Kadija Johnston LCSW is a clinical social worker who has been a practitioner in the field of infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) since 1985. Her now nearly 40 year career in the infant mental field began as a teacher/therapist and mental health consultant at the Early Childhood Mental Health Program .

 Ms. Johnston is currently an independent consultant to several states and many programs across the country and internationally, assisting them in developing and   implementing diversity and equity informed infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) clinical programs. She is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Child and Human Development where she is contributing her expertise and experience in early childhood mental health consultation to two national TA centers. Ms. Johnston is the past Director of the Infant- Parent Program at the University of California, San Francisco, where she pioneered an approach to IECMH Consultation which now  serves as a model for other organizations, locally, nationally, and internationally. Ms. Johnston is active in several national early childhood mental health organizations, including being a founding member of the Reflective Supervision Collaborative and RAINE, a Southwest Human Development sponsored group of national experts advancing practice, policy and research in ECMH Consultation.  She writes and lectures nationally on infant and early childhood mental health related topics.  In addition to numerous articles, she co-authored the book Mental Health Consultation in Child Care: Transforming Relationships With Directors, Staff, and Families.  

In the final phase of her professional journey, Kadija is committed, and devoting energy to authentically instilling equity, diversity, and inclusion principles and transformational healing practices in all her endeavors.  To this end, she is co-facilitating communities of practice and providing webinars directed at the intersection of equity and early childhood clinical practice. She is a national workshop facilitator on the Diversity Informed Tenets for Work with Infant, Children and Families.

If public speaking is a goal of yours, and you've been wanting to share your professional experience with colleagues to discuss relevant topics, then we'd love for you to become a "Rupture & Repair" panelist! See flyer for details.

2024 Conference Memories