About Us | Patient Centered Care and Trauma Informed Care for Pediatric Patients

About the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress

The Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress (CPTS) was founded in 2002 to address medical trauma in the lives of children and families.

CPTS is headquartered at two of the premier children’s hospitals in the country: The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Nemours A.I. du Pont Hospital for Children.

CPTS is a partner in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN), funded as a Translation and Adaptation (Category II) Center.

The Center's mission is to reduce pediatric medical traumatic stress through:

promoting trauma-informed healthcare
disseminating evidence-based practices and screening tools to pediatric healthcare providers
training providers to recognize and address traumatic stress in children

CPTS engages directly with healthcare providers and organizations nationwide in order to raise awareness and change practice. We reach children and families through our resources on this website and by providing information and referral services.

About the National Child Traumatic Stress Network

The National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) works to raise the standard of care and improve access to services for traumatized children, their families, and communities throughout the United States. The NCTSN seeks to advance effective interventions and services to address the impact of traumatic stress. The Network is comprised of more than 100 centers across the United States including universities, hospitals, clinics, community-based mental health centers, and other organizations that serve traumatized children and their families.

CPTS is proud to be a partner in the NCTSN.

This project is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The views, policies, and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of SAMHSA or HHS. No hosting or funding from advertising is accepted.

Meet the CPTS team

CPTS Co-Directors

Nancy Kassam-Adams, PhD co-directs the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress, and is Associate Director for Behavioral Research at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention, at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is a Research Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been a leader in the field of pediatric medical traumatic stress and acute trauma in children. Over the past 25 years, her research has focused on understanding posttraumatic stress in ill and injured children and their parents, and developing and evaluating assessment and intervention tools that can be integrated in pediatric health care. Dr. Kassam-Adams is a past president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and has been an invited member of several national and international expert consensus panels on child trauma.

Anne E. Kazak, PhD, ABPP co-directs the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress. She is the Enterprise Director of the Nemours Center for Healthcare Delivery Science and is based at A.I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE. She is Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA and also Professor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania (emerita). She also serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Delaware in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and in the College of Health Professions. She is also an accomplished journal editor and the current Editor-in-Chief of American Psychologist. Dr. Kazak is an internationally recognized expert in pediatric health, known as a thought leader and accomplished investigator in the application of a social ecological approach to children’s health to expand service delivery and improve overall outcomes. Her research has shaped a systems-oriented competence-based understanding of the distress of children and their family members over the course of pediatric illness and treatment. She has had consistent federal funding support for her research programs over the past several decades. In 2020 she was awarded a Compassionate Champion from the State of Delaware for her work on trauma informed care. Dr. Kazak is also an experienced editor and is active in leadership roles in the American Psychological Association. Dr. Kazak has 250+ peer reviewed papers and chapters and three books.

CPTS Program Coordinators

Gabriela Vega, MS

Caitlin Axtmayer, LSW, MPH

CPTS multi-disciplinary team

Dana Berger, MPH

Kimberly Canter, PhD

Nicole DiBattista, MSN, RN, CEN

Joel Fein, MD, MPH

Meghan Marsac, PhD

Katherine Okonak, MSW

Julia Price, PhD

Michele Scialla, MSN

CPTS National Family Advisory Committee

CPTS partners with families, and is guided by the input of our national advisory group of families - parents whose children have faced challenging medical situations as well as young adults who have faced challenging medical conditions and situations for themselves or their siblings.

CPTS National Nursing Advisory Committee

CPTS is also guided by the input of a national group of nursing leaders with broad experience in practice, policy, and nursing education.

About this website

This website was developed by the Center for Pediatric Traumatic Stress with input from a wide range of health care providers. The site is intended for health care professionals, to help improve comprehensive care for children and their families. Primary authors are Nancy Kassam-Adams, PhD; Gabriela Vega, MS; Meghan Marsac, PhD; Nicole DiBattista, MSN, RN, CEN; Stephanie Schneider, MS; and Anne E. Kazak, PhD, ABPP.

The team that developed this website includes physicians, nurses, psychologists, and other health and mental health professionals. This expert team brings together experience from a broad range of areas including emergency medicine, critical care, primary care, family practice, oncology, trauma surgery, psychology, psychiatry, and others. The content of this website is grounded in the latest research evidence and in best practice recommendations and clinical guidelines. The information provided on this site is intended to improve, not replace, the direct relationship between the patient (or site visitor) and healthcare professionals.

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