someone who has been disseminating CBT for 25 years, I recognize the sociocultural and systemic obstacles our field faces. As 2025 Representative-at-Large, my goal is to overcome these obstacles and promote psychological science and evidence-based cognitive-behavioral principles by:

1. Engaging ABCT members.

ABCT’s power is the membership: intervention developers, clinicians translating treatments into real-world practice, and early career professionals and students answering new empirical questions. I think it is critical to engage all voices by encouraging and incorporating various forms of connection to ABCT leadership. I will engage diverse members of ABCT by providing multiple avenues of participation during the conference and throughout the year.

2. Disseminating evidence-based practices outside the organization.

ABCT is excellent at developing and testing interventions and sharing our findings internally. We must do a better job at informing those outside ABCT about the value and meaning of these findings. I will work to identify and connect with public health resources, promote the work of our diverse membership, and train members on effective public education.

3. Facilitating research.

Advocating for science has never been more important. I am excited to promote the new ABCT initiatives, including the Find-a-Researcher Directory, Graduate Student Research Grant, and Spotlight on a Researcher. I will work to create additional sources of funding, promote scientific methods that do not require large amounts of funding (e.g., qualitative research, single case designs), and evaluate ABCT’s initiatives.

Thank you for considering me for Representative-at-Large and allowing me to share my goals for ABCT.

For more information about ABCT’s Elections, visit our Elections page.