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Voices of a Generation: Equity, Access, and Innovation in Youth Mental Health

About this event

CRITICAL ISSUES IN CHILD AND ADOLESCENT MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE 2026 

Presents:

Voices of a Generation: Equity, Access,

and Innovation in Youth Mental Health


Friday, May 8, 2026

Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies

University of San Diego

5555 Marian Way, San Diego, CA 92110


A Hybrid Event


The 11th annual CICAMH conference, themed “Voices of a Generation: Equity, Access, and Innovation in Youth Mental Health”, will explore how today’s providers can amplify youth voices while advancing equitable and innovative approaches to care. This year’s theme emphasizes the importance of listening to the lived experiences of young people, promoting inclusive access to services, and reimagining systems that support youth mental health and well-being. The conference will include two keynote presentations and six breakout presentations designed to inspire practical, forward-thinking strategies for providers. Keynotes will focus on addressing burnout within systems of care and organizations, and the evolving intersection between artificial intelligence and mental health practice. Breakout presentations will dive deeper into real-world applications of the theme, including brief solution-focused therapy, supporting youth experiencing suicidality through motivational interviewing to build hope and connection, navigating the middle school years and strengthening parent–youth relationships during this transition, supporting LGBTQ+ youth mental health amidst changing policy landscapes, and a DBT-focused session tailored for children, youth, and families. By centering equity, access, and innovation, this year’s CICAMH conference aims to equip attendees with evidence-based tools and renewed inspiration to foster resilience, inclusion, and healing within youth and their communities.  

Special Thanks to our Collaborators

 County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency, Behavioral Health Services

University of San Diego & Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science

Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego Department of Psychiatry

San Diego Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry


Course Directors and Chairs

Charmi Patel Rao, MD, DFAACAP, Medical Director, Vista Hill Foundation

Carrie Jackson, PhD, Licensed Child Psychologist


Conference Managers

Vanessa Pulido, LMFT, San Diego ACAP

Tami Magaro, San Diego ACAP


2026 Committee Members

Alexis Arias, LMFT, Clinical Director of Children, Youth, and Family Services at CRF

Neha Bahadur, MD, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

Mark Chenven, MD, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, former Executive Medical Director for Vista Hill

Willard Connor, MD, Assistant Professor, UCSD Department of Psychiatry

Pradeep Gidwani, MD, MPH, FAAP, Medical Director, Healthy Development Services, American Academy of Pediatrics, California Chapter 3

Divya Krishnamoorthy, MD, FAPA, President, San Diego Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Katie Lais, DNP, PMHNP-BC, Program Coordinator and Clinical Associate Professor, Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, USD

Kelly McCullough, LCSW, Director, La Jolla Therapy Center

Edith Mohler, Administrative Analyst, County of San Diego Health and Human Services Agency

Melanie Morones, MFT, ATR, ECMHS, Early Childhood Mental Health Senior Clinical Program Manager, YMCA San Diego

Aisha Pope, LCSW, Chief Programs Officer, San Diego Center for Children

Jeffrey Rowe, MD, DFAACAP, SDACAP, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

Charlie Benjamin Warter, PsyD, CEO & Co-Founder, Protected Roots Integrative Treatment Center

Katherine Williams, PhD, Child and Adolescent Psychologist, Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, UCSD

