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Foundation Gift Supports Evidence-Based Trauma Psychology Care

Children coping with trauma or abuse will benefit from research led by Kristin Hoffman, Ph.D., director of psychology trauma at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.

A $1 million gift from the Sarasota-based All Star Children’s Foundation, established by philanthropists Graci and Dennis McGillicudy, provided funding for the hospital to hire Dr. Hoffman to create a nationally recognized center for trauma-informed psychology care on the JHACH campus.

As part of this effort, she will develop training and research protocols and serve as an expert consultant to the clinical program at the All Star Children’s Center in Sarasota, a foster/residential clinical treatment center set to open by early 2019.

Dr. Hoffman’s clinical and research activities focus on trauma-informed care techniques—understanding, recognizing and responding to the effects of trauma. This approach aims to help others understand trauma and its impact of children in order to provide a supportive environment and services that promote psychological and physical healing.

Before joining JHACH in 2018, Dr. Hoffman was director and principal investigator for the Center of Excellence for Children in State Custody at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Serving as a consultant to the All Star campus is a unique opportunity to comprehensively integrate trauma-informed approaches into a child’s daily environment.

Dr. Hoffman, the McGillicuddys and Johns Hopkins All Children’s Foundation executive vice president Jenine Rabin hope this gift―and the research it supports―will lead to evidence-based clinical protocols that can be used to help children at the state and national level.