Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Kelly D. Harding, PhD
 
Dr. Kelly Harding received her PhD in Interdisciplinary Rural and Northern Health from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Harding is the Director of Research Administration and a Research Associate with the Canada FASD Research Network. She is also an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Psychology at Laurentian University. Dr. Harding has a background in human development, interdisciplinary health, and health service delivery, particularly in rural and Northern communities. She has worked in the field of FASD since 2010 and is involved in diverse research projects in the areas of FASD prevention and women’s health, FASD assessment and diagnosis, family well-being, mental health, and human rights.
 

 
 
 

 
Dr. Jacqueline Pei, R. Psych., PhD
 

Jacqueline Pei, R. Psych., PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Alberta. Dr Pei began her career as a criminologist and forensic counselor working with incarcerated youth. Motivated by this early work, she returned to academia to study youth at risk, child development, and neuropsychology. Now, as a researcher, and a practicing Registered Psychologist for the past twenty years, her research focus includes identification and evaluation of interventions to support healthy outcomes for youth put at risk, and in particular individuals with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. Dr Pei has over 100 peer reviewed publications and reports, but places the greatest value on her work with various community and government agencies. To this end, Dr Pei currently leads the Intervention Network Action Team (iNAT), and is Senior Research Lead for the Canada FASD Research Network, roles that facilitate the link between research, policy, and practice.

 

 
 
 

 
Dr. Katherine Flannigan, PhD
 
 
Dr. Katherine Flannigan is a Research Associate at the Canada FASD Research Network and a registered psychologist in the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia (out-of-province). Dr. Flannigan received her PhD in School and Clinical Child Psychology from the University of Alberta, and completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in Pediatrics at the University of British Columbia. Her interests centre on the clinical and social implications of neurodevelopmental diversity, with a special focus on fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and factors that help to support strengths and wellbeing. Dr. Flannigan has been working in the FASD field since 2006, as both a researcher and service provider with individuals and families.
 

 
 
 

 
Dr. Dorothy Badry, PhD
 

Dorothy Badry, PhD, MSW, RSW is a professor in the Faculty of Social Work, University of Calgary. Her primary research and interests focus on FASD and child welfare issues, disability, women’s health and FASD prevention, , advancing knowledge through education on FASD, issues of loss and grief, and FASD and suicide prevention.  Dorothy is the Child Welfare Research Lead for the Canada FASD Research Network and a member of the Prairie Child Welfare Consortium. She has received research grants from PolicyWise in Alberta,the Public Health Agency of Canada, First Nations & Inuit Health Branch of Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She is co-editor of the Youth in Care Chronicles published in November 2020 that included several young adults living with FASD and received the Canadian Association of Social Workers Distinguished Service Award in 2021. Also, in 2020 Dorothy co-authored the recently published book Decolonising Justice for Aboriginal youth with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) along with co-authors Harry Blagg, Tamara Tulich Robyn Williams, Raewyn Mutch, Suzie May & Michelle Stewart. She cares deeply about child welfare issues and those involved on the edges of society and systems. 

University of Calgary Faculty of Social Work Profile 
 

 
 
 

 
Dr. Amit Yosef Rotem, MD
 
 
Dr. Amit Yosef Rotem, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and Assistant Professor at University of Toronto (UofT), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Rotem had graduated medical school at the Faculty of Health Sciences, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. As a student, he had initiated a unique HMOs collaboration to deliver evidence-based services for smoking cessation which became the first Israeli academic Centre for Smoking Prevention and Cessation. During his residency in child and adolescent psychiatry, he developed educational methods to incorporate nicotine addiction into health sciences curricula. Dr. Rotem has graduated three-year fellowship in Addiction Psychiatry, UofT. He is currently affiliated with the Nicotine Dependence Clinic, and Youth Addiction and Concurrent Disorder Service at CAMH, Toronto. Dr. Rotem is covering the services of Youth Urgent Care and Academic Day Hospital (REACH), among others. Dr. Rotem has published clinical studies, reviews, and chapters on youth and adults addictions, nicotine dependence in particular. He is actively involved in teaching medical students and supervising residents and fellows, at the Division of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, UofT.
 
 

 
Dr. Blair Paley, PhD

Dr. Blair Paley is the Director of the Early Childhood Core (ECC) for the Nathanson Family Resilience Center, Director of the Strategies for Enhancing Early Developmental Success (SEEDS) Program, and a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The primary aims of the ECC are to conduct prevention and early intervention research, provide direct clinical services, and conduct training for community providers and the next generation of early childhood mental health professionals, all with the goal of supporting healthy development and well-being in young children and their families. Dr. Paley’s research and clinical work are focused on prevention and intervention with high-risk children and their families.

