Staff

Cassie Yackley, Psy.D.

Director

Dr. Cassie Yackley is a master trainer and trauma-responsive practice content expert. Dr. Yackley has spent her professional career committed to understanding and effectively addressing the impact of traumatic exposure on children, families, and systems by bringing together recent discoveries from developmental neuroscience, attachment, & implementation science to help professionals learn how reflective practice leads to better working environments and outcomes for professionals and those they serve.

Dr. Yackley’s company (Cassie Yackley, Psy.D., PLLC) was formed in 2016 to meet the profound need for expert training and consultation in trauma responsive practices/systems in human service agencies throughout the state faced by impact of the opioid epidemic and the crisis in the children’s mental health and child protection systems.  Dr. Yackley has extensive experience consulting with agencies to develop system-wide cultural shifts and to implement organizational change toward trauma-responsive policies and practices.  She leads learning communities in trauma responsive care by conducting foundational training and facilitating monthly reflective supervision/consultation to professionals across disciplines and has developed assessment and implementation tools and toolkits to support trauma responsive change.

As a trainer, Dr. Yackley provides keynote presentations at association conferences and offers an array of single event training sessions to audiences of all sizes throughout New England and nationally.  Over the past four years, she has presented hundreds of times to more than 75 different agencies, associations, and/or school districts for professionals across human service sectors that include: mental health clinicians, home visitors, early childcare providers, law enforcement agents/emergency first responders, psychiatric providers, integrated health network associates, medical professionals, educators, and substance use disorder providers.

In collaboration with the Behavioral Health Improvement Institute at Keene State College, Dr. Yackley has led (as project director/principal investigator) several statewide projects supporting the implementation of trauma responsive practices across systems by obtaining grant funding through state agencies and private endowments/foundations.  Through project GROW (Generating Resilience, Outcomes, and Wellness), Dr. Yackley and the NH Department of Education Office of Student Wellness are working with six NH school districts over a four-year period to align school policies and practices with the principles of trauma-informed care.  As director of the NH Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) Provider Network, Yackley has built a statewide, sustainable system of CPP providers across the state by conducting endorsed CPP learning collaboratives to roster mental health clinicians, providing ongoing consultation to CPP supervisors, and by building awareness and providing advocacy for CPP at the state level.

While with the Dartmouth Trauma Interventions Research Center, Dr. Yackley served as administrative director for an Administration for Children, Youth, and Families (ACF) grant transforming New Hampshire’s Division for Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) into a trauma-informed system through the Partners for Change project.  Over a three-year period, Dr. Yackley trained all of NH’s child protection and juvenile justice professionals and was embedded in each of the state’s district office consulting with staff  implement trauma responsive practice, including instituting universal screening for trauma and mental health for all adjudicated youth.

In addition to more than 25 years as a mental health clinician, psychological evaluator, and program manager, for nearly a decade Dr. Yackley was the Director of Training for an American Psychological Association accredited doctoral internship training program in psychology within a community mental health and integrated primary care setting.  In that role, she prepared doctoral interns to serve unserved populations (primarily children with severe emotional disturbances (SED) and adults with severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI)) with a focus on trauma and autism spectrum disorders.

Dr. Cassie Yackley is deeply passionate about addressing the epidemic of violence in our society and to mitigating the impact of traumatic exposure on children, families, and systems.  Her true hope is foster compassion, reflection, and community in others so that, together, we can build a more connected hopeful society.  As such, Dr. Yackley has become a state leader and well-known expert in building trauma responsive communities of care who can count on a vast number of partners and collaborators throughout New England to engage in efforts towards trauma responsive care.

Katie Weijer, LICSW

Manager

Katie Weijer is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker with over a decade of experience supporting children, families, and communities through trauma-informed behavioral health services. As Network Manager for the New Hampshire Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) Provider Network, Katie plays a key leadership role in coordinating training, consultation, and implementation supports to sustain a robust, high-quality workforce of CPP clinicians across the state. Her background includes serving as a Behavioral Case Manager with New Hampshire Healthy Families, where she coordinated care for vulnerable populations and led process improvement initiatives. Katie previously provided trauma-informed therapy to children and families at Riverbend Community Mental Health and worked as an Integrated Behavioral Health Clinician embedded in a primary care setting. She is trained in both Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), bringing deep clinical insight to her systems-level work.

