Emotional Safety: Environment Pillar

Jenaya Gordon is the manager of the Child Life Department at Children's Hospital Colorado. As a Certified Child Life Specialist, she has worked with children and families in the emergency department, pediatric intensive care unit, neurosurgery unit, and inpatient surgical/trauma unit. Jenaya’s presentations address such topics as emotionally safe pediatric care, trauma-focused medical play, understanding and responding to children in crisis, trauma processing, and trauma-informed care. She authored the paper Emotional Safety in Pediatrics and was a contributing author in the Handbook of Medical Play Therapy and Child Life. Jenaya is a former board member with the Association of Child Life Professionals and continues to contribute her time as a committee member.

As Administrative Director of Patient- and Family-Centered Care at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Janet is responsible for development, implementation, and evaluation of patient- and family-centered care initiatives as well as oversight of Child Life Services, Volunteer Services, Pastoral Care, Family Resource Center, Hospital School Program, Music Therapy, Art Therapy, Seacrest Studios, Patient and Family Advisory Councils, Patient Experience, Patient Education and the Gift Shop. Janet obtained her Master of Education from Vanderbilt University and her Bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State University. She is a certified Child Life Specialist through the Association of Child Life Professionals and a Certified Patient Experience Professional through the Patient Experience Institute. Janet was awarded the 2012 Distinguished Service Award from the Child Life Council, is the recipient of the 2011 Judy Koonce Family-Centered Care Award, and was named a finalist as a "Woman of Influence” by the Nashville Business Journal in 2012. Janet has served in multiple leadership roles for ACLP including President, Director, Child Life Certifying Committee Chair, and Local Conference Planning Committee Chair. She has also served on the Ethics Committee, Governance Task Force, Patient Experience Committee, and as a Child Life Program Review Consultant. Janet contributed two chapters to Richard Thompson’s Handbook of Child Life and contributed to the Beryl Institute White Paper “What Patient Experience Can Learn From Child Life Professionals.” She was selected to participate on the Walt Disney Children’s Hospital Advisory Committee in 2018. She is also a member of the Nashville Ronald McDonald House Board of Directors and the Board of Directors for Cooper’s Troopers, a foundation for the support of siblings of children with cancer. She served as the chair of the Professional Advisory Group for the Clinical Pastoral Education Program in Nashville, 2017 and 2018.

Stacey is a dedicated professional with 30+ years of nonprofit experience improving the operations and culture of respected health systems.  She is a national leader who effectively engages internal and external stakeholders to bring diverse perspectives and engagement to achieve organizational goals and streamline processes.  She has a proven record of building programs that bring patient and family voice to the forefront that enhance relationships and produce successful outcomes across health systems.  Stacey established the Child Life and Music Therapy programs at Children's Mercy Hospital growing them both to the nationally recognized programs they are today.  Also established under her leadership she pioneered the development of formally hiring patients and parents on staff; together they work to ensure that within CMH there will be a culture of information sharing, participation, and collaboration between patients, families and staff and that all families will be treated with dignity and respect.

Barbara Romito, MA, CCLS, has served as the Director, Child Life Program at the Bristol-Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital for over 30 years. She oversees child life services and family centered care, developing innovative programs to enhance psychosocial care for children and families.  She has lectured extensively to a variety of interdisciplinary groups and published several research studies on psychosocial care of children and families.  She has held several board and committee positions for the Association of Child Life Professionals, including past president and is currently serving as the ACLP liaison to the American Academy of Pediatrics, Committee on Hospital Care.