Faculty and Staff

Susan SpiekerSusan Spieker, PhD, Director, CIMHD

Dr. Susan Spieker specializes in applied research related to early parent-child relationships and child development in families stressed by adverse economic and social circumstances.

Susan is a professor in the department of Family and Child Nursing at the University of Washington and serves as Director of the Center on Infant Mental Health and Development, a partnership between the School of Nursing and the Center on Human Development and Disability. She directs the Birth to Three Lab, a resource for researchers interested in basic, applied, and clinical research with infants and their families.

She has been actively engaged in studies of adolescent parents and their children, the effects of variations in early child care on infant, toddler, and child development, and the trajectories of children with elevated levels of aggression and externalizing problems in the toddler years. Susan has studied how the childhood experiences of women involved in an Early Head Start intervention influence the ease or difficulty they have in engaging in, and benefiting from, the intervention. Most recently she and her colleagues have been involved in a program of research focused on promoting social emotional well-being for infants, toddlers and their caregivers involved in the child welfare system. She teaches in the Irving B. Harris Graduate Certificate Program in Infant Mental Health and the Department of Family and Child Nursing.

Jean KellyJean Kelly, PhD, Co-Director, CIMHD

Dr. Jean Kelly directs research and training programs focused on young children's social and emotional health.

Jean is a professor in the department of Family and Child Nursing at the University of Washington and Co-Director of the Center on Infant Mental Health and Development, a partnership between the School of Nursing and the Center on Human Development and Disability. She also directs Promoting First Relationships, a training and research-based program to prepare service providers to help parents and other caregivers nurture young children's social and emotional development.

Her interest in promoting the parent/caregiver-child relationship began in the late 1970's with her dissertation work using videotaped feedback to promote the relationship between parents and their young children with developmental delays. Since that time, she has conducted research and developed programs for families and infants and toddlers who are homeless, enrolled in early intervention programs for young children with special needs, or participants in Early Head Start programs. She is also involved in research and training efforts to improve the relationship quality of child care programs. Her most recently added area of training and research is to promote healthy relationships between parents, foster parents and therapeutic child care providers who care for children involved in the child welfare system. She teaches in the Irving B. Harris Graduate Certificate Program in Infant Mental Health and the Department of Family and Child Nursing.

Colleen DillonColleen Dillon, PhD, Director of Training

Dr. Colleen Dillon oversees the Irving B. Harris Graduate Certificate Program in Infant Mental Health and participates in related teaching, research and evaluation efforts. In addition, she is involved in cultivating community-based training partnerships for second year clinical placements in the program.

Colleen's doctorate is in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. She completed her APA child clinical internship through the Division of Public Behavioral Health and Justice Policy in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington's School of Medicine. A graduate of the prior CIMHD infant mental health training program, she did additional advanced training in infant mental health assessment, treatment, and consultation in a therapeutic child care setting serving young children and families impacted by abuse and neglect.

Colleen's clinical interests are in assessment and infant-parent psychotherapy with vulnerable populations. More specifically, she is particularly investing in supporting adolescent and young adult transitions to parenthood. To further her research interests in these types of developmental transitions, she has also served as a postdoctoral research fellow and Associate Member of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on the Transition to Adulthood and Public Policy.

Miriam Hirschstein, PhD, Director of Evaluation

Dr. Miriam Hirschstein is the Director of Evaluation at the Center on Infant Mental Health and Development. She currently directs activities related to evaluating Educare, a model of center-based early childhood care and education implemented as part of the White Center Early Learning Initiative. She has also been a local classroom facilitator for Roots of Empathy.

Miriam received a doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Washington. She is also a licensed school psychologist. Her work has primarily been in the areas of violence prevention and promotion of children's social-emotional competencies. Her most recent research focused on evidence-based practices to reduce aggression and bullying in the elementary school years, and on teacher implementation of school-based prevention programming.

Her research interests include social perspective-taking and the development of empathy in young children, professional development of teachers, and relationship-based practices that promote the social-emotional development of young children.

Elizabeth NelsonElizabeth Nelson, EdD, Director of Research & Special Projects

Dr. Elizabeth Nelson is involved in several research projects related to the mission of CIMHD.

Elizabeth earned her doctorate in Developmental Psychology from Harvard University. She completed a research fellowship at Children's Hospital in Boston, in partnership with the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Head Start, which focused on helping parents of young children overcome barriers to accessing mental health services. Elizabeth received clinical training in Child & Family Therapy at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and provided therapeutic services to families and pre-schools through the Child Development Clinic in Holyoke, MA.

Her research interests are physiological and behavioral outcomes of attachment disruption, and programs that support parent-child attachment.

Emily Meredith, Program Operations Manager

Emily Meredith is the Program Operations Manager at CIMHD. She brings to the Center nine years coordinating complex research projects ranging from youth suicide prevention programs to a randomized controlled trial aimed at the prevention of Shaken Baby Syndrome. Emily earned a degree in English and Spanish from the University of Washington.