Center on Trauma and Children
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Ginny Sprang, Ph.D, Executive Director
Ginny Sprang, Ph.D., is the Buckhorn Professor of Child Welfare and Children’s Mental Health at the University of Kentucky. She is a Professor, with a joint appointment in the College of Social Work, and the College of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Sprang served as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado, Irving Harris Program in Child Development and Infant Mental Health during her sabbatical. Dr. Sprang is a Principal Investigator and Executive Director of the Center on Trauma and Children, a center whose mission is dedicated to the enhancement of the health and well-being of children and their families through research, service and dissemination of information about child trauma. Dr. Sprang serves as Principal Investigator for many of CTAC’s state and federal grants and contracts. She served as a member of the National Steering Committee for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), is the current Co-Chair of the Secondary Traumatic Stress Committee for the NCTSN, and is the Chair of the Terrorism and Disaster Special Interest Group of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Her scholarship focuses on the clinical, forensic and empirical aspects of traumatic stress and the efficacy and effectiveness of treatments to address the biopsychosocial impact of violence against children. Dr. Sprang has published extensively in the leading journals focusing on trauma, maltreatment, and treatment efficacy in adults and children. |
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James Clark, Ph.D, LCSW, Associate Director
James J. Clark, LCSW, Ph.D. is an associate professor at the University of Kentucky with appointments in the College of Medicine (Department of Psychiatry) and the College of Social Work, where he currently serves as Associate Dean for Research, as well as the Constance Wilson Professor of Mental Health. He has conducted funded empirical research and has published in the areas of ethics, forensic mental health, substance abuse treatment research, child welfare, and community mental health services. Since 1983, Dr. Clark has provided clinical services and organizational leadership in rural Appalachian and urban community settings. He has worked as a clinician, educator and researcher in adult and child forensic mental health, with special interest in the ongoing collaborations among law and mental health professionals and systems. Most of this work now takes place in his position as associate director of UK-CTAC, which develops and studies innovative child and family assessment programming, treatment/practice approaches, and policy advances in Kentucky, the United States, and globally. Jim serves as co-chair of the Justice Consortium for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, which provides evidence-based consultation for the development of trauma-informed justice systems. |
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Otto Kaak, M.D., Associate Director Dr. Kaak is a Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Social Work at the University of Kentucky, where he has worked since 1972. He is currently an Associate Director of the University's Center on Trauma and Children, and primarily assists in evaluating families, referred by the Courts and Cabinet for Families and Children, with open, substantiated cases of abuse or neglect. Dr. Kaak conducts numerous workshops and trainings across the Commonwealth, related to the subjects of Attachment, Brain Development, and Treating Behavior Disordered Children. He is a member of the American Academy of Chilld and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the former Director of the University's Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division. He instituted and directed the University's Triple Board Residency Training Program for fifteen years. |
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Carlton Craig, Ph.D., Faculty Associate
Carlton Craig, Ph.D., is a faculty associate of the Center on Trauma and Children. Dr. Craig is an Associate Professor in the College of Social Work. He has served as a Co-PI on a research project that, in collaboration with the Kentucky Refugee Ministries. Dr. Craig evaluated the mental health of Bosnian refugees five years after resettlement in the U.S. He was a data analyst on several research teams at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), including the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being study. Dr. Craig was a clinician at the Detroit Veterans Administration Medical Center (VMAC) where he authored a number of manualized protocols for the Advanced Directive Clinic, Incentive Therapy Program, and Day Treatment program. |
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W. John Curtis, Ph.D., Faculty Associate
W. John Curtis, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology. Dr. Curtis is a Faculty Associate of the Center on Trauma and Children and an expert in developmental psychology. Dr. Curtis has a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. in Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota.
His research program integrates neuroscience and developmental perspectives to address how social experiences manifest themselves in brain development and functioning in children at-risk. |
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Kelly Eversole, Administrative Assistant and Receptionist
Kelly Eversole is an Administrative Assistant and Receptionist. Kelly is the initial point of contact for all callers and visitors to the center, and provides important administrative support functions for many of the centers programs and initiatives. |
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Lynn M. Squicciarini, MSW, LCSW Lynn M. Squicciarini, MSW, LCSW is a Doctoral Fellow with CTAC and a doctoral student in the College of Social Work. Ms. Squicciarini received her Masters of Social Work degree from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI in 2002 with a specialization in Infant Mental Health. She has over13 years experience working with children, adolescents, families and adults in the community as well as in agency settings. She was previously a clinical director of an adult crisis psychiatric clinic and works with children with behavioral difficulties including Autism. |