Lorraine F. Kubicek, Ph.D., IMH-E (Infant Mental Health Mentor-Research/Faculty), is an Assistant Professor at JFK Partners, Department of Pediatrics, at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. After completing her doctoral studies in Psychology at the University of Chicago and a certificate in Infant Studies from the Irving B. Harris Program at the Erikson Institute, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow and later a member of the Research Faculty in the Program for Early Developmental Studies at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, directed by Dr. Robert N. Emde.

Dr. Kubicek has over 35 years of experience conducting both quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation with families (from diverse racial, ethnic, and socio-economic backgrounds) and their children who are typically developing, at-risk, or with special needs. A common theme in her work has been recognition of the profound effect the quality of caregiver-child relationships has on the overall health, development, and well-being of children and families. Her areas of interest and expertise include infant/childhood mental health, social-emotional communication, language development, caregiver-child relationships, and family routines. She has worked in both university and nonprofit settings and has served as the Principal Investigator or Project Director on projects funded by federal, state, local, and private foundation grants. Dr. Kubicek is currently the Principal Investigator for Project SUCCEED (Supporting Colorado Children’s Early Emotional Development), a Mental Health Awareness Training grant funded by SAMHSA, DHHS, that is intended to help increase our state’s capacity to address the unmet mental health needs of Colorado’s children by offering relevant trainings to diverse groups throughout Colorado who touch the lives of young children. She is also a Co-Principal Investigator for Project SMILE (Supporting Maternal-Infant Love and Engagement), a pilot study funded by a High-Risk Families Cash Fund Grant, CDHS-OBH, and designed to create, deliver, and begin to assess a short term, point of care parenting skills training provided in hospital to women with opioid use disorder (OUD) during the immediate postpartum period. She has also taught courses in infant and child development in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Metropolitan State University of Denver for over ten years.

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Kubicek has also been involved in a variety of efforts focused on increasing public awareness of and fostering professional development in the field of infant/early childhood mental health. She was a founding member and served as the second president of the Colorado Association for Infant Mental Health (CoAIMH). During her tenure, she co-chaired COAMIH’s first statewide conference, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health in Colorado: Connecting Policy with Research and Practice. She was also a member of Colorado’s Endorsement Partnership which was instrumental in adopting the Endorsement for Culturally Sensitive Relationship-Focused Practice Promoting Infant Mental Health in Colorado.

Dr. Kubicek is a Graduate Leadership Development Initiative Fellow of ZERO TO THREE, having served as Council Chair of the Academy of ZERO TO THREE Fellows from 2015 to 2017, Co-Chair of the Endorsement Evaluation Subcommittee of the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health, and an Associate Editor of the Infant Mental Health Journal.