Our beloved Kelly has decided to retire from her adult lifetime job laboring for the benefits of others; now she will begin enjoying life for her own well-being and happiness. She will have time to travel with friends, book multiple spa dates, and enjoy her volunteer work supporting rescue dogs in transition. Let’s begin this story with a note from Kelly herself:

In June 1997, I left a long-time career as a legal secretary/assistant and entered a whole new world of research science! I was unprepared for the tasks that lay ahead, but encouraged and guided every step of the way by Marion and Laura, the two most patient and wonderful bosses anyone could ever ask for. I really can’t imagine my life without this job. My daughter was 4 years old when I started; she’s now 32! The years have flown by, filled with happy and meaningful memories. We went through big changes as we moved from OSLC to ISII, but the stability of having Marion and Laura (and now Anna and others) always supporting me has made it all continue to be something we are all so proud of. I can’t express how much I appreciate getting to know colleagues from all over the world and helping to lift GenerationPMTO to the heights it has reached. I know it will continue to soar and I’ll be watching from the wings (well, maybe from a warm beach) with pride and gratitude. Much love to all, Kelly

Kelly’s title as Executive Assistant barely encompasses the multiple realms of work she accomplishes and oversees. Not only does she skillfully edit scientific journal articles and book chapters including complex models, tables and charts, she also applies her creative skills in designing manuals, PowerPoints, and all variety of materials for parents, clinicians, and trainers. Many years ago, Marion asked her to look into the possibility of the Endnotes referencing program; now she maintains a library of close to 10,000 articles. When she arranges travel and accommodations for staff, she stays on board to ensure her travelers are safe as they go to and from their destinations, and when things go off the rails, she gets things back on track. We could go on and on describing her competence at juggling multiple balls in the air, including the tedious job of putting together materials for off-site workshops and ensuring that they arrive at the right place on time. Who will we ever find to keep us on track, manage the myriad details of running our organization, and make sure we remember to carry out our own jobs in a timely fashion? Oh, Kelly, we will miss you. When we told people that you were retiring and asked them to say a few words, there was an outpouring. We heard from the folks on the Social Glue committee at OSLC (which organizes social events), our Board of Directors, and ISII staff. The messages touch on Kelly’s kind and gentle way of being, her expertise, her sense of fun, and her willingness to do whatever is needed to get things done well.

Kelly, dear Kelly, enjoy this new phase of life knowing that you have enabled us at ISII to carry out our mission of making life better for families in need. We couldn’t have done it without you. You are irreplaceable. Love to you from all of us.

Here are some of their comments.

