SFCR Developer

Laurel J. Kiser, Ph.D., M.B.A. is a psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Her career focus has been on the provision and evaluation of treatment for families living in poverty, victims of domestic violence, neglect, physical and sexual abuse, with high rates of intergenerational trauma. Dr. Kiser has served as School of Medicine Principal Investigator of the Family Informed Trauma Treatment (FITT) Center, a National Child Traumatic Stress Network Category II Center, since 2007. She has written extensively on the effects of posttraumatic stress disorder and physical/sexual abuse on children and adolescents as well as family processes related to stress and trauma. Dr. Kiser is the lead author of the conceptual model of complex trauma in families. Partnering with Charles Figley, she co-authored the second edition of Helping Traumatized Families. She is a regular presenter and invited lecturer at national conferences. Dr. Kiser received support from the National Institute of Mental Health and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to develop family-based interventions to address the high rates of trauma exposure and the prevalence of trauma-related disorders related to poverty. Strengthening Family Coping Resources: Intervention for Families Impacted by Trauma (Kiser, 2015) is the culmination of her 20+ years working to address the needs of this highly impacted population. Dr. Kiser provides SFCR training locally, nationally, and internationally and consults with multiple child services systems implementing SFCR.