Interventions Research
Carolyn Dayton, Ph.D.
When fathers are involved in the lives of their children, children thrive. In addition to being the associate director of MPSI's Infant Mental Health program, Dr. Dayton has dedicated much of her work to increasing the participation of fathers in their children's lives and identifying barriers to their involvement. She organized a Fatherhood Policy Forum with U-M colleagues and serves on the Michigan Action Plan for Father Involvement, a state policy group that advocates for father-friendly Michigan laws and policies. Dr. Dayton also created Parenting Tips for Dads during the COVID-19 Crisis full of easy-to-implement ideas to keep the bond between father and child strong.
She also works closely with a number of community organizations serving fathers and families, including the Family Assistance for Renaissance Men program in Detroit and she recently received the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network's Fatherhood Advocate Award. In addition, Dr. Dayton is principal investigator on a project that is implementing a co-located Infant Mental Health and Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorder (PMAD) clinic at Wayne Pediatrics in Detroit. The Social Work Family Clinic will serve young children and their parents who are struggling with mental health issues. Finally, Dr. Dayton was a chapter lead for the Specialized Practice Curricular Guide for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health.
Lucy McGoron, Ph.D.
Dr. McGoron received a competitive supplement for her K01 award from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop and evaluate an internet and texting-based program for parents of young children with challenging behavior called the Parenting Young Children Check-up. Along with MPSI colleagues, Dr. McGoron published results of a survey done at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic focused on parents' mental health in the journal School Psychology. She also received a grant from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund to further implement and evaluate the Parenting Young Children Check-up with Detroit community partners. Finally, Dr. McGoron received grant funding from the state of Michigan, through SAMHSA, to improve substance use screening and services for pregnant and postpartum women in Michigan. Dr. McGoron also published a piece on the effects on children of anxiety and depression in parents, in the Conversation, January 2023.
Ann Stacks, Ph.D.
Dr. Stacks directs MPSI's Infant Mental Health Program. She has been the University Partner for Baby Court since 2009. Most recently, she and colleagues from the MPSI Baby Court Community Advisory Team, and InGlobal Learning, launched two online trainings that were developed with the support of the Michigan Health Endowment Fund. She also worked with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to secure $3.1 million from the Health Services Resources Administration to expand Baby Court to other counties and develop additional infrastructure for sustainability. Stacks continues as a member of the Michigan Collaborative for Infant Mental Health Research, which evaluates the effectiveness of Michigan's Infant Mental Health-Home Visiting Model (IMH-HV). She was an author on three published papers showing IMH-HV's impact on maternal mental health, reductions in child abuse potential, and parental understanding of children's emotional needs. The IMH-HV model is now considered evidence-based. Stacks also continues to work with the Parent-Teacher Intervention Consortium. Her work with the consortium involves developing and evaluating Hearts and Minds on Babies (HMB) programming for EHS parents and teachers. With her colleagues, she published two papers describing stress and exhaustion among EHS teachers and the impact of the HMB program on teachers' mindfulness-based coping. In July she will present a master class on Baby Court at the World Association for Infant Mental Health and present as part of a double invited symposium on reflective functioning.
Carla Barron, Ph.D.
Dr. Barron is the clinical coordinator of MPSI's Infant Mental Health Training Program, working closely with graduate students enrolled in its Dual-Title Degree program. She collaborates with IMH faculty, professionals, and programs to ensure strong classroom and community learning experiences that promote and honor diversity of identity, knowledge, and experience. She presents locally and nationally on topics such as the psychology of early parenting, reflective supervision/consultation, and home visiting; and assists with the planning of the annual Explorations in Development CE conference. In 2022, Dr. Barron's dissertation research was published in the Infant Mental Health Journal as part of a special section focused on research exploring the experiences of supervisees within reflective supervision/ consultation.
Beverly Weathington, L.M.S.W.
As coordinator of the Healthier Urban Families program, Bev has had a busy and challenging few years. She had to reimagine community engagement and shift program offerings to a virtual platform. Through combined efforts with the Infant Mental Health Program, continuing education presentations have reached more than 6,000 professionals and trainings have been offered to more than 300 parents and caregivers. Ms. Weathington also produces the Parenting Moments online monthly newsletter for families, educators and social service providers with a readership of about 350.