Language: English
Email Deborah Buehler 

With a doctorate in developmental psychology, Deborah Buehler, PhD is an Assistant Clinical Professor (volunteer) at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She is the Director, Master NIDCAP Trainer, and Master APIB Trainer of the West Coast NIDCAP and APIB Training Center, UCSF in California, USA. Addionally, Dr. Buehler is the Founding Member of the NIDCAP Federation International (NFI) and Director and has served as the President of its Board since 2017. She has dedicated over 40 years to support the development of NIDCAP, its theoretical model, caregiving approach, and training program.

Dr. Buehler began her career as NIDCAP Founder, Professor Heidelise Als’ first research assistant and then as her collaborator. Dr. Buehler’s dissertation documented evidence for NIDCAP’s promise for optimal outcomes for low-risk preterm infants and their families. Her research and training have inspired her contributions in the development of training and support materials and publications, including the NIDCAP Nursery Program Manual.

As a leader of the NFI, Dr. Buehler supports NIDCAP’s international mission to improve the future for all infants in hospitals and their families with individualized, developmental, family-centered, research-based NIDCAP care. The NFI oversees training and certification provided by 30 NIDCAP Training Centers from around the world. Dr. Buehler draws inspiration from this rich network of multidisciplinary professionals, trainers, and supporters (including and especially from family voices). She is dedicated to the understanding and support of healthy and high-risk newborns and young infants and their families, and the healthcare professionals who care for them.

General Presentation Topics:

Specialty Topics:

• Synactive Model of Development
• NIDCAP Federation International (NFI)
• Understanding Infant Behavior

Language: English
Email Samantha Butler

Samantha Butler is a developmental and clinical psychologist, whose focus is toward improving the quality of hospital care and long-term outcomes for high-risk infants and their families through clinical innovation and investigation. She is the Director and Attending Psychologist of Inpatient Neurodevelopment in the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, Director of the National NIDCAP Training Center at Boston Children’s Hospital, Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School, Co-Chair of the Quality Improvement Committee of the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Outcome Collaborative (CNOC), and Co-Chair of the Cardiac Newborn Neurodevelopmental Network (CNNN) a SIG of CNOC. She was recently awarded the Children’s Heart Foundation Research award to investigate the effects of NIDCAP on children with heart disease.

General Presentation Topics:

• The NIDCAP Nursery Program
• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• The History of NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• APIB
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff
• How to Introduce NIDCAP to NICU or PICU Leaders
• Research Underlying the NIDCAP Approach
• All NIDCAP related research

Specialty Topics:

• NIDCAP in cardiology
• Caring for the medical very complex infant

Language: Portuguese
Email Fatima Clemente

Fatima is a neonatologist sénior consultant and a NIDCAP Trainer at The São João University Hospital in Porto, Portugal, in a level III Unit. Since 2015, she has been director and NIDCAP trainer of the São João NIDCAP Training Center Portugal.

Her special interests include Infant Neurobehavior and how to develop strategies to incorporate the NIDCAP conceptual model to the bedside in different NICUs, different frameworks and cultural structures.

She has been a member of the NFI Board of Directors for the last five years and chair of the Planning Subcommittee of the Annual NIDCAP Trainers Meeting. For the past five years, she has been actively involved in organizing the Annual NIDCAP Trainers Meeting, designed to educate, support, and inspire NIDCAP trainers as well as members of the NFI and professionals that work with babies and families.

She has participated in several national and international conferences on how to develop additional ways to make NIDCAP education and implementation more accessible in a global way; implementation of NIDCAP Foundation education programs; creating different ways of delivering education and using new forms of online communication, allowing greater diffusion and implementation of NIDCAP care for infants, families and professionals worldwide.

Presentation Topics:

• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff
• Research Related to Pain and Discomfort Management

Languages: English, Dutch, German
Email Nikk Conneman

Nikk Conneman, MD is a neonatologist on staff at Erasmusmc-Sophia Children’s Hospital in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He attends in clinics and is also active in the neonatal follow-up clinic and in the out-patient clinic for premature infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia. His interests are neuro-psychology, ethics and family centered care. He is part of the ethics working group and chairs ethical decision making meetings. Besides his clinical work he is a NIDCAP Master Trainer and APIB trainer, and helped set up new NIDCAP Training centers internationally

He is advisor and supporter of the national group of ex-premature infants who experience adversity due to prematurity in adult age. He has many support functions in working groups of the NIDCAP Federation International. He is the recipient of the Richard de Leeuw award, in the Netherlands recognized for his work with families and infants in the benefit of their development and wellbeing in and beyond the NICU.

