Meet Elissa Brown, Ph.D.

Elissa Brown, Ph.D.

Candidate for ABCT Representative at Large 2026–29, Liaison to Membership Programs

Autobiography

I am a professor of psychology at St. John’s University, where I run Child HELP Partnership, an intervention research program dedicated to child trauma. Our mission is to make best practices in the prevention and treatment of trauma accessible to families of diverse backgrounds. We provide prevention and therapy to families, educate the public about trauma and its impact, and train professionals in trauma assessment and therapy. We integrate feedback from cultural experts to tailor our services and evaluate them for continued improvement.

I have received over 50 federal, state, and private grants to provide and study prevention and therapy programs for trauma-related mental health problems. I have been a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network since 2001 and was on the Board of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. I most enjoy mentoring the next generation of trauma psychologists and have trained over 1000 clinicians on trauma-specific CBTs.

I have been an active ABCT member since the 1990s, attending and presenting at almost every conference. Over the years, I have been on the Poster Session Committee, a member of several Special Interest Groups and Chair of the Women in Behavior Therapy, and published in the Behavior Therapist, Behavior Therapy, and Cognitive and Behavioral Practice. Lastly, I conducted a webinar for ABCT on CBT for traumatized youth. As a single-mom-by-choice to a child who has left the nest, I am excited to put additional time into my professional home, ABCT, by serving as Representative-at-Large.

Position Statement

As someone who has been disseminating CBT for 25 years, I recognize the sociocultural and systemic obstacles our field faces. My goal is to overcome these obstacles and promote psychological science and evidence-based cognitive-behavioral principles by:

1. Engaging ABCT members. ABCT’s power is the membership—the intervention developers, clinicians translating treatments into real-world practice, early career professionals, and students. I think it is critical to engage all voices by encouraging and incorporating various forms of connection to ABCT leadership.  I will engage diverse members of ABCT by providing multiple avenues of participation during the conference and throughout the year. 
2. Fostering awareness of and access to CBT. ABCT is excellent at developing and testing interventions and sharing our findings internally. We must do a better job at informing those outside ABCT about the value and meaning of these findings. I will work to identify and connect with public health resources, promote the work of our diverse membership, and create opportunities for training in CBT.
3. Facilitating research. Advocating for science has never been more important. I am excited to promote the new ABCT initiatives, including the Find-a-Researcher Directory, Graduate Student Research Grant, and Spotlight on a Researcher. I will work to create additional sources of funding, promote scientific methods that do not require large amounts of funding (e.g., qualitative research, single case designs), and evaluate ABCT’s initiatives.

Thank you for considering me for Representative-at-Large and allowing me to share my goals for ABCT.

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