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  • Sarah Mugford, LPCC
    Sarah Mugford, LPCC, is a licensed psychotherapist and founder of Inner Paths Counseling, specializing in LGBTQIA+ youth, gender-diverse teens, and identity development. She brings extensive experience from high-acuity, outpatient, and community settings, where she has supported adolescents navigating trauma, neurodivergence, and complex family systems. Sarah is known for her authentic, deeply attuned therapeutic style and her commitment to affirming care for queer and trans youth. Her work focuses on helping clinicians build the competence, confidence, and relational grounding needed to create safe, identity-affirming spaces for diverse young people and their families.
    Sessions
    • BreakoutPM_4 : Supporting Gender Diverse and LGBTQ Youth during the Current Political Climate
  • Stefanie Sugar, PsyD
    Dr. Stefanie Sugar is a clinical psychologist with a background in child psychology. She is the Executive Director and Founder of Behavioral Psych Studio, a group therapy practice that specializes in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and other evidence-based practices. She has expertise in DBT for adults, DBT-C, DBT-A, DBT-PE, and DBT for high-conflict couples and families. Additionally, Dr. Sugar has been trained in several treatments for parents of children who are struggling with anxiety, behavioral issues, and/or mood disorders. Specifically, she is trained in Parent Management Training (PMT) as well as Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE).
    Sessions
    • BreakoutAM_1 : Chain, Chain, Chain: Using Behavioral Chain Analysis to Drive Effective Clinical Interventions
  • Kymberly Garrett, MBA
    Kymberly Garrett is a nationally recognized keynote speaker and transformational HR consultant with over 40 years of experience inspiring audiences across healthcare, corporate, and nonprofit sectors. She has delivered more than 200 keynotes and workshops, blending humor, insight, and actionable strategies to engage leaders, clinicians, and executives. Her presentations focus on trauma-informed leadership, resilience in complex systems, and DEI+B innovation. Kymberly holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and is a Certified Executive Coach. Known for her dynamic stage presence and thought leadership, she empowers organizations to navigate change and build cultures of equity and human-centered leadership.
    Sessions
    • KN:1AM : Renaissance Ignited! Celebrating the Grit, Grace, and Genius of Helping Professionals
  • Jeff Rowe, MD
    Dr. Rowe is a Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in private practice. He retired from the County of San Diego after 20 years serving as their Supervising Psychiatrist for Children and Adolescents. He also retired from UCSD Department of Psychiatry as the Acting Chair of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Rowe is a clinician, teacher, and consultant. He treats children and youth with all types of mental health difficulties, attends I.E.P. meetings, teaches residents and medical students, and gives lectures to professional and parent groups about a variety of topics. He is well versed in medication therapies, individual psychotherapy, family psychotherapy, behavior modification, group therapy, and school consultation. For many years he assisted the County of San Diego Behavioral Health Services in the development of new mental health and substance abuse treatment programs, supervised the County’s Child Psychiatrists, and provided clinical consultation to the Juvenile Court. He was intimately involved in incorporating cultural sensitivity, recognition of diversity, and integration of understanding of children from a variety of cultural, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Dr. Rowe was the Co-Chair for the Early Childhood Mental Health Conference called “We Can’t Wait” for 15 years. He is also a member of the planning committees for 2 other San Diego conferences- the Critical Issues in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CICAMH) and the Birth of Brilliance (a conference for diverse and underrepresented children, youth and their families).
    Sessions
    • BreakoutPM_5 : Moving from Childhood to Adolescence: How to Help Troubled Youth and their Parents with this Transition
  • Brent Crandal, PhD
    Brent Crandal, PhD, is a family psychologist who provides treatment for young people and families affected by early psychosis through the CARE clinic at UC San Diego. Previously, he was Director of Behavioral Health Quality Improvement, improving evidence-based clinical services at Rady Children’s Health San Diego. Dr. Crandal serves as the Scientific Advisor for the Advancing California’s Trauma-Informed Systems (ACTS) Initiative at the Chadwick Center and in partnership with the California Department of Social Services. He has taught at UCSD, SDSU and USD, presented internationally, and publishes research, treatment guides and a children’s book.
    Sessions
    • BreakoutAM_2 : Finding Hope in the Dark: Innovative Approaches to Youth Suicide Prevention & Recovery
  • Esther Krohner, LMFT
    Esther Krohner, LMFT is a licensed therapist providing counseling, training, and consultation throughout the United States and internationally. Esther has worked in a variety of settings including home-based care, community mental health centers, intensive outpatient care, and schools. Esther also maintains a private practice and teaches county mental health providers across multiple departments to improve engagement in services. Esther brings pragmatic tools, a systems lens and emphasis on motivation to enhance access to care. She has contributed to published texts on creative therapy approaches and advocates for client centered approaches rooted in common language and practices that de-stigmatizes problems.
    Sessions
    • BreakoutAM_3 : In Their Own Words: Transdiagnostic Strategies for Building a Therapeutic Alliance and Positive Outcomes
  • Jessica Silsby, PsyD
    Jessica Silsby, PsyD is the owner of Follow Your Compass, a private practice focused on working with gender diverse youth and young adults, offering Dialectical Behavior Therapy, providing Forensic evaluations and expert testimony and consulting. She graduated with a Doctorate in Clinical Forensic Psychology and has gained expertise working with individuals who have extensive trauma via family dysfunction, loss, interpersonal violence, and child abuse. Dr. Silsby provides supervision for Master’s and Doctoral level students and graduates. She co-developed a training program for attorneys and evaluators in family court to effectively address allegations of abuse and trauma and co-facilitated the 20-hour training at 7 cities throughout the county. Dr. Silsby is the current President of the San Diego Psychology-Law Society, served on the Board and Ethics committees of the San Diego Psychological Association, and actively engages in professional organizations in the city and nationally. Dr. Silsby understands the need to reduce stigma and form a more inclusive, nuanced, holistic view of individuals and the systems in which they exist. Passion for addressing and reducing trauma exposure in clients, community, and future psychologists guides her focus.
    Sessions
    • BreakoutPM_4 : Supporting Gender Diverse and LGBTQ Youth during the Current Political Climate
  • Jason S. Weingarten, PsyD
    Sessions
    • BreakoutAM_1 : Chain, Chain, Chain: Using Behavioral Chain Analysis to Drive Effective Clinical Interventions
  • Willough Jenkins, BScPharm, MD, FRCPC
    Dr. Willough Jenkins is a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist, medical director of the Psychiatric Emergency and Consultation Liaison Service at Rady Children’s Hospital–San Diego, and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. She specializes in the psychiatric care of medically ill children, supporting patients and families through critical illness, hospitalization, and recovery. As a World Health Organization mental health partner, she works to improve trauma-informed care worldwide. Dr. Jenkins is an internationally recognized educator and speaker whose work focuses on improving recognition of mental health in children, with an emphasis on culturally responsive and evidence-based approaches.
    Sessions
    • BreakoutPM_6 : The Screen Time Shift: How to Stop Policing, Start Partnering, and get Real Buy-in from your Teen
  • Jessica Jackson, PhD
    Dr. Jessica Jackson has over 15 years of experience turning conversations around mental health into actionable ecosystems of care. Serving on leadership advisory boards of the nation’s top mental health associations, and behavioral health startups, Dr. Jackson helps innovators drive the future of mental health in ways that are profitable while remaining firmly equitable, inclusive, and accessible to every individual that needs it most. Dr. Jackson consults behavioral health startups from post-MVP to hyper-growth phases and designs innovative clinical solutions for high-acuity and underserved populations. She is a respected speaker at conferences and roundtables around the globe, and runs her own Houston-based clinical practice that provides mental health thought leadership and strategy consulting, cutting-edge digital mental health technology, consulting, and clinician case consultation. Dr. Jackson is currently an appointed chair of the American Psychological Association (APA) Mental Health Technology Advisory Committee. She holds a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from New Mexico State University and an M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from The George Washington University.
    Sessions
    • KeynotePM_2 : From Hype to Practice: Leveraging Gen AI Responsibly in Child and Youth Mental Health

