2021 Research Recognition Awards Recipients

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Marissa is a Michigan native who currently resides and works in Nashville, TN. After completing her undergraduate degree in Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University, Marissa completed her child life internship at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor in 2013. She was hired on as a Sibling Program Coordinator immediately following and joined the child life team at Mott shortly after. Marissa gained experience working as a Child Life Specialist in radiology and the inpatient cardiology unit before moving to Tennessee in September of 2017 and serving in a PRN position at East Tennessee Children's Hospital.  Since March 2018, Marissa has been a member of the child life staff at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, where she has specialized in peri-operative services. Since assuming this role, she has also completed her graduate coursework in Organizational Leadership and Administration at Concordia University Wisconsin, served on and led various departmental committees and workgroups, and began her research line as a new way to contribute to the field of child life. Her research thus far has focused on evaluating traditional play-based interventions such as medical play in high stress settings such as perioperative services, as a means of demonstrating the value of play for children coping with healthcare encounters.  Her expertise in developmentally-appropriate play and preparation has made her a resource for the colleagues, students, and interdisciplinary professionals with whom she works, and she is passionate about continuing to develop and refine her child life skillset to optimize the care patients and families receive in the hospital setting. In her free time, Marissa enjoys running, a good cup of coffee, football and spending time with her husband and 17-month-old son.

is a Certified Child Life Specialist. She currently is in the role of Facility Dog Coordinator at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee. She brings with her nearly 30 years of experience as a Certified Child Life Specialist.

Leslie was born and raised in Southern California. Learned about Child Life while an undergraduate at the University of California at Davis, and received her Masters in Child Life and Early Childhood Education from Mills College in Oakland California.   Following an internship at University of California San Francisco, Children’s Hospital of Oakland and the University of California at Davis teaching hospitals, she accepted her first professional role as the coordinator for a one-person program at Kaiser Permanente in West Los Angeles, California in 1990.

Seeking growth in a larger program, Leslie moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1992 and began her service as a Child Life Specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), where she continued to develop clinical expertise in both the inpatient and outpatient arenas. Her previous experiences have been in the areas of infant toddlers, inpatient surgery, cardiology and orthopedics. While juggling her time in the inpatient areas, Leslie stepped in to lead the pilot program for the pediatric orthopedic clinic in 1996.

In 2000 Leslie was invited to implement child life programming in the diabetes outpatient clinics where she would remain for the next 17 years. During that time, she was a member of the multidisciplinary planning team to co-chair the annual educational Diabetes Family Day for several years.

In 2017 Leslie changed course to move into the perioperative area preparing children and teens for surgery. Medical play was utilized on a daily basis in a variety of ways to meet the fast pace needs in the perioperative areas. Group medical play became the vehicle to begin the play engagement for children to explore, familiarize and express their thoughts and feelings prior to their surgery. It was during that time; Leslie and her colleagues implemented the medical play study.

In February 2020, Leslie assumed a new role as the Facility Dog Coordinator, a new position for the Monroe Carell Jr Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. Her new role, supported by Mars Petcare company-- Better Cities for Pets, includes a Canine Companion for Independence two and a half year old black Labrador, Squid. Leslie provides services to the inpatient units to children, teens, and their families in high medical situations. She will be planning and implementing programming to motivate and inspire patients and families through the presence and interactions of this facility dog.

Leslie has been an active member of ACLP since 1989. She has been a member of the archive’s management group for several years and most recently served as the chair 2018-2020.

 Leslie resides in Brentwood, Tennessee with her two adult boys, one in his first year of medical school and the other a junior at Ole Miss. Leslie enjoys an active life outside of work, spending time with her dogs, distance running, hiking and volunteers in her community on the Historic Board Committee. 

Sarah is a Certified Child Life Specialist and research specialist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and an adjunct professor in the Child Life Program at Bank Street College. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Memphis, a member of the Journal Review Board for the Journal of Child Life: Psychosocial Theory and Practice, and leads institutional efforts to establish best practices, care coordination, and psychosocial programming for adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with cancer. She has experience conducting quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies, with interests in the evaluation of child life services in the healthcare setting, the role of social media and technology in youth development, and AYA coping and development throughout treatment for cancer. 

Jessika is a Certified Child Life Specialist and team lead at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University.  She is currently Chief Fellow of the Association of Child Life Professionals, is a former member of the board of directors, and regularly contributes her time to institutional initiatives for improving bereavement care, increasing patient mobility, and mitigating trauma and distress in pediatric critical care environments.  

Jenna is a Certified Child Life Specialist at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, MD and a recent graduate of the Applied Child Studies master’s program at Vanderbilt University. During graduate study, Jenna pursued specializations in pediatric healthcare and poverty and intervention, designing a unique intersection of research and application on which to focus her child life scholarship. Outside of her academic experience, Jenna was a graduate student worker in both clinical and research capacities with a quality improvement group at Vanderbilt University Medical Center called Team HOPE – an interdisciplinary team dedicated to the family-centered care of mother-infant dyads who are opioid exposed. She was also a key member of the team of authors who conceptualized, researched, composed, and published the Child Life Value Proposition Statement, “The Value of Certified Child Life Specialists: Direct and Downstream Optimization of Pediatric Patient and Family Outcomes,” on behalf of the ACLP. Jenna completed her child life practicum at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN and her clinical internship at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in Philadelphia, PA.

Still involved today, Jenna began studying conceptions of legacy in pediatric healthcare environments during her graduate study, elucidating and analyzing the ways in which staff, parents/caregivers, and pediatric patients perceive the term and its related interventions, as well as bereaved family members. Jenna has presented this research in academic, clinical, and regional child life conference settings and is actively preparing a manuscript for publication regarding the ways in which pediatric patients conceptualize legacy.

Before embarking on her journey into child life, Jenna spent years working in journalism and advertising where she learned quickly how to do the typical atypically. Her experience using impactful communication and creative problem-solving contribute greatly to her clinical work and serve as cornerstones of her child life philosophy.

When she’s not working, Jenna enjoys international travel, exploring and learning through food, and making the perfect Spotify playlist.