Jordana Ash, Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Infant Mental Health Clinical Mentor®, is the first Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Hemera Foundation https://hemera.org/. She joined this private family foundation in July 2019 to lead work across child and adolescent mental health, development and well-being. Her efforts focus on building partnerships to identify, explore and help ameliorate challenges that affect children and young people, families and communities. Of particular interest is the intersection of contemplative practice and mental health. This new role comes after spending 5 years working to advance early childhood mental health policy and practice at the Colorado Office of Early Childhood. That position, also a first of its kind in Colorado, established Jordana as a national expert, trusted partner, and strategic thinker in the highly visible and impactful world of early childhood mental health.
Ms. Ash is faculty with the University of Colorado Denver, Irving Harris Program in Child Development and Infant Mental Health. In 2018, she received the Bob Harmon Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Infant Mental Health field. She developed the award-winning, nationally recognized Kid Connects model of early childhood mental health consultation, which is delivered in Colorado and has influenced programming across the country. Ms. Ash is a founding member of The RAINE Group, a think tank comprised of national experts which works to advance practice, policy, and research in the specialty of early childhood mental health consultation. Her most recent publications include the November 2017 ZERO TO THREE Journal and the December 2016 edition of Newborn and Nursing Review. Ms. Ash was featured on The Checkup podcast titled “There’s no such thing as a baby” (https://www.coloradohealthinstitute.org/podcast/ep-9-what-policymakers-should-know-about-early-childhood-mental-health) where she discusses the importance for early childhood mental health for parents, advocates and policy makers.