Dr. Stroud is a licensed psychologist with over three decades worth of culturally informed clinical practice in early childhood development and mental health. She is a founding organizer and the inaugural president (2017-2019) of the California Association for Infant Mental Health, a ZERO TO THREE Fellow, and holds prestigious endorsements as an Infant and Family Mental Health Specialist/Reflective Practice Facilitator Mentor. In 2018 Dr. Stroud was honored with the Bruce D. Perry Spirit of the Child Award. Embedded in all of her trainings and consultations are the activities of reflective practice, demonstrating cultural attunement, and holding a social justice lens in the work. Dr. Stroud’s book “How to Measure a Relationship” [published 2012] is improving infant mental health practices around the globe and is now available in Spanish. Her second book, an Amazon best seller, “Intentional Living: finding the inner peace to create successful relationships” walks the reader through a deeper understanding of how their brain influences relationships. Both volumes are currently available on Amazon. Additionally, Dr. Stroud is a contributing author to the text “Infant and early childhood mental health: Core concepts and clinical practice” edited by Kristie Brandt, Bruce Perry, Steve Seligman, & Ed Tronick.
Dr. Stroud received her Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from Nova Southeastern University, and she has worked largely with children in urban communities with severe emotional disturbance. Dr. Stroud’s professional career path has allowed her to work across service delivery silos supporting professionals in mental health, early intervention (part c), child welfare, early care and education, family court staff, primary care, and other arenas. She is highly regarded and has been a key player in the inception and implementation of cutting-edge service delivery to children Prenatal to five and their families; her innovative approaches have won national awards. More specifically, Dr. Stroud is a former preschool director, a non-public school administrator, director of infant mental health services and agency training coordinator. She has held an adjunct faculty position at California State Long Beach and maintained a faculty position in the Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellowship for 12 years. Currently, Dr. Stroud’s primary focus is professional training and private consultation from an anti-racist lens, with a focus on social justice, in the field of infant mental health. Dr. Stroud remains steadfast in her mission to ‘changing the world – one relationship at a time’.
Dr. Melissa Hoffman (a.k.a. Mel) has dedicated her career to promoting maternal and child health and wellness. She is a former labor and delivery nurse, doula, childbirth educator, breastfeeding educator, and community education specialist. She earned a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of Kansas and is certified as a Perinatal Mental Health provider.
Dr. Hoffman works as a reproductive Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner integrated into an OB-GYN clinic at LMH Health in Lawrence, Kansas. She serves as a perinatal mental health content expert on grant-funded collaborative initiatives in Kansas, including Kansas Connecting Communities and Maternal Anti-Violence Innovation and Sharing.
In seventeen years of volunteer work, she has provided peer support to help-seekers across the state and serves as the state lead for Postpartum Support International coordinators in Kansas. Dr. Hoffman served as the first Chair of Postpartum Support International of Kansas. She serves on the PSI KS board as the Liaison to Postpartum Support International and Advocacy Lead. She is a national speaker on the topics of perinatal mental health, perinatal psychopharmacology, and perinatal peer support.
Dr. Hoffman founded Build Your Village, a perinatal mental health peer support network in Douglas County, Kansas, in 2007. She lives in Lawrence, Kansas with her husband and two boys.
The Alice Eberhart-Wright Visionary Award recognizes outstanding achievements and significant contributions in the field of infant and early childhood mental health. The award is given to those who represent the mission of KAIMH and illustrate passion, creativity and best practices in their work supporting infant and early childhood mental health in Kansas. This award will be presented each year at the KAIMH annual conference. If you would like to nominate a candidate for the 2024 award, please complete the nomination form below by March 15, 2024.
Early in his life he trained in culinary arts working under Chinese, Swiss, French, and American chefs and earning an associate degree from the Culinary Institute of America. At age 25 Rich entered Duquesne University earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration focusing on international business. This resulted in a growing interest in how families and communities respond to globalization. This led to the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs where Rich earned a Master of Urban and Regional Planning where he studied metropolitan food systems, economic restructuring and political response, and community development. After graduate school he followed his wife to Newton, KS where they had two children. The family moved to Lawrence, KS where he became the primary care giver for his infant son and toddler daughter. After six months of what he describes as the most emotionally difficult job he ever had, Success By 6 hired him and directed him to begin by reading From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. This book sparked in Rich an enduring interest in how to plan to ensure that families with young children have what they need to successfully parent their young children and how communities can grow healthier and more resilient by investing in early relationships. Rich Minder has learned from and served Success By 6 Coalition of Douglas County for 23 years helping the early childhood community select, design, implement and evaluate projects, programs, and policies. Rich loves his two daughters, Jessica 48 with grandson, William (12), Sophia 25, and Son, Joseph 23. Rich’s wife, Vicki Penner, is a therapist at Prairie View in Newton. Vicki and Rich worked with others to design and build a 23 home Cohousing Neighborhood in East Lawrence where they are among adopted grandparents to the neighborhood’s infant, toddlers, preschool, and elementary age children and their parents.