Building stronger foundations for children

Ph.D. Senior Implementation Specialist, Children and Youth Cabinet of Rhode Island & The National Race Equity Implementation Center
 
Amanda Fixsen has a background in Applied Behavior Analysis, Social Work and Social Research, and Implementation Practice. For more than 15 years Amanda has worked to understand how human and health services can be effectively implemented and scaled-up in real world contexts. 
 
Amanda most recently served as Vice President of Programs and Implementation at Invest in Kids in Denver, Colorado working to ensure the high quality delivery of evidence-based programs in early childhood throughout Colorado. Invest in Kids was the first organization in the United States to film video vignettes with local Colorado families, and pilot the invest in play parenting program. Previously, Amanda worked at the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress serving mental health sites nationally through consultation on methods of effective clinical training, and of the implementation of trauma-focused evidence-based programs. 
 
Leading with her values of community, compassion and joy she currently focuses her efforts integrating equity and implementation practice with The Children and Youth Cabinet of Rhode Island and the National Race Equity Implementation Center in the USA.

Education: Degree in Psychology
Bio: Shareholder of KIRKBI A/S and representing the fourth generation of the LEGO® owner family.
Special competences: Family-owned companies and board work.
Other management positions: Member of the Board of KIRKBI A/S. Member of the Board of the LEGO Foundation. Member of the Board of Blue Hors ApS. Executive Manager of Kirk83 Holding ApS.

Joel Sherrill, Ph.D. is the Deputy Director of the Division of Services and Intervention Research at NIMH.  The Division supports research focused on optimising and personalising preventive and therapeutic interventions to ensure they are maximally effective and matched to individual needs; and services/clinical epidemiology research focused on access, continuity, equity, efficiency and quality of mental health care across the lifespan, and across service settings. 

During his tenure at NIMH, Sherrill has overseen research portfolios focused on psychotherapeutic and pharmacologic approaches to treating mental disorders among youth and adults. He has led and collaborated on various clinical research initiatives and has been integrally involved in establishing and implementing NIMH’s approach to supporting clinical trials research. 

Following his doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Stony Brook University, Sherrill completed his clinical internship and postdoctoral fellowship and then pursued research on the long-term course and treatment of early-onset affective disorders at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine/ Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. 

Education

BA in Organisational Learning and Communication from the University of Copenhagen and HD(O) from Aarhus School of Business.

Bio

Michael has been working as a management consultant and senior advisor for more than 10 years, supporting both public and private organisations in developing and realising strategies and improving operational management. In addition, Michael has sat on a number of boards and committees within the educational sector and the NGO sector.

Sally Hogg is the Senior Policy Fellow in the Centre for Research on Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), University of Cambridge, where she works to mobilise knowledge about early child development to support national policy and local decision making. 

Sally has had a varied career in charities, and national and local governments, leading teams to develop and implement interventions for families in the early years, and campaigning successfully to drive policy change. Prior to joining PEDAL, Sally was Deputy CEO at the Parent-Infant Foundation, where she established and chaired the First 1001 Days Movement, a campaigning alliance of over 200 charities and professional bodies.

Prior to this, Sally’s roles included Strategic Lead at the Maternal Health Alliance, Senior Commissioner in a Local Authority and Development Manager for Children Under One at the NSPCC. Sally started her career as a Civil Servant working on Children’s Policy in Westminster and, for a short time, in New South Wales, Australia. Sally has authored a range of influential policy reports relating to the importance of the earliest years of life and issues affecting families during that time. 

Shirley lives in the UK. She was the first woman in her family to go to University and the only person in her family with a PhD. She was twice nominated for the ITV National Diversity Awards in 2023 in the categories of Positive Role Model Award for Age and Positive Role Model Award for Disability. She helped to write the devolution deal for Greater Manchester on early years and presented evidence of what works for children to both the Education and Science and Technology Select Committees of the UK Parliament.

She is a Member of the Advisory Panel for Children’s Viewing for the British Board of Film Classification. She is also a Trustee for the charity Respect For All who provide counselling to people who are either autistic and/or have a learning disability in Greater Manchester.

During the pandemic she was in the clinical extremely vulnerable covid category and lost her father to covid. He was admitted to a covid ward the morning after Shirley received her autism diagnosis letter. He would never know of her late diagnosis. In the absence of being able to tell him, she ended up telling the world instead. 

Education

B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard University.

A trained mediator, Susan has over 25 years of experience resolving complex public policy issues. She specialises in environmental policy, facilitation and project management. She has fostered consensus building within numerous diverse groups through creative facilitation.