Workforce Education and Innovation

As a university center, we contribute to the academic educational mission by teaching and learning alongside learners and professionals of all levels and across many disciplines in partnership with communities, state and local agencies, and health care institutions.

Our educational endeavors are broad in scope and reach thousands of professionals and local leaders across Colorado and the country and at national and international meetings. Continuing education and life-long learning for medical, nursing, child welfare caseworkers, law enforcement and legal professions are a core to our work. Education services in collaboration with other Colorado institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, and the Colorado Department of Human Services are central to our efforts.

Specialized Learning & Development Experiences For Child Welfare Professionals and Caregivers

Training access and evaluation follow objective, job-related criteria. Kempe does not discriminate based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), age, disability, or any other protected status.

In 2013, the Colorado Department of Human Services selected the Kempe Center to serve as the central management organization for Colorado’s Child Welfare Training System (CWTS). Since that time, CWTS has demonstrated success working toward its mission to meet the learning and professional development needs of Colorado’s caseworkers, supervisors, case aides, resource caregivers, and other child-and-family-serving professionals. Through an array of dynamic learning experiences, coaching, resource sharing, and community building, CWTS is supporting a diverse and ever-changing workforce.

To learn more about training offered through CWTS, please visit www.coloradocwts.com.

>> From July 2021 through June 2022, CWTS provided 125,825 training credit hours to 6,780 unique learners.
>> We serve more than 2,600 caseworkers and supervisors and 3,000 resource caregivers every year with both pre-service and in-service learning requirements.

Workforce Education and Innovation Overview

The Kempe Center has a long history of leadership in the field of child maltreatment through the multidisciplinary education of students and professionals working with victims of child abuse. As a university center, we contribute to the academic educational mission by teaching students, graduates and post-graduate of all levels and across various disciplines on this campus and in partnership with our affiliated teaching hospitals. Our community-based education is broad in scope and reaches thousands of professionals annually across the Rocky Mountain Region and at both national and international conferences. Continuing education and life-long learning for medical, nursing, child welfare social workers, law enforcement and legal professions are also a core part of our work. Training services in collaboration with other Colorado institutions of higher education and Colorado Department of Human Services are a core of our work.

Child abuse and neglect is an important component of the pediatric curriculum for medical, nursing, child health associate /physician assistant students and physicians in residency training programs. The Department of Pediatrics is highly devoted to medical education at every level of training from preclinical years, clinical rotations and postgraduate training of fellows (Child Abuse Pediatrics and Berger Fellowship) and post-doctoral students. The Kempe Center faculty participate in this longitudinal education with a commitment to innovation and excellence to help produce outstanding pediatric health care providers and researchers for Colorado and the nation.

Find Out More

For more information on Workforce Education and Innovation, please contact:

Dr. Rashaan C. Ford
[email protected]

Fellowship Information

The University of Colorado School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Colorado, and the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, all located on the Anschutz Medical Campus, offer a three-year post-residency fellowship in Child Abuse Pediatrics. The primary goal of our fellowship program is to train physicians who are board eligible or board certified in pediatrics to become academic and clinical leaders in the subspecialty field of Child Abuse Pediatrics The fellowship provides in-depth and intensive training clinical care, education and research.

About Kempe

The Kempe Center was founded in 1972 by C. Henry Kempe, MD, a former University of Colorado School of Medicine Chairman of Pediatrics. His 1962 publication of the landmark paper The Battered Child, establishing one of the nation’s first Child Protection Teams in 1958 and founding of the national center in Denver, are both legacy and foundation for the current University of Colorado School of Medicine child advocacy and protection system of care.

The faculty at The Kempe Center consists of pediatricians, nurse coordinator, social workers, lawyer, epidemiologists, child welfare services researchers and psychology and psychiatry clinicians. Our strength-based, family centered, and competency-based training program for child welfare professionals has educational experts in adult learning. Children’s Hospital Colorado clinical staff have many faculty colleagues in the Departments of General Pediatrics, Critical Care, Emergency Medicine, Neurosurgery, Social Work and Surgery who provide excellent interdisciplinary care with our team for suspected child abuse victims and their families.

Past trainees continue very active involvement in the field of child abuse pediatrics and have become nationally recognized for their work with abused children as academic faculty, clinicians, and educators.

Program Aims

• The Child Abuse Pediatrics Fellowship will train pediatricians to become clinical, academic, educational, and administrative leaders in the field of Child Abuse Pediatrics. The fellowship has the core goal to promote the health, safety, and well-being of all children by assuring that there are well trained subspecialists the field of Child Abuse Pediatrics.
• Fellows will learn to provide patient care to children and adolescents with suspected abuse in a family-centered, culturally-sensitive, objective, developmentally-focused, non-judgmental manner and within a multi-disciplinary team (MDT) that is broadly inclusive and evidence-based. The MDT model for the diagnosis and treatment of child abuse is emphasized. Successful completion of training depends on the demonstrated ability to utilize and coordinate care within health care and child welfare systems in order to provide optimal care and advocacy for patients, families and communities.
• The program also trains fellows to grow as experts in the education of multidisciplinary professionals, as well as graduate medical education learners in our school and hospitals. Fellows who successfully complete training will have developed a teaching portfolio that addresses the scope of education in our field and advocacy for the issue of child maltreatment.
• The program provides basic research skills needed for completion of core scholarship requirement and graduate fellows who will advance the evidence base of the field.
• The program teaches trainees strategies to maintain wellness (of self and others), to build resilience, and to minimize burnout.
• To build and maintain an infrastructure to recruit diverse fellows and provide an inclusive learning environment that promotes and celebrates differences.

Past Fellows

Berger Fellowship Information

Created in 1999 through the generosity of Wayne Berger, the Berger Fellowship is a full-time, two-year endowed, postdoctoral research fellowship designed to support the career development of professionals who want to become independent investigators in the field of child maltreatment and/or child welfare. Applicants typically come from social sciences or public health fields. Former fellows have gone on to faculty positions in academic departments, CDC, and private clinical practice.

Specific responsibilities will vary depending on the Fellow’s interests, skill set, and current projects and needs at the Kempe Center. In general, the Fellow is expected to assist and collaborate on projects and programs at the Center, engage in scholarly activities, and participate in coursework, workshops and seminars toward the development of an independent program of research. Supervised clinical experiences are also available if needed to complement the research training. Faculty and program mentors will work with the Fellow to design a curriculum of educational activities and specific set of expectations including instructional activities, scholarly products, and activities to support the Center. Center activities broadly include developing and testing new prevention and treatment programs, overseeing the implementation of established evidence-based programs, evaluating and diagnosing children who are suspected victims of abuse and neglect, training child welfare/protection professionals, analysis of existing datasets, and conducting studies that inform program development and public policy. Activities to support the development of publications and applications for external funding are supported and highly encouraged.

Find Out More

For more information on the Berger Fellowship, please contact:

Terri Lewis, PhD
Associate Professor
The Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect
Department of Pediatrics | School of Medicine
University of Colorado Anschutz
303-864-5315
[email protected]

Here is a list of our current and former Berger Fellowship trainees: