National forum on child mental health relocates to Miami


The internationally acclaimed Niagara Conference for treating mental health problems in children and adolescents is relocating to South Florida.

William E. Pelham, Jr., a leading authority on child behavior disorders and founder of the Niagara Conference, relocated the biennial conference when he joined the faculty at FIU  and established the FIU Center for Children and Families in 2010. This year’s conference will take place Feb. 16-18 at the Hilton Miami Downtown. Special discounted rates are available for graduate students and professional trainees, as well as discounts for FIU faculty and staff.

Pelham established the conference more than a decade ago while the SUNY Distinguished Professor and director of the Center for Children and Families at State University of New York at Buffalo. The conference’s mission is to put an interdisciplinary focus on state-of-the-art interventions and evidence-based mental health services for children and adolescents.

Speakers at the 2011 Niagara in Miami Conference include:

  • William E. Pelham Jr., FIU Center for Children and Families
  • Wendy Silverman, FIU Center for Children and Families
  • John Weisz, Judge Baker Children’s Center at Harvard University
  • John Curry, Duke Child and Family Study Center at Duke University
  • Charles E. Cunningham, Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University
  • Christopher Lonigan, Florida Center for Reading Research
  • John E. Lochman, Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology and University of Alabama

The conference offers lectures and intensive hands-on training, teaching attendees the principles of evidence-based psychosocial, educational and combined interventions. This includes child-based treatments, classroom and school interventions, parent training and prevention programs for a range of internalizing and externalizing disorders.

Continuing education credits are available. The conference is co-sponsored by Florida International University (FIU) Center for Children and Families, the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, and the Children’s Trust. To learn more, visit the Niagara in Miami Conference website.