Ann Jennings, Ph.D., has been involved for over 20 years in raising public awareness and influencing fundamental changes in the way public mental health systems view and treat individuals with histories of unaddressed sexual and physical abuse trauma. She has consulted with the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), to bring evidence-based and emerging best practice trauma models and current trauma research findings to state mental health and human service systems across the country. She currently consults with the SAMHSA Center on Women, Violence and Trauma and other organizations nationally to create strategies for sustainable change to a trauma-informed model of delivering services.

She initiated and for 8 years directed the first state system Office of Trauma Services (OTS) in the country for Maine’s Department of Behavioral and Developmental Services (BDS). Under her leadership Maine’s BDS received national recognition for identifying trauma as a priority public policy issue, implementing trauma research findings and emerging best-practice models in public mental health and substance abuse service systems across the state and forming partnerships with community-based organizations.

Dr. Jennings has presented at national and state conferences, authored and co-authored several published articles and documents and serves on national trauma expert groups. “The Damaging Consequences of Violence and Trauma”, compiled by Dr. Jennings and published in 2004 by NASMHPD, provides compelling evidence to make the case that addressing trauma is critical to resolving the most serious intractable problems faced by health, mental health, correctional and social service systems today. Other publications include “Blueprint for Action: Building Trauma-Informed Mental Health Service Systems” and “Models for Developing Trauma-Informed Behavioral Health Systems and Trauma-Specific Services”. She has recently developed a powerpoint on early childhood trauma and its lifelong impacts published by the Missouri Mental Health Institute educational website. Documents and powerpoints are available on www.annafoundation.org.

Dr. Jennings is also president of the Anna Foundation, Inc., an organization dedicated to joining others in speaking truth about the effects of childhood trauma on individuals and on society, promoting prevention and early intervention, and providing resources for professional, community, and survivor use. (www.annafoundation.org) She has personal experience as the mother of a young woman diagnosed with serious mental illness whose sexual abuse and traumatization as a small child were chronically unrecognized and untreated by helping professionals, and who was continually revictimized throughout the course of her lifespan. Her article describing her daughter’s experience “On Being Invisible InThe Mental Health System” has been published in numerous journals and in at least three books, in the United States, Canada, and England.