• Kelly has been such a wonderful Social Glue team member! Her superior slideshow skills will be sorely missed, along with her willingness to shop for party snacks and cheerful attitude about everything!!
• Kelly has always been a bright light shining the path toward connections and resources. I am grateful for her superb organizational skills, her gentle and warm guidance towards success (whether finding resources, reconnecting with deadlines, or ushering me in the direction of the people I needed to connect with). I have appreciated Kelly’s unfailing support over the years and, especially the way in which she has held space with both professional and personal care. When I first started working with Marion and the OSLC family, I was pregnant; now I’m an empty nester with two adults out in the world! Kelly was one of the first people that helped me negotiate life as a working mom: is it OK to bring the baby into the bull session? Where do I go breastfeed? Has anyone done this here before or am I going to get kicked out of here? Her good information and warmth were balm for the soul! It has been a pleasure and a privilege to share stories over the years. Kelly has set OSLC, ISII, and our GenerationPMTO teams up for success well into the future. I am profoundly grateful to have had the opportunity to work with her for two and half decades!
• Working with Kelly is such a joy! Grateful for her sense of fun, her willingness to pitch in to build community at our workplace, and her artistry with PowerPoint! She’ll be missed, but we’ve been very very very lucky to have her and she has an open invite to all Social Glue events in perpetuity ❤️
• I cherish working with Kelly. She is a dog on a bone, has a sharp eye for detail and best of all, has a great sense of humor. She absolutely is a key element to ISII’s success.
• What a loss for ISII. Warm wishes to her and all kinds of respect for her impressive contribution!
• I want to highlight how versatile Kelly is: being creative and organized at the same time is rare – Kelly is both. She has brilliant ideas and knowledge about how to solve all kinds of things and she is a Do-er. I also want to mention that some years ago, I was so lucky to have her daughter staying with us here in Iceland for some time. That was like having a part of Kelly in our house – so now we expect Kelly will have time to come and stay with us herself and we are looking forward to that day.
• Kelly has always been one of the most pleasant, helpful, and kindest people I have ever encountered.  She was always ready to answer questions, she made herself available to support me in figuring out what I needed to plan for when planning a workshop or training.  Kelly has a great sense of humor and I always knew that if I was forgetting something, Kelly would know and would gently prompt me to think about what I missed.  Kelly’s kindness and GIANT heart are what stand out most to me.  I will really miss her a lot.
• It has been so amazing getting to know Kelly over the past few years, she is a bright moment in my week.  I also appreciate the hard work, and attention to details she puts into everything she does. I am always confident walking into a workshop that multiple packages with manuals, swag and special treats will meet me to help make participants feel welcome and excited about the workshop ahead😊.
• The first time I met her we played Pictionary, there was a joke about a cheetah. I felt a connection to Kelly when Harrington a Quarterback for the Lions was previously a University of Oregon Quarterback. I appreciate all of her hard work.
• Kelly is exemplary in every way on the job. Organized? Check! Proactive? Check! Birds eye view and perspective from the nest? Check! Master editor? Check! Expert FedEx wrangler? Check! Creative? Limitless check! (Two longtime favorite images include Problem Solving explained by dogs working together to retrieve biscuits out of a jar, and the unintentionally hilarious Vanna White spelling Reunification with one of her hands photochopped). Wit and humor? Check! (Her refrain to all during the Academy Awards: Don’t bother me unless your hair’s on fire.) Exemplary Executive Assistant? Check! But it’s the friendship and trust and congruence that’s grown over the years that stands out for me now as I try to make sense of no longer working together. We have a system, an understanding, a bond – and for that I am forever grateful. It’s been my great fortune to work with and share space with dear Kelly for 27 ½ years. I wish her love, luck, and adventure on sunny beaches near and far.

Our Minnesota colleagues Drs. Chris Mehus and Jaime Ballard have been awarded a 5-year RO1 grant from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) designed to prevent significant behavioral health problems at a population level by providing widespread access to effective and accessible parenting programs through referrals from primary care physicians (PCPs). 

Primary care referrals can increase reach for families who might otherwise be hesitant to seek help; they are non-stigmatizing and PCPs are trusted resources. The new grant builds on their prior work that was supported by a NIMH R-34 in which they employed a brief GenPMTO-informed preventive intervention for PCP-referred families with children ages 3-8. Mehus and Ballard will also extend their innovative intervention called Support and Guide (S&G), which is designed to help PCPs engage parents in a conversation about parenting and thereby facilitate effective referrals. In the pilot study, the parents who received the 6-session virtual eGen intervention reported improvements in parenting and saw greater reductions in behavior problems when compared with parents who only received written information. For the S&G program, trained PCC’s were more likely to refer patients and refer a greater percentage of their patients compared to those in a control condition. These promising findings provided the essential support to obtain more extensive funding.

The new grant, which is now under way, builds on the earlier grant by conducting a cost effectiveness evaluation and two fully powered Randomized Controlled Trials: the eGen parenting program and the S&G program for PCPs. Multiple cohorts of clinicians will be trained over the next few years and infrastructure roles (coaching, training) will be filled. Laura Rains and Bessie Turner, who led the pilot eGen training in 2022, began the R01 workshops this November with an in-person 3.5-day workshop with 10 clinicians (marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers). This workshop will be followed up with 15-20 weekly one-hour virtual sessions.  Laura and Bessie reported good engagement, lots of practice, and multiple activities designed to integrate the group’s clinical skillset with the eGen curriculum. Workshop evaluations reached stellar levels. For example, one participant said: The training was excellent and comprehensive and the trainers were really lovely, grounded and enthusiastic!

The eGen pilot study conducted in 2021-2022 was covered in a Minnesota newspaper a couple of months ago: https://sahanjournal.com/health/immigrant-parent-stress-minnesota-program-empowered-generations/