Workshop

York Academy of Sciences. Up to date Prof. Milea has served in many international psychiatric forums such as the World Psychiatric Association, the European Society for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the World Health Organization. He is Former President of the Romanian Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Neurology, and editor and co-editor of several journals and psychiatric textbooks. Prof. Milea has a special interest in the neurobiology of behavior and attachment disorders.

My major academic interest has been in the area of infant mental health, especially in understanding infants' development in the context of the infant-parent relationships in high and low-risk families. This has included a major interest in infant-parent attachment and in internal representations of attachment in infants and parents. More recently, I have become interested in psychopathology in infancy, and in particular in the effects of violence on infant adaptation. This includes research on disturbances and disorders of attachment, posttraumatic symptomatology in young children, and the effects of family violence on infant development. Questions include: what is similar and different about psychopathology in the early years, what are the salient risk and protective factors for high-risk infant development, and what are the neurobiological correlates of behavioral disturbances in young children?

courses relevant to child welfare, adoption and familial placement, and alternatives to institutionalization. Dr. Stanescu's main research activities are centered around population studies on the influence of psychosocial factors on maternal and child health. Some of his projects include studies on: the causes of institutionalization in Romania, nutritional status of infants and toddlers, prenatal nutrition of mothers, infant mortality, medico-social determinism, children's rights violations in institutions, and reproductive health in young people. Dr. Stanescu is also involved in the development and implementation of public health policies and programs aimed at improving child and family health at a national level. He is an active promoter of the development of integrated preventive services meant to monitor and ensure appropriate development during infancy and toddlerhood.

of Minnesota. He completed his post-graduate training in pediatrics at the University of Minnesota where he joined the faculty in Pediatrics in 1979. Dr. Johnson is trained as a pediatrician, neonatologist and anatomist. Specifically, he is interested the short- and long-term effects of early childhood institutionalization on child health and early development and the outcomes of international adoption. The International Adoption Clinic that he directs sees over 300 international adoptees/year from dozens of countries and a wide variety living conditions. Children drawn from this clinic population allow comparisons of outcomes from a variety of developmental environments. His specific interests center on the effects of profound deprivation (stress) on brain and somatic growth, communication skills and emotional tone. A current collaboration with Dr. Megan Gunnar focuses on the medical and developmental status of international adoptees in Minnesota the nurturing environment of the adoptive family nurturing environment and specific challenges faced by their adoptive parents. Research Interests: effects of early childhood institutionalization on child health and early development, effects of deprivation on brain and somatic growth, communication skills and emotional tone

children affected by autism, as well as those who are at risk for developmental disturbance due to bio-social factors, such as in utero cocaine exposure. Prof Mundy is Director of Child & Developmental Psychopathology Division, Executive Director of the University of Miami Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, and Director of Psychological Services Center, University of Miami. Prof. Mundy is the Editor of the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology and Development and Psychopathology, and Consulting Editor to the following journals: American Journal of Mental Retardation, Infant Behavior and Development, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Developmental Psychopathology, and the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

My major academic interest has been in the study of the development of nonverbal, social-communication skills, especially joint attention skills, in the first 2 years of life. Joint attention skills refer to the capacity of infants to coordinate their attention with a social partner. Over the last 20 years my collaborators and I have been trying to understand both the environmental and biological processes that give rise to individual differences in early joint attention development. The adequate development of joint attention appears to be important for social learning and, therefore, for subsequent cognitive and social development. Impaired joint attention development is a diagnostic marker of early forms of psychopathology such as autism, and may contribute to young children's risk for language impairment, intellectual disturbance and behavioral disorders . Therefore, we are trying to understand the interplay between environmental, care-giving factors and constitutional, central nervous system processes that contribute to individual differences in joint attention development in infancy.

interests include the impact of early experience on brain development, specifically the neural systems underlying emotion recognition. Ms. Parker will complete her graduate work in July of 2002 and has accepted a post-doctoral position to continue her research and training with Dr. Charles Nelson.

My academic interests have been primarily in the area of high-risk parenting and its influence on child development. I have studied at-risk mothers' beliefs about spoiling their young children and, more recently, examined the influence of maltreating status on mothers' representation and on their interactions with their young children. Other areas of interest involve the impact of maltreatment on young children's development and the provision of support to children who have come into foster care and to their foster parents. An emerging area of interest is the nature of attachment disorders. Current research projects include: attachment disturbances/disorders in homeless, maltreated, and community children living in poverty as well as the nature of such disorders in institutionalized preschoolers in Romania.

Psychiatry at Tulane. He serves as a consultant psychopharmacologist to a large center for the developmentally disabled. In addition, Dr. Stafford is a consultant to the Tulane Children's Hospital and works with abused and neglected infants and toddlers.

Cristian Tabacaru, M.D. is currently Head of Special Projects at the Council of Europe Development Bank. Dr. Tabacaru is trained as a Public Health Specialist, but has spent the last decade in humanitarian work as founder and long-time director of the NGO SERA Romania. Dr. Tabacaru's commitment to child welfare is reflected

in the relentless efforts of his organization to deinstitutionalize and aid children in difficulty and children with handicaps. As the youngest member ever to be appointed to the Romanian Government, Dr. Tabacaru served as Secretary-of-State for Child Protection between 1997 and 1999. His leadership marked the beginning of the reform process with the introduction of significant administrative and legislative changes.

Sandi Wewerka, MPH has been employed as a researcher at the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development for the past eleven years. The research projects she has been involved with focus on early brain and cognitive development and later

cognitive outcomes in both normally developing children as well as infants and children with known neurological insults. Sandi has her Master's degree in Public Health with an emphasis in Maternal and Child Health.

Paula Zeanah, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Tulane University School of Medicine. Following a distinguished career in Pediatric Nursing Dr. Zeanah pursued a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Connecticut. Currently Dr. Zeanah is an active clinical child psychologist and serves as Child Mental Health Specialist at the Lousiana Office of Public Health.

Conference Organizer: Sebastian F. M. Koga