Dr. Paley is the Principal Investigator on two federally-funded grants focused on providing early interventions to young children with prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) and their parents and caregivers. SEEDS-IT (Strategies for Enhancing Early Development Success – Infants and Toddlers), funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, aims to enhance parenting skills, promote more positive parent-child relationships, and improve child self-regulation among children with PAE aged 1-24 months and their parents. SEEDS - School Readiness, funded by the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, seeks to build self-regulation, socioemotional competence, and early literacy and numeracy skills in children with PAE aged 3-5 years, as well as promote home-school connections and enhance parents’ engagement in their children’s early school experiences. In addition to directing her own research grants, Dr. Paley also provides scientific guidance for the other research initiatives within the ECC.

​Dr. Paley received her doctoral degree from UCLA in clinical psychology and completed a NIMH research postdoctoral fellowship in family risk and resilience at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a clinical postdoctoral fellowship at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital


 
Dr. Ricardo M Pautassi
 

Dr. Ricardo M. Pautassi obtained his Ph.D. at Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC, Argentina) and had post-doctoral training at the State University of New York at Binghamton (USA). He was also a visiting scholar at several universities, including the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil) and the University at Buffalo (USA). He is currently the head of a research lab at the Instituto de Investigaciones Médicas Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra (INIMEC-CONICET-UNC), an intramural facility of the National Council of Research of Argentina.

Dr. Pautassi's lab focuses on how early experiences with drugs, well before adulthood, can determine life-long trajectories of involvement into alcohol use and abuse. He has analyzed, via animal models, the effects of brief alcohol exposure during gestation on postnatal acceptance of the drug, and on the functionality of brain transmitter systems.


 
Dr. Simona Zaami MD
 

Simona Zaami is Adjunct Professor in Forensic Medicine at University of Rome “Sapienza”. She is a National expert Coroner and an experienced Forensic Toxicologist.
In most recent years, she joined the Research Group of National Centre on Addiction and Doping at the National Institute of Health to carry out investigations on pharmacotoxicology of classical and new psychoactive substances and alcohol biomarkers in adult and pediatric populations.

​She serves also as an expert in Legal matters related to conscious and unconscious intoxications and fatalities caused by psychoactive drugs.


 
Dr. ​Rebecca Pedruzzi, PhD
 
Dr. ​Rebecca Pedruzzi received her PhD in health psychology from James Cook University (2016) in far Northern Australia.  She is currently a researcher in the Alcohol, Pregnancy, and Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) team at Telethon Kids Institute, Australia.  In her role she works on the ‘Make FASD History’ program – a number of projects largely focused on changing the drinking practices of pregnant women in Indigenous communities via awareness raising, community engagement, and capacity building strategies.

​Dr. Pedruzzi recently co-authored a chapter on FASD for inclusion in the NACCHO/RACGP National guide to a preventive health assessment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (3rd edition), an important clinical tool for prevention and a resource for health professional education.  She has also been involved in securing federal funding to initiate programs in FASD prevention across two Australian sites.  Dr. Pedruzzi's principal area of investigation is FASD prevention and health promotion.  She is passionate about methods that can improve health promotion and facilitate innovative directions in the behaviour change field.  Dr. Pedruzzi has worked in government and academic sectors in research, evaluation and teaching capacities.  She also has experience in mental health research and service delivery, and health service evaluation.

 
Dr. ​Natasha Reid, PhD
 
Dr Natasha Reid is a research fellow at the University of Queensland, Child Health Research Centre. Dr Reid completed a PhD in Clinical Psychology at Griffith University (2017), which was focused on how to improve outcomes for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Dr Reid is dedicated to increasing awareness regarding FASD and improving life trajectories for those affected by FASD. Dr Reid's research interests span from FASD prevention, assessment, diagnosis, physical health impacts of prenatal alcohol exposure to the development of evidence-based interventions. 
 
Dr Reid is currently involved in a range of FASD-related research projects, including the establishment of a student-led inter-professional neurodevelopmental clinic at the University of Queensland, which provides assessments for children and adolescents with FASD, the implementation of FASD assessments in primary health care settings in remote Queensland and increasing accessibility of FASD-related services within the child protection and youth justice system in Queensland. 

 
Dr. Tracey Tsang
 
Dr Tracey Tsang is a senior research fellow in the School of Child and Adolescent Health at The University of Sydney. She is also the Assistant Director for the FASD Research Australia Centre of Research Excellence and Co-Chair of their Scientific Advisory Committee. Her work focuses on improving diagnosis and assessment (including of comorbidities) in FASD, prevention of alcohol use in pregnancy, and outcomes in Aboriginal youth with FASD and prenatal alcohol exposure.
 
Dr Tsang’s work has informed Aboriginal Community-led health initiatives, clinical practice and recommended use of normative face charts for Australian Aboriginal children in FASD training workshops; and public health campaigns Her current work is diverse, including national and international collaborations on projects related to comorbidities associated with FASD, interventions to improve antenatal care in relation to alcohol use in pregnancy, exploration of 3D facial imaging in FASD and rare/genetic disorders , a longitudinal study of outcomes in a population of Australian Aboriginal youth with high rates of FASD and prenatal alcohol exposure, and systematic reviews and meta-analyses.