Nearly 30 Years After a Landmark Study Changed How the World Understands Childhood Trauma, a Global Summit Asks: What Comes Next?

Carey Sipp 4/28/2611:16 PM

The Third Annual Scars to STARs Day Summit — Free, Virtual, and Open to the World — Register now for May 22, 2026

On May 22, 2026, thousands of survivors, scientists, clinicians, policymakers, educators, and community leaders from across the United States and around the world will gather — virtually and at no cost — for one of the most significant annual events in the global trauma recovery and prevention movement.

The third annual Scars to STARs Day® Summit: ACE Studies — The Next 30 Years, hosted by the STAR Network Foundation, takes place from 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET on the fourth Friday of May, held annually in honor of Mental Health Awareness Month.

Free: Register now at Scars to STARs Summit 2026 – STAR Network.

Nearly 30 Years of Science — So Much Work to Do

The timing is not coincidental.

Nearly three decades have passed since Vincent J. Felitti, MD, FACP, then working with Kaiser Permanente, and Robert F. Anda, MD, MS, then a research scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, published the landmark Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Study — one of the most consequential public health studies in American history.

Their findings revealed a striking, dose-dependent relationship between adverse childhood experiences and lifelong physical and mental health outcomes. At the population level, the higher a person’s ACE score, the greater their statistical risk of heart disease, cancer, addiction, mental illness, domestic violence, poverty, and premature death.

But the science has never been deterministic — a high ACE score is not a death sentence.

Not everyone with multiple ACEs will suffer those outcomes, and researchers have long sought to understand why. A landmark 2019 study on Positive Childhood Experiences — PCEs — helped answer that question, demonstrating that supportive relationships, community connection, and other positive experiences can buffer the impact of adversity and help explain why some people with significant ACE scores go on to live remarkably resilient, connected, and healthy lives.

The ACE Study has since generated thousands of follow-on studies worldwide. And yet, nearly 30 years later, it remains largely unknown outside the fields of education, public health, medicine, and social services — far from the tipping point of public awareness needed to change the systems that perpetuate childhood adversity in the first place.

May 22nd is a day dedicated to helping change that.

Honoring the Scientists Who Started It All

The summit will open with a short film — The Legacy of the ACE Study and the Future It Made Possible — honoring Dr. Felitti, who will receive the 2026 STAR NeuroLeadership Award in a filmed presentation.

Dr. Anda will receive the STAR Global Impact Award for Public Health Impact in Trauma Science, presented virtually by The Honorable Patrick J. Kennedy, Co-Founder of The Kennedy Forum, former U.S. Representative, and recipient of the 2025 STAR NeuroLeadership Award.

A Day-Long Journey — From Science to Action

The summit is structured in three chapters — Understanding Trauma and Healing, Voices of Recovery, and Building the Next 30 Years — moving participants through a carefully designed arc from scientific grounding to personal reflection to collective commitment.

The program opens with a Global Prevention and Recovery Innovation Marketplace, where participants can connect in real time with organizations advancing trauma-informed care, youth resilience, addiction recovery, survivor support, and prevention innovation from around the world.

Featured speakers and sessions include:

The Honorable Patrick J. Kennedy, Co-Founder of The Kennedy Forum, delivering a keynote on leading the next 30 years of mental health systems reform.

Diana H. Fishbein, PhD, Senior Scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Co-Founder of the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives, presenting What We Learned — and What Comes Next — a critical examination of how ACEs science has evolved and what it now demands of us.

Dr. Melissa T. Merrick, President and CEO of Prevent Child Abuse America and former Lead Scientist on the CDC ACE Study, presenting From Awareness to Prevention: Rewriting the Conditions for Childhood in America — reframing trauma not as individual failure but as a systems-level challenge and shared responsibility.

Mercie Josina DiGangi, DO, Regional Chair of the Child Abuse Prevention Program at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, presenting Your Brain on ACEs: Why the Past Lives in the Present — and How to Change It.

Jennifer Hays-Grudo, PhD and Amanda Sheffield Morris, PhD, both of Oklahoma State University, presenting From ACEs to PACEs: Defining the Next Era of Prevention — introducing the growing science of Positive Childhood Experiences and how supportive relationships and environments can buffer adversity and change life trajectories.

Jesse Kohler, Founder and President of The Change Campaign and former Executive Director of the Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice, offering a survivor leadership reflection: When the System Failed Me — What I Chose to Build.

Michael J. Menard, Founder of United Against Childhood Trauma and author of the recently published Greater Than Gravity: How Childhood Trauma Is Pulling Down Humanity, presenting From Personal Tragedy to Global Movement.

A panel on Addiction, ACEs & the Brain, moderated by Doug Tieman, Chairman of the Board of the STAR Network Foundation, featuring clinical leaders from The Retreat, Ascension Recovery Services, Ashley Addiction Treatment, Turnbridge, and Caron Treatment Centers.

A panel on When Systems Work: Building Care Survivors Can Trust, moderated by Thomas G. Bognanno, Founder of Alliance Practice LLC, and Jamie Huysman, PsyD, LCSW, Founder and Executive Director of the STAR Network Foundation, featuring Dr. Mya O. Price, Executive Vice President and Chief Social Impact Officer of Creating Healthier Communities, and George Rapier III, MD, Chairman and CEO of WellMed Medical Management.

Richard Grannon, International Ambassador of the STAR Network Foundation, presenting Psychological Freedom: Breaking Cycles of Coercive Control.

Omer Golan, Founder and CEO of the MyWhatIf Foundation, offering a survivor leadership reflection: From Trauma to Transformation: Data to Dignity.

A Survivor-Centered Experience

Throughout the day, the summit weaves together guided regulation and reset breaks — recognizing that engaging with trauma-related content requires care, and that healing happens not just through information but through the experience of safety, connection, and community.

The day will close with a solemn moment — The Empty Chair for the Children We Lost and the Children We Can Still Protect — followed by the signing of the ACEs Next 30 Declaration: A Global Commitment to the Next Generation, inviting participants worldwide to affirm their commitment to transforming trauma recovery, prevention, and resilience over the next three decades.

Free. Virtual. Global. May 22.

The Scars to STARs Day® Summit is free and open to anyone, anywhere in the world, with sessions designed for global participation across time zones.

This is not a conference. It is a movement. And it begins — again — on May 22.

Register now at Scars to STARs Summit 2026 – STAR Network.

For more information, visit the STAR Network Foundation at STAR Network – Become a Survivor of Toxic Abusive Relationships! and PACEs Connection at PACEs Connection.

About the STAR Network Foundation The STAR Network Foundation is a worldwide 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to the support, treatment, and prevention of attachment disorders and narcissistic abuse. Through its free peer-to-peer, anonymous meetings each weekday, the annual Scars to STARs Day Summit, and community initiatives, STAR Network makes safe, consistent, accepting connection available to Survivors of Toxic and Abusive Relationships and complex PTSD worldwide.

About PACEs Connection PACEs = positive and adverse childhood experiences, The organization is a 62,400+ member global online learning community and social network advancing the science of positive and adverse childhood experiences to prevent and heal trauma, build resilience, and support flourishing people and communities worldwide. STAR Network Foundation partners with PACEs Connection and is its fiscal sponsor.

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