Jody Manly appointed to World Association of Infant Mental Health’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors

Jody Todd Manly, Clinical Director of Mt. Hope Family Center at the University of Rochester, has been appointed to the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the World Association of Infant Mental Health (WAIMH).  Her four-year term will begin at the 15^th World Congress of WAIMH in Prague on May 29, 2016.  One of eight Executive Committee members from around the world, Dr. Manly is the only representative from the United States.

“We are extremely proud of Jody’s appointment and that she will be representing the U.S. in this capacity,” said Dr. Sheree Toth, Director of Mt. Hope Family Center.  “I am thrilled to know the work we do at Mt. Hope Family Center will be shared with our international community through this outstanding organization.”

The World Association for Infant Mental Health is an organization for scientists and educational professionals who want to increase knowledge throughout the world about children’s mental development and disorders from conception to age three.  This international cooperation of professionals provides evidence-based knowledge about services for care, intervention and prevention of mental disorder, and impairment in infancy.  In addition, WAIMH supports the developmental transition to parenthood, as well as the healthy aspects of parenting and caregiving environments.

“Based on her excellent and internationally visible scientific standing and profound clinical orientation, Dr. Manly is the ideal person for this position,” said Kai von Klitzing, WAIMH board of directors’ president-elect and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Leipzig. “She is scientifically rooted in relevant areas like developmental psychopathology, social and family-oriented systems approach, behavioral thinking, and preventive approaches, all of which are extremely relevant to our mission.”

Dr. Manly has been involved with the implementation and evaluation of evidence-based interventions for high-risk children and families since 1991. She has been a Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator on several federally-funded research projects on the linkages among trauma, depression, child maltreatment, poverty, domestic violence, and community violence from infancy through adolescence.  She is committed to translating research evidence into effective clinical practice.  Dr. Manly, who began her affiliation with Mt. Hope Family Center as a graduate student in 1984, received her B.A. from Emory University and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Rochester.