College of Education and Social Services

Jennifer Jorgenson

Director, Vermont Child Welfare Training Partnership (CWTP)

In her previous role as Team Lead for the Kin, Foster and Adoptive Families Training Team, Jennifer Jorgenson served on statewide workgroups and leadership teams, providing input and recommendations for practice and policy change across the greater child welfare system. She recently oversaw the development and implementation/roll out of the Vermont caregiver training competency framework, and a trauma-informed, training curricula for kin and foster parents offered online and in person.

Prior to her role at UVM, Jennifer served as Director of Treatment Services for a child abuse prevention and treatment agency where she oversaw the provision of evidence-based trauma treatments in Kentucky and Ohio. She also has experience as an outpatient child and family therapist, a therapeutic residential center therapist and Membership Director for the Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

In 2017, as part of the Placement Stability Project Children's Bureau grant, Jennifer collaboratively developed TIPS for Tuning with Rex Forehand and other colleagues. She served as the Co-PD for the treatment and services strand on the ACF Placement Stability Project grant, rolling out screening, assessment, progress monitoring, treatments, and services for youth in custody impacted by trauma. In this roll she led the statewide roll out of the RPC+TIPS for caregivers.

A Licensed Independent and Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), Jennifer obtained her BSW at Ball State University and her MSW at Indiana University. She is a Certified Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) therapist and Level 1 trainer, and Certified Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT) therapist trained in CARE.

Publications

Jorgenson, J., Strolin-Goltzman, J., Bielawski-Branch, A., Beaudry, J., & Richard, J. (2017) An innovative model for supporting pre-adoptive placements: screening, cross system collaboration, and trauma informed parent management training. In Strand & Sprang (Eds.) Developing Trauma Informed Child Welfare Agencies and Services. Springer.

Woodside-Jiron, H., Jorgenson, S. N., Strolin-Goltzman, J., Jorgenson, J. (2019). “The glue that makes the glitter stick”: The role of interprofessional graduate education in creating a trauma informed service system across child welfare, mental health, and schools. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 37, 307-324.

Sullivan, A. D., Breslend, N. L., Strolin-Goltzman, J., Bielawski-Branch, A., Jorgenson, J., Hemenway, A., Forehand, G., & Forehand, R. (September 2019). Leveraging smartphone technology in trauma-informed behavioral parent training for foster caregivers. Children and Youth Services Review.