Trainers

Beth Ketaineck, Psy. D

Trainer/Consultant

Dr. Beth Ketaineck is a licensed clinical psychologist in New Hampshire and a state trainer for Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). Dr. Ketaineck has been working with children ages 3-18 in a community mental health setting at Riverbend Community Mental Health, Inc. since 2012, with a particular focus on evidence-based intervention for our youngest and most vulnerable population, ages 3-6. Dr. Ketaineck has long been interested in disrupting negative impacts of intergenerational trauma by working with both children and their caregivers to engage in reflective practice and work toward noticing and changing unhealthy relational patterns and attachment styles. Dr. Ketaineck was first introduced to CPP in 2012, under the supervision and mentorship of Dr. Yackley, and has never looked back. She was trained in the first cohort of NH clinicians to become nationally rostered in 2017 and has been leading the robust CPP consultation team at Riverbend for almost ten years. Dr. Ketaineck’s educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Boston College and a PsyD in clinical psychology from Antioch University in Keene, NH. Dr. Ketaineck was credentialed in Early Child and Family Mental Health (ECFMH) and became a certified Trauma-Informed Early Childhood Services (TIECS) trainer in 2014. As an associate of The Center for Trauma-Responsive Practice Change, she has provided numerous trainings on trauma-informed care in schools, daycare centers, and to parents across New England. In addition to her clinical responsibilities, Dr. Ketaineck has been providing individual and group supervision to doctoral students since 2015 and loves sharing her knowledge and passion with eager learners new to the field. Dr. Ketaineck is thrilled and honored to be training in CPP alongside Dr. Yackley and to be such an active part of the amazing NH CPP Network!

Jenessa Deleault, Psy.D.

Trainer/Consultant

Megan Wilson, Psy. D

Trainer/Consultant

Annie Dintino-Cucchi, M.Ed

Trainer/Consultant

Board Members

Sarah Fox – Chair

Currently an independent consultant in the early childhood field, Sarah serves as the Executive Director for the Alliance of Early Childhood Coalitions. Her professional background includes work with the Winnisquam School District on the System of Care grant, consulting for DCYF on special education issues affecting children in foster care, and serving as both the Circuit Court Coordinator and Court Improvement Project Training Specialist. Additionally, she worked as an Education Consultant in the Bureau of Special Education at the New Hampshire Department of Education.

While working in the court system, Sarah represented the NH Judicial Branch on the Attorney General’s Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect and served on the Citizen Review Panel for DCYF, which later merged with the DCYF Advisory Board. During law school, she completed an externship with Dick Cohen at the Disabilities Rights Center and worked with the NH Children’s Alliance. Prior to entering law school, Sarah was an elementary school teacher and later became a child care director, where she launched a child care program within a nursing home.

Sarah’s interest in trauma-informed care began during her time in the court system, when she became familiar with Cassie Yackley’s work and witnessed judges participating in intensive behavioral health training. A defining moment came during a pre-conference dinner at the Attorney General’s Conference, when Dr. Vincent Felitti asked those around the table, “I’ve done the research—what are you going to do with it?” Although Sarah didn’t have a clear answer at the time, that question has continued to guide her work. She firmly believes that the trauma a child experiences does not have to result in poor behavioral and physical health outcomes in adulthood.

Her commitment to sustainable, systemic change is reflected in her support of the Center for Trauma-Responsive Practice Change (CTRPC). Sarah sees the CTRPC as playing a vital role in New Hampshire’s child- and family-serving systems, especially in a state where valuable initiatives often lose momentum when grant funding ends. She is excited to support the CTRPC as it continues to grow and expand its impact across the state.

Heather McKinnon – At-Large

Heather McKinnon has over thirty years of experience in Early Childhood Education and more than a decade of experience in family services. For twenty years, she dedicated herself to developing her skills as a Montessori teacher and preschool director in New Hampshire. In 2013, she began a new chapter as a Head Start home visitor, taking on various roles that enriched her understanding of early childhood development and family dynamics.

Her diverse background, which includes serving as a Montessori teacher, preschool director, childcare director, Head Start education director, Head Start home visitor, and family service manager, has equipped her with invaluable knowledge and mentoring abilities in early childhood and family services. This journey led her to the non-profit sector, where she currently works to support and strengthen caregivers and their children in southern New Hampshire.

Heather holds a Master’s degree in Leadership from Granite State College, a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Granite State College, and a Montessori teaching certificate from the New England Montessori Teacher Education Center in Newton, MA.

Joelle Martin

At-Large

Ellen Desmond

At-Large

Nathan Fink

At-Large

Tiffani Arsenault

At-Large