Well Worth the Work: An In-Depth Look at the Value Proposition for Child Life Services

Katherine Bennett, MEd, CCLS has worked as a Certified Child Life Specialist at Monroe Carell, Jr. Children's Hospital since 2001. She has worked with children and families in the areas of operative surgery, community outreach/education, PICC, inpatient medicine with all age groups, and in the burn center. Currently, she serves as the educator for Child Life & Volunteer Services, planning and coordinating the clinical training experiences for emerging child life professionals, onboarding new employees, working with the department's clinical advancement program and providing education about the needs of children in healthcare settings to colleagues both in and outside the Vanderbilt community. She has written and presented at international conferences and in several published outlets about such topics as medical play and its impact, developmental theory applied to hospitalized children, and teaching child life in the clinical and university settings.

Ashlie Woodburn, M.Ed., CCLS, CIMI is currently working as a child life specialist in the CVICU at Phoenix Children's and has been practicing as a CCLS for five years. Ashlie has experience implementing a wide range of child life interventions that meet the needs of diverse patients and families across outpatient clinic, inpatient acute and critical care settings. Ashlie is particularly interested in meeting the developmental needs of infants with chronic medical conditions and has worked to implement programs to increase the utilization of child life support during infant procedures and encourage developmentally appropriate sensory support in the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. Ashlie is a contributing author for the child life value proposition statement and is passionate about evidence-based practice in child life. Her academic training includes Bachelor of Science degrees in Psychology and Family and Human Development from Arizona State University and a Master of Education degree in Child Studies from Vanderbilt University. 

Katy Hoskins, CCLS is a Certified Child Life Specialist in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN. Her interests and advocacy centers around infant mental health, non-pharmacological pain management/procedural support for infants, prenatal psychosocial support for parents and siblings in Maternal Fetal medicine, preterm developmental needs, program development in Neonatology, and family-centered end of life care. Katy has been a child life specialist for almost five years with previous clinical experience in the emergency department and inpatient neurology at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, TN. She graduated in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Ecology with a concentration in Child Life and will begin pursuing her Masters degree in Early Childhood and Family Development at Missouri State University this fall. Katy serves on many hospital committees, including chair of the NICU Bereavement Committee, and is also an ACLP Bulletin committee member.

Jessika Boles, PhD, CCLS is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University, and a Certified Child Life Specialist at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Religious Studies from Rhodes College, a Master's degree in Applied Child Studies from Vanderbilt University, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Educational Psychology with a graduate certificate in Qualitative Research from the University of Memphis. She has been a practicing child life specialist for fourteen years, the first 8 of which were spent in pediatric and adolescent oncology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, with the following years dedicated to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. Dr. Boles is known for her research on the concept of legacy as it is perceived by various stakeholders and translated into clinical practices with children and families. Additionally, as the leader of the CHILL (Children's Healthcare, Illness, Legacy, and Loss) lab at Vanderbilt University, her research brings together multidisciplinary collaborators and student researchers to study the psychosocial needs and experiences of children and families in multiple contexts: pediatric critical care, medical complexity, developmental disabilities, adverse childhood experiences, and grief and bereavement. She has held multiple posts in the Association of Child Life Professionals, and currently serves as Lead Fellow for the Association of Child Life Professionals and as a voting member of the Institutional Review Board at Vanderbilt University and Medical Center. In her spare time, she enjoys punk rock, her family's home and menagerie of pets in Montana, and spending time with her children and husband.