Who We Are
I-CEPS 2027 Keynote Speakers
Dr Paul Ramchandani, is LEGO Professor of Play in Education Development and Learning at Cambridge University, UK. He is Director of the PEDAL Research Centre, where he leads a research team investigating the role of play in children’s early development. He also works as a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist in the UK National Health Service. He trained as a doctor in Southampton before training as a child and adolescent psychiatrist. He took a degree in Public Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine before studying for a doctorate (DPhil) at Oxford University. Prior to taking up his appointment in Cambridge in January 2018, he led the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Group at Imperial College London. Paul's research is focussed on early child development and he has a particular interest in child and parental play and also the prevention of emotional and behavioural difficulties. Much of this work has explored the role of fathers as well as mothers in children’s lives and includes the development and testing of psychological interventions and detailed observational studies of parents and young children.
Dr Sheri Madigan is a Professor, registered clinical psychologist, Tier II Canada Research Chair in Determinants of Child Development, and Killam Laureate in the Department of Psychology within the Faculty of Arts at the University of Calgary, as well as a member of the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute and Hotchkiss Brain Institute. She currently serves as the Director of Clinical Training for the graduate program in Clinical Psychology. As a clinician-scientist, her research centers on maternal and child mental health, caregiver-child relationships, adversity, resilience, and child development. She collaborates with practitioners, caregivers, youth, and community partners to develop practical tools and resources that aim to address the clinical needs of children and families. Her funded national and international transdisciplinary initiatives, including the CARE Collaboration, COPE with trauma, and ACEsHub, all emphasize psychoeducation as a central approach to bridging gaps between research and practice, tackling real-world challenges, and supporting clinical and community needs more effectively.
Dr Mark Dadds is a Professor and The University of Sydney and a clinical psychologist interested in the development of health versus psychopathology, especially common problems like aggression, antisocial behaviour, anxiety and depression. Originally trained in behavioural approaches to parent and family methods of maximising positive child development, he directs the Sydney Child Behaviour Research Clinic which operates as a clinical service for parents of children with developmental, behavioural and emotional problems, as well a training and research centre. A major thrust of this work is understanding interparental processes whereby parental systems work together to maximise child outcomes and their own health and happiness. He has become increasingly interested in research and clinical work that tries to map our most human interpersonal processes such as love, empathy, cooperation and coercion onto the genetics and neural function of major neurodevelopmental systems, with the aim of building new more efficacious treatments for young children.
Dr Sophie Havighurst is a Professor, child clinical psychologist and Leader of the Tuning in to Kids® program at Mindful: Centre for Training and Research in Developmental Health at the University of Melbourne. For over 25 years, she has worked in collaboration with co-creator Ann Harley and a team of researchers, trainers and students to develop, evaluate, and disseminate these evidence-based parenting programs used nationally and internationally. Professor Havighurst provides supervision and guidance to professionals, researchers, and students who implement and evaluate these programs with diverse populations across the globe. She is Chair of the Parenting and Family Research Alliance (PAFRA), a national research collaboration focused on advancing research, policy, and practice in parenting and family support. She is also Co-Convenor of the End Physical Punishment of Australian Children (EPPAC) advocacy group, a coalition of over 160 stakeholders working to reform legislation that permits corporal punishment of children in Australia.
Dr Geertjan Overbeek is a Professor of child development and Academic Director at the Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam. His work focuses on the social agents that shape—and are also shaped by—the development of young people: parents and peers. In 2013, Geertjan established the Youth Prevention Lab at the University of Amsterdam. This lab works from the vision that the key in resilient development of young people lies in the preventive support for those who care for them. The main aim of this program is to study the role of parents and peers in normal and abnormal developmental trajectories, but also to study the effect of parenting and peer interventions—increasing our knowledge about how we can best stimulate a healthy and positive development of children and adolescents.Geertjan’ s work, accordingly, has focused extensively on the effectiveness and effective components of parenting support programs, examining specifically the promise of volunteer-based and outreaching, empowerment-oriented programs.
Dr Richard Hastings is a Professor for the Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology at the University of Birmingham, UK. He has been recognised for his research contribution to the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities with awards from three international organisations: the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (International Award 2021), the National (USA) Association for the Dually Diagnosed (2023 Steven Reiss Research Award), and the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (Research Award 2024). He was Editor in Chief of the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research (2018-2021) and has served as an associate/action editor or editorial board member for 17 other peer review research journals. His main research focus is on topics relating to mental health in children and adults with intellectual disabilities, family support, early intervention, and educational outcomes for children with intellectual disabilities. He also carries out research on evidence based mental health and well-being interventions in mainstream schools and parenting and family support for young people with mental health or behaviour challenges.