Carey Sipp 12/2/2510:05 AM

(PACEs Connection leaders and supporters, l-r) Tom Bognanno of Alliance Practice; Dr. Jamie Huysman, founder of the STAR Network; Dr. Vincent J. Felitti, co-principal investigator of the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study (ACEs) 1998; Dana Brown, volunteer co-director of PACEs Connection, longtime San Diego, CA, community organizer and pioneer with Trauma-Resilient Educational Communities (TREC); and Craig Beswick, Vice President of School Development Division, Lifelong Learning Administration Corporation (LLAC), and pioneer with Trauma-Resilient Educational Communities (TREC). Brown holds a photograph of herself, Dr. Felitti, and fellow PACEs Connection volunteer co-director Carey Sipp, taken at the launch of TREC’s website in January 2024, as Sipp, who also a TREC advisory board member,  was unable to attend this recent auspicious meeting of PACEs Connection leaders.

Time with Dr. Vincent Felitti to Reflect, Plan, and Prepare for Future Growth

Dr. Vincent Felitti, co-principal investigator of the 1998 Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, recently met with PACEs Connection leaders, funders, and advocates for dinner in San Diego. The gathering focused on reflecting on the global impact of the ACE Study, the future of PACEs Connection, and strategies for ensuring the long-term sustainability of PACEs Connection.

The dinner meeting was organized by Dana Brown, volunteer co-director of PACEs Connection, who has collaborated with Felitti over the last 15 years. Alongside Felitti, the group included Craig Beswick, who, along with Dana and their team, created the Trauma Resilient Education Communities (TREC) certification programs. Videos that are part of several TREC certifications – including those for Trauma-Resilient Professionals for educators and social workers and Trauma-Resilient Healthcare Professionals, feature Dr. Felitti explaining the importance of Transitioning from Trauma-Informed to Trauma-Resilient, ACEs science, the impact of trauma, and the importance of preventing trauma and integrating trauma-resilience.

Brown, Felitti, and Beswick all live in San Diego. East Coast leaders at the dinner meeting were Washington, DC-area resident Thomas Bognanno of Alliance Practice, a consulting firm that has supported PACEs Connection with strategic guidance over the past two years, and Dr. Jamie Huysman, of Ft. Lauderdale, FL, who is a PACEs Connection donor and leader of the STAR Network Foundation, Inc., which provides, worldwide, free, online support for survivors of toxic abusive relationships via itsTAR-Anon 12-Step program.

Absent was PACEs Connection co-director Carey Sipp, who partners with Brown as one of two volunteer co-directors of the organization. According to Brown, Sipp has been instrumental in bringing Bognanno and Huysman, among others key to restructuring, funding, and sustainability, to the organization following its being “sunset” on April 26, 2024. Sipp also led the effort to rehome PACEs Connection with its current fiscal sponsor, the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives (NPSC), in 2024, allowing the PACEs Connection to continue operating and raising funds.

“This group’s being able to connect with Dr. Felitti in San Diego helped solidify revitalization plans, likely to be announced after the first of the year. Tom Bognanno and his partners, Lee Manis and Robert Briggs, at Alliance Practice – all three are former CEOs of nonprofit organizations – are invaluable. It was exciting to see Tom Bognanno and Dr. Huysman together, and to introduce them to Dr. Felitti, who was one of the earliest supporters of (then) ACEs Connection, which became PACEs Connection in 2021,” said Brown.

“We wanted to hear Dr. Felitti’s thoughts on PACEs Connection’s impact on advancing ACEs science, and to share with him our hopes for the organization’s future,” said Brown.

Founded 14 years ago by journalist Jane Stevens, who wrote extensively about Dr. Felitti and the 1998 ACE Study, the organization evolved from focusing on adverse childhood experiences to include the importance of positive childhood experiences as protective factors, Positive & Adverse Childhood Experiences, after the Journal of American Pediatrics published Positive Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental Health and Relational Health in a Statewide Sample study in 2019. ACEs Connection rebranded as PACEs Connection in 2021, as announced in Stevens’ celebratory blog post, We’ve Changed Our Name to PACEs Connection.

Carey Smith Sipp

carey.pacescommunites@gmail.com

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