Frank Grijalva is the Director of Midwest Trauma Services Network and the Senior Vice President of Programming for The International Trauma Center. He works with various state and local agencies across the country ranging from tribal child welfare, disability services culture change, juvenile justice facility consultation, and school districts. Frank works at the regional and local systems level, as well as individual caseconsultations for agencies.Frank came through the California system as a child, adopted into a family challenged by mental health and substance abuse issues. Raised in the East Bay Area of Northern California, Frank attended nine different schools in his first nine years. Growing up in a difficult home in a challenging environment both geographically and historically, Frank has a unique perspective that translates for many of our most traumatized communities, families, and children. Frank found his way into the military. His first professionaltraining was as a special warfare diver attached to the United States Navy's Marine Mammal Program. He spent eight years honing behavior modification skills, stress management, and understanding the dynamics of nonverbal communication.Later, as a stay-at-home dad for two kids and a student of psychology, he became aware of and struggled with development, his own trauma exposure, and behavioral progressions and sequencing. At 40, Frank was diagnosed with childhood PTSD. This led to a journey of self-exploration and an academic focus on psychological trauma.Frank has worked with the International Trauma Center since 1999 and deployed to Ground Zero to manage a team of clinicians working with a federal agency in "the dig" to support them ongoing as they did their difficult work. Frank also worked extensively throughout Louisiana and Mississippi in the aftermath of Katrina. Additionally, Frank has worked abroad in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, Nepal, Jordan, Haiti, and several other countries for agencies like Save the Children,USAID, the World Bank, and the International Center for the Protection of Victims of Torture, developing interventions and trained by a variety of world class clinicians working with children.As Director of the Midwest Trauma Services Network and Senior Vice President of Programming for the International Trauma Center, he has spent the last several years introducing and training selected trauma informed evidence-based practices, as well as designing and implementing innovations specific to people from at-risk environments through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in the US federal government. Frank has a BS in Disaster Psychology with an emphasis on mental health, an MS in Public Health with a focus on child mental health, and an MS in Clinical Counseling with trauma theory as the primary theoretical framework. Frank is the proud father of two gifted and resilient children who contribute in significant ways in their chosen professions. His mission is to create a world that understands the impact of trauma and abuse on children, families, communities, and culture by teaching, challenging, and learning everywhere he goes.