Erna Olafson

Erna Olafson, PhD, PsyD, is an associate professor of clinical psychiatry and pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center within the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. She is currently the co-director of a National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) Level II Site, the Center for Trauma Recovery and Juvenile Justice, with joint SAMHSA funding until 2016 to the University of Connecticut and CCHMC. Dr. Olafson was the training director for CCHMC’s NCTSN site, the Trauma Treatment Training Center, from 2002 to 2012. She directed the Childhood Trust Child Forensic Training Institute, which graduated more than 1,000 law enforcement and advocacy center investigators, from 1999 to 2011. Since 2003, she has chaired the National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s Justice Consortium, which collaborated with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges to produce special trauma-focused issues of the Juvenile and Family Court Journal. Dr. Olafson is one of fifty national trainers for Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the treatment approach that has the strongest evidence base for traumatized children and their caregivers. She received the Outstanding Professional Award from the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children in June, 2013. Her research, presentations, and publications focus on prevention, assessment, and treatment of family violence and child maltreatment. Dr. Olafson received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and a Psy.D. from California Graduate School of Family Psychology.