He is a much sought after speaker nationally and internationally  on topics related to individualized relationship based developmental care, family centered care, brain development, influence of trauma.

General Presentation Topics:

• The NIDCAP Nursery Program
• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• APIB
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff
• How to Introduce NIDCAP to NICU or PICU Leaders

Specialty Topics:

• Trauma in newborns
• Brain Development
• The polyvagal theory of Stephan Porges and the implications for newborns and their caregivers
• Implementing trust, empathy and compassion as essential components in NICU care

Language: English
Email Mandy Daly

Mandy is a parent of a preterm infant, the founder of the collaborative multi-stakeholder, multi-disciplinary platform, The Irish Neonatal Health Alliance (www.inha.ie) and a EUPATI Fellow.

She specializes in the areas of Advocacy, Education and Research. Her achievements in the field include collaborating on several neonatal and paediatric health system reviews and clinical audits, reviewing obstetric, neonatal and bereavement clinical guidelines, developing and delivering curricula and continued education for medical, nursing, allied health professional and patient expert students, mentoring PhD students, serving on the advisory board of the PPI Ignite Network, the European Foundation For The Care Of Newborn Infants and the NIDCAP Federation International Board and working as patient collaborator and embedded patient researcher on over 70 national and international research studies.

Mandy is a chair committee member of group that developed the European Standards of Care For Newborn health, is a public reviewer for the Irish Health Research Board and the British Medical Journal Open Pediatrics, is a member of the National Office of Research Ethics Clinical Trials Committee, works with the National Clinical Trials Office Stakeholder and Management Committee, the EMA and the Health Products Regulatory Authority of Ireland and has published papers in several journals including the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and Trials.

General Presentation Topics:

• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff

Language: French
Email Delphine Druart 

Delphine Druart has been a pediatric and neonatal nurse at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) St Pierre in Brussels, Belgium since 1992.

She received her NIDCAP Professional certification in 2003 and became a NIDCAP Trainer and APIB Professional in 2007. Most recently, in 2024, Delphine achieved NIDCAP Master Trainer and APIB Trainer certifications. She conducts her training from the Brussels NIDCAP Training Center, which is housed at CHU St Pierre.

Delphine also served as the Developmental Care Coordinator for the Belgian Ministry of Health from 2013-2017.

General Presentation Topics:

• The NIDCAP Nursery Program
• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• The History of NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• APIB
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff
• How to Approach Hospital Leadership with Concerns
• How to Introduce NIDCAP to NICU or PICU Leaders

Specialty Topic:

• Developmental approach to preterm baby feeding

Language: English
Email Nadine Griffiths

Nadine is a Neonatal Clinical Nurse Consultant based in Australia with experience in the field of Pediatric and Neonatal Critical Care. Nadine is passionate about neurodevelopmental care and its application in the NICU she is an advocate of infant and family centered care and is one of several staff members who leads a unit based surgical neurodevelopmental round. In 2017 she was certified as the first NIDCAP Trainer in Australia, she was recognized as a Senior NIDCAP Trainer in March 2022. Nadine has published two chapters on neurodevelopmental care and is author of several peer reviewed journal publications. She established and was the inaugural chair of a Neurodevelopmental Special Interest Group at the Australian College of Neonatal Nurses, she is the coordinator of NIDCAP Training and the Family and Infant Neurodevelopmental Education Program (FINE) in Australia and is a PhD Candidate.

General Presentation Topics:

• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff
• How to Approach Hospital Leadership with Concerns
• How to Introduce NIDCAP to NICU or PICU Leaders

Specialty Topics:

• Behavioral and physiological responses during caregiving
• Developmental care in the surgical NICU
• Developmental care in PICU setting
• Developmental rounds

Language: French
Email Aurelie Guillou

General Presentation Topics:

• The NIDCAP Nursery Program
• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• The History of NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• APIB
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff
• How to Avoid Caregiver Burnout
• How to Approach Hospital Leadership with Concerns
• How to Introduce NIDCAP to NICU or PICU Leaders
• Research Underlying the NIDCAP Approach
• Research Related to Pain and Discomfort Management
• All NIDCAP related research

Specialty Topics:

• Collaboration with parents associations
• Relationship and synactive theory

Language: English
Email Jim Helm

James Helm, PhD, or Jim Helm, is a Senior NIDCAP Trainer who worked in the NICU at WakeMed – Raleigh, NC for over thirty years as an Infant Development and Family Specialist. He was Director of the Carolina NIDCAP Training Center and, as a founding member, sat on the Board of Directors of the NIDCAP Federation International for 19 years. While at WakeMed he was also a Brazelton NBAS and TouchPoints trainer and directed the Home-Hospital Intervention Program (HHIP) for 9 years. He began his career working for 10 years in early intervention in the Maryland-Washington DC area then received his PhD at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill in Early Childhood Special Education, starting his work in the WakeMed NICU and follow-up clinic during that time. Jim continues to support the NFI by serving on several committees and is available for lectures and training.

General Presentation Topics:

• The NIDCAP Nursery Program
• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• The History of NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• How to Introduce NIDCAP to NICU or PICU Leaders

Specialty Topics:

• System-wide support for infants and their families
• Training new staff in basics of developmentally supportive care
• Relationship-based care
• Supporting Parent Understanding of Their Infant’s Behavior

Language: English
Email Jennifer Hofherr

Jennifer has been an occupational therapist for over 30 years and a NIDCAP Trainer since 2005.  She is the Neonatal Therapy Program Manager at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) supporting therapy teams across ten NICUs and has a special interest in feeding development, parent engagement and clinical assessment tool development. Jennifer heads the NCH Developmental Steering Committee and the Safe Seep Committee and she is a primary investigator on several clinical studies. Jennifer currently sits on the NFI Board of Directors and is Co-Treasurer of the organization.

General Presentation Topics:

• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff
• Research Underlying the NIDCAP Approach
• All NIDCAP related research

Specialty Topics:

• Infant feeding
• Integration and implementation of NIDCAP care among multiple disciplines

Languages: Swedish, English
Email Stina Klemming 

Stina Klemming, MD, is a neonatologist, Co-Director, NIDCAP Trainer and FINE Trainer for the Lund-Malmö NIDCAP Training and Research Center, Sweden. She also works part time neonatologist at the mother-newborn couplet care unit at Capio St:Göran Hospital, Stockholm. Dr. Klemming worked at the Astrid Lindgrens Children’s Hospital and the Karolinska NICU for 20 years, between 2002 and 2022. She was Director of the Karolinska NIDCAP Training and Research Center 2018 to 2021. Dr. Klemming is active in the research group for the randomized clinical trial IPISTOSS (Immediate Parent Infant Skin-TO-Skin Study) for which she also did a lot of clinical work at Karolinska University Hospital during the inclusion period between 2018 and 2021. Dr. Klemming is promoting Infant- and Family-Centered Developmental Care according to NIDCAP on a national and international level. She chairs the IFCDC group within the Swedish Neonatal Society. The concept of care “mother-newborn couplet care” is one of Dr. Klemming’s special interests and competencies. Since January 2023 she leads a work group assigned from the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions together with a colleague neonatologist, Sofia Arwehed, to publish national guidelines on mother-newborn couplet care. Stina Klemming chairs the organizing committee for the Swedish Conference on Ultra-Early Intervention since 2018. During a period of 10 years Dr. Klemming has held numerous presentations on international conferences and scientific meetings.

General Presentation Topics:

• The NIDCAP Nursery Program
• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• How to Introduce NIDCAP to NICU or PICU Leaders

Specialty Topics:

• NIDCAP
• Infant- and Family-Centered Developmental Care
• Immediate skin-to-skin contact for very preterm infants
• Mother-newborn couplet care
• Zero separation.

Language: English
Email gretchen Lawhon

Dr. gretchen Lawhon, clinical nurse scientist, has worked in newborn intensive care for 42 years with 46 years nursing experience.  Currently she is Clinical Nurse Scientist with Newborn special care associates, pc at Abington Jefferson Health and a Senior Master NIDCAP Trainer with West Coast NIDCAP and APIB Center. She cofounded the NIDCAP program and co-investigated several early research studies supporting an individualized developmentally supportive approach to care of infants and families in the newborn intensive care unit (Effects of Early Behavioral and Environmental Modification to Infants with Severe Respiratory Distress, 1983-1984; Deep Tendon Reflexes in Premature Infants, 1984-1985; and NIHR/NIDCAP Behavioral Intervention Study, 1985-1987).  Dr. Lawhon’s own dissertation was Facilitation of Parenting Within the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NCNR/NCCIP, 1992-1994) at the University of Washington School of Nursing.  Dr. Lawhon was the Neonatal Clinical Nurse Specialist for the NICU Transition and NICU Follow-Through Projects (1990-1995), federally funded by U.S. Dept. Education through the University of Washington Child Development and Mental Retardation Center as well as early intervention outreach (U.S. Dept Ed.  Earliest Intervention, Setting the Stage for Success, Outreach Project for Young Children with Disabilities, 1995 – 1998). She served as Co-Chair, Lucas County Ohio Early Intervention Collaborative Group (1999-2000) and Vice-president and Board of Directors member of the Collaborative Network of Lucas County, Ohio Inc.  Dr. Lawhon co-investigated the NINR funded Stability of Infant Responses to Painful Procedures study (1998-2002).  She has extensive experience as a clinical nurse scientist and has authored numerous articles in her areas of expertise.

