Nadine Burke Harris

As California works to transform its Medicaid program, a new statewide task force will tackle how to improve the state’s mental health and drug abuse services for its most vulnerable residents.

Earlier this week a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) linked Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) to several leading causes of death in the country, including heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, diabetes and suicide.

Last week Kaiser Permanente announced it would invest $2.75 million in research to mitigate the effects of adverse childhood experiences. Kaiser Permanente conducted the original study with the Centers for Disease Control and those findings were published in 1998 linking childhood trauma and poor health outcomes later in life dubbed adverse childhood experiences, commonly referred to as ACEs.

Soon after being appointed California’s first-ever surgeon general, Nadine Burke Harris took off on a barnstorming tour across the state to talk about adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress, an issue she calls “the biggest public health crisis facing California today.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) named pediatrician Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, a pioneer in the study of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), as the state’s first surgeon general on Monday. Burke Harris is the founder of the San Francisco-based clinic Center for Youth Wellness, serving as its CEO for the past six years.

The Center for Youth Wellness (CYW), a San Francisco-based organization focused on addressing toxic stress and the study of adverse childhood experiences, is looking to add a vice president of applied and translational science.

The efforts of pediatrician Nadine Burke Harris to address of trauma experienced early in life have vaulted her to national attention. In September, Burke Harris earned recognition from the Heinz Foundation for her work to establish a system to screen and treat children who are dealing with toxic stress and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as abuse, neglect, poverty and violence.

San Francisco’s Bayview district is best known for its gun violence, drugs, pollution and poverty, and not much else. But a community health clinic’s radical approach to healing children may change all that by turning the impoverished neighborhood into an epicenter for trauma-informed care.