CE Info

Earn up to 6 CE Credit Hours

CE Process Info

In Person Attendance: Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by his/her licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend "live" (in real-time) for the duration of the training to earn CE credits.

After the event, you will receive access to your evaluation and continuing education certificate via a personalized "attendee dashboard" link, hosted on the CE-Go website. This link will be sent to the email account you used to register for the event.

Upon accessing the CE-Go "attendee dashboard", you will be able to:

*Complete evaluation forms for the event

*Download your continuing education certificate in a PDF format.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE-Go platform, please contact CE-Go at 888-498-5578 or by email at support@ce-go.com Please Note: Emails for this event will come from "support@ce-go.com".

If you have any continuing education related questions, please contact your event organizer cicamh.conference@gmail.com

Please make sure to check your spam/junk folder in case those emails get "stuck". We'd also suggest "Allowlisting" support@ce-go.com. This tells your email client that you know this sender and trust them, which will keep emails from this contact at the top of your inbox and out of the junk folder.


Virtual Attendance: Before the event, you will receive an email from CE-Go with access to the virtual event. After the event, you will receive access to your evaluation and continuing education certificate via a personalized "attendee dashboard" link, hosted on the CE-Go website. This link and access to the virtual event will be sent to the email account you used to register for the event.

Upon accessing the CE-Go "attendee dashboard", you will be able to:

*Complete evaluation forms for the event

*Download your continuing education certificate in a PDF format

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE-Go platform, please contact CE-Go at 888-498-5578 or by email at support@ce-go.com Please Note: Emails for this event will come from "support@ce-go.com".


If you have any continuing education related questions, please contact your event organizer at cicamh.conference@gmail.com

Please make sure to check your spam/junk folder in case those emails get "stuck". We'd also suggest "Allowlisting" support@ce-go.com. This tells your email client that you know this sender and trust them, which will keep emails from this contact at the top of your inbox and out of the junk folder.


Approvals

Joint Accreditation

In support of improving patient care, CE Learning Systems is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.


Joint Accreditation

In support of improving patient care, CE Learning Systems is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.


Physicians (ACCME) Credit Designation Statement

CE Learning Systems designates this live activity for a maximum of 6 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.


Nurses (ANCC) Credit Designation Statement

Successful completion of this program qualifies for up to 6contact hours for nurses.