General Presentation Topics:

• The NIDCAP Nursery Program
• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• The History of NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• APIB
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff
• How to Approach Hospital Leadership with Concerns
• How to Introduce NIDCAP to NICU or PICU Leaders
• Research Underlying the NIDCAP Approach
• Research Related to Pain and Discomfort Management
• All NIDCAP related research

Specialty Topics:

• Facilitation of parenting in the newborn intensive care unit
• Transitional follow-up support from NICU to home and community
• NIDCAP care from a global perspective

Language: English
Email  Bonni Moyer 

Bonni Moyer, MSPT is a dedicated NIDCAP trainer and developmental specialist at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona with over 25 years of experience.  In her current role, Bonni travels throughout the state of Arizona training various professionals in the Nursery ICU towards NIDCAP reliability.  She assists these hospitals and individuals in all areas towards advancements for improved brain development for their infants.

Bonni, a University of Texas, Austin graduate holds a master’s degree in physical therapy from the University of Miami, Florida. Bonni became NIDCAP certified in 2006 and continued to become a NIDCAP Trainer in 2012.

Bonni speaks at various conferences throughout the States on subjects including brain development, motor development and sensory development in premature infants.  She is invited yearly to lead a full day conference called “A Day with a NIDCAP Trainer”. This day consists of Bonni speaking on various concepts in relation to premature brain development.  This conference has now become a requirement for many new hires at various hospitals in Arizona.

Bonni also maintains and updates her skills as a pediatric physical therapist. She owns her own business, Rainbow Therapy Services, providing in-home physical therapy for children with special needs.

General Presentation Topics:

• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff
• How to Avoid Caregiver Burnout
• How to Approach Hospital Leadership with Concerns

Specialty Topics:

• Motor development
• Sensory integration

Language: English
Email Jean Powlesland

Jean Powlesland has been a nurse for 38 years, having graduated from University of Arizona with a BSN. She worked at University of Illinois Hospital for 34 years, first as a bedside nurse and then as a developmental specialist. Even thoush she had worked in a NICU for two years, when her first child was born at 34 weeks, it was a total shock, providing a real life experience in empathy with NICU families. She received her Masters in Perinatal Nursing in 1994, just as she had her second child. She became a NIDCAP Trainer in 2006, a Senior NIDCAP Trainer in 2019 and was a founding member of the Children’s Hospital University of Illinois NIDCAP Training Center. She retired from the developmental specialist role in 2022, and is now affiliated with the University as a NIDCAP Trainer. She has trained extensively in the MidWest and more recently in the Middle East countries of Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. She has been a member of the NIDCAP Federation International’s Board of Directors since 2018 and is serving as the Secretary of the organization. She loves sharing her knowledge and experience with developmental care and the importance of NIDCAP education.

General Presentation Topics:

• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Research Underlying the NIDCAP Approach
• Research Related to Pain and Discomfort Management

Specialty Topic:

• Observing and Understanding Infant Behavior

Language: English
Email LaToshia Rouse

LaToshia Rouse, is an accomplished doula and owner of Birth Sisters Doula Services. Her career began with her personal experience of having premature triplets at 26 weeks gestation. This lead her to partner with her NICU to bring parent perspectives in their neonatal Vermont Oxford Network committees and create programing for families in the NICU. As a recognized expert, she collaborates with institutions like the Institute of Patient and Family Centered Care, the University of Chapel Hill, and several others, offering insights in patient engagement and health equity.

Her work spans research, policy, and leadership roles, including serving on the Board of Directors at the American Board of Pediatrics and the National Institute for Children’s Health Quality. She is a published author on topics relating to NICU parent perspectives and patient engagement.