Interprofessional Continuing Education

This activity was planned by and for the healthcare team, and learners will receive Interprofessional Continuing Education (IPCE) credits for learning and change.


American Psychological Association

Continuing Education (CE) credits for psychologists are provided through the co-sponsorship of the American Psychological Association (APA) Office of Continuing Education in Psychology (CEP). The APA CEP office maintains responsibility for the content of the programs.


Association of Social Work Boards

As a Jointly Accredited Organization, CE Learning Systems is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive up to [# of credit hours] [topic] continuing education credits.


Target Audience

This unique hybrid event is designed to reach a wide audience in order to help to integrate up to date clinical information with informed, evidence-based care in daily clinical practice. The format includes plenary sessions and targeted breakout sessions. Interactive training with therapeutic techniques and interventions are incorporated into each session.Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, Marriage and Family Therapist, Social Worker, Case Managers, Pediatricians, Nurses, Pediatric Nurses, Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners, School Psychologists, Teachers, School Counselors, Case Managers, Behavioral Therapists, Parent Partners, Foster Care Workers, Mental Health Case Workers, Mental Health Clinicians, Residential Counselors, Case Workers, Pediatric Nurses, Interns, Associates, Fellows, Residents, Students. Everyone interested and working in community mental health focused in children and Adolescent mental health.

Event Learning Objectives

  • Identify 3 critical issues impeding wellbeing for children, youth, transitional age youth and families.
  • Identify 2 strategies to mitigate critical issues facing young people today.
  • Describe 2 strategies that can be adapted successfully with diverse and multifaceted individuals and families.
  • Identify 3 advantages to using a transdiagnostic model and frame
  • Describe one down stance and expert stance
  • Identify three strategies to practice client centered therapy by gathering clients’ descriptions of their problem
  • List 1 specific new developmental challenge children between the ages of 11 and 15 face, that is different than younger children.
  • Describe 2 methods to help the child/youth feel like they matter to the parent and clinician in an effort to improve therapeutic alliance.
  • Identify and describe at least three specific ways that developmental arrests occur in younger ages present in this period of development.
  • Identify two to three AI-enabled tools currently used in youth mental-health screening or support and describe their core clinical functions.
  • Apply an ethical decision-making framework to evaluate whether a proposed AI tool aligns with professional standards for privacy, safety, and therapeutic appropriateness
  • Summarize at least two key regulatory or ethical considerations (e.g., FDA, FTC, or APA guidance) that should inform responsible integration of AI into child and youth services.
  • Summarize at least two key regulatory or ethical considerations (e.g., FDA, FTC, or APA guidance) that should inform responsible integration of AI into child and youth services.
  • Define three opportunities to celebrate “micro-revolutions”: the small wins that shift culture and policy over time.
  • Create five reframes of self-care as energy partitioning & how to give your best without burning out
  • Identify 2 misconceptions about gender identity or gender affirming care, and identify the correct descriptions
  • Describe 3 strategies for building rapport with gender diverse youth.
  • Identify 3 resources for clients while navigating care and building community.

Policies

Attendance Policy
CE Credit and Certificates will not be issued to those who arrive later than 10 minutes or leave early from any course scheduled time. This policy is strictly enforced to ensure compliance with APA Guidelines.

Conflict of interest or commercial support:
There is no commercial support related to this program and no conflict of interest related to this program.
CELS Grievance Policy
If a grievance arises pertaining to continuing education activities or processes, please contact Tyler Gibson via confidential email to tyler@celearningsystems.com as soon as possible, so that the nature of the concern may be addressed in a timely fashion.
Planning Committee
  • Planners for this activity have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.
Financial Disclosures
The American Psychiatric Association adheres to the ACCME’s Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Medical Education. Any individuals in a position to control the content of a CME activity — including faculty, planners, reviewers or others — are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships with ineligible entities (commercial interests). All relevant conflicts of interest have been mitigated prior to the commencement of the activity.
Where can I find my Attendee Dashboard link?
Upon registering, you should receive an email from support@ceactivities.com with a link to access your Attendee Dashboard. If you do not see it in your inbox, please check your spam/junk folder. If you still cannot locate the email, you may retrieve your Attendee Dashboard link by clicking HERE

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Voices of a Generation: Equity, Access, and Innovation in Youth Mental Health
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$75.00 - $150.00
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  • CE Hours
    6
  • Type
    Hybrid Event
  • Location
    University of San Diego-Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice Venue (5998 Alcalá Park, San Diego, CA 92110)
  • Date
    May 08, 2026

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