LaToshia’s expertise is further enhanced by a Diversity and Inclusion Certification from Cornell University, focusing on equity for families, mothers, and babies. She serves on the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s HEDIS and Health Equity Expert Work Group. Currently, she is the Co-Principal Investigator for an AAMC Next grant, “Nurturing Empathy Among Obstetric Learners,” emphasizing her dedication to improving clinician-patient relationships and health outcomes.

General Presentation Topics:

• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff

Specialty Topics:

• Engaging families of color
• Advisory Councils
• Patient Education

Language: English
Email Dorothy Vittner

Dorothy Vittner, PhD, RN, FAAN’s background of over 34 years in Neonatal/Perinatal nursing and research focus on high-risk infants and families. Dr Vittner is a process-oriented thinker, dedicated to innovative solutions to enhance learning that upholds the personhood of individuals. Dorothy’s professional responsibilities have focused on infant neurobehavioral functioning and training multidisciplinary healthcare professionals on infant behavior and neurodevelopment to improve outcomes for infants and families.

Dr Vittner’s leadership to influence care of infants and families is recognized through the NIDCAP (Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program) Federation International (NFI), Board of Directors currently serving as NFI Program Chair. Dorothy is a Senior NIDCAP Trainer and holds many certifications in various infant/early childhood neurobehavioral assessments.

Dorothy has a longstanding interest in reflective process implementation to support healthcare professionals’ emotional well-being and functioning with repeated and prolonged stress exposure. Her research has focused on understanding how stress and burnout influence health care professional’s decision making to implement family-centered care practices.

Dorothy received a Master’s Degree in Nursing Education from University of Hartford and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dorothy has published many book chapters and manuscripts in peer-review journals and has lectured around the world. Dorothy is an Assistant Professor and Post Masters DNP Program Director at Fairfield University, Egan School of Nursing & Health Studies and works at Connecticut Children’s, NICU. Her research focuses on examining bio-behavioral mechanisms, specifically the role oxytocin and cortisol in modulating premature infants’ behavioral, autonomic and stress responses utilizing individualized developmental care strategies to enhance parent engagement.

General Presentation Topics:

• The NIDCAP Nursery Program
• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• The History of NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• APIB
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• Establishing Trust Between Families and Staff
• How to Avoid Caregiver Burnout
• How to Approach Hospital Leadership with Concerns
• How to Introduce NIDCAP to NICU or PICU Leaders
• Research Underlying the NIDCAP Approach
• Research Related to Pain and Discomfort Management
• All NIDCAP related research

Specialty Topics:

• Research Methodology
• Parent Engagement
• Infant behavior
• Infant brain development
• Enhancing developing relationships

Language: English

Email Juzer Tyebkhan

Dr Juzer Tyebkhan is a Neonatologist and NIDCAP Trainer at the Edmonton NIDCAP Training Centre Canada and Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Stollery Childrens Hospital, Edmonton. He is a co-investigator of the Edmonton Randomised Controlled Trial of NIDCAP, published in Pediatrics, 2009.   He is a Director of the Board of the NIDCAP Federation International.

Juzer’s interests include the neurobehaviour of preterm infants and their developmental journeys, that he is privileged to share when the children come back to the Follow Up Clinic.  He hopes to work with the NFI to find ways of making the NIDCAP and APIB training more manageable, affordable and successful in the current working environment of NICU’s around the world.   He recently provided the first NIDCAP training in India, at the Dr Rela Institute in Chennai.

Juzer is the developer of the NASCENT website;  an on-line, video-based educational tool that supplements NIDCAP and APIB training – see www.nidcapedmonton.com

With the Edmonton NIDCAP team and students from the Department of Design at the University of Alberta, he led an NFI funded project to create an app for a Digitised Observation Sheet for NIDCAP naturalistic observations.

Juzer continues to learn about and be fascinated by child development, as he watches his four young grandchildren leaping and bounding over their individual, unique, developmental paths.

General Presentation Topics:

• Family-centered care using NIDCAP
• Developmental Care using NIDCAP
• APIB
• The Importance of and Effects of Kangaroo Care
• How to Introduce NIDCAP to NICU or PICU Leaders
• Research Underlying the NIDCAP Approach
• Research Related to Pain and Discomfort Management
• All NIDCAP related research

Specialty Topics:

• How does NIDCAP work – the Neurobiology of Development and Regulation
• Neuroprotection and Neuropromotion guided by Infant State