Nominee
Vivian Tamkin
How I will contribute to CalAIMH:
Dr. Vivian L. Tamkin will support and further CalAIMH’s mission and vision in a number of many.
Mission: Bridge and connect a transdisciplinary, relationally informed community across
California that collaborates and advocates on behalf of children and families prenatally to age five.
I am a native of Southern, CA, and since my undergraduate days at CSU, Northridge (CSUN), I have been trained to work transdisciplinary as a former preschool and early interventionist. Rooted in Bronfenbrenner’s’ Ecological Systems Theory, working with providers across disciplines to meet the needs of children and families requires bringing a team to the table. It is my perspective that to work in a siloed manner does not assist with moving growth forward in meaningful ways for children and families.
Though I now live and work in Northern CA, specifically, in Santa Clara County, I have developed community relationships such that I have facilitated introductions between new colleagues and with my longtime in the Los Angeles area. This has resulted in employment and mentorship opportunities for individuals.
In SCC, I am working to extend community partner relations with Roots Community Health Center and The Black Infant Health Program in Santa Clara County to address the needs of African American/Black mothers, infants, children, and families. Cultivating these community partnerships affords me the chance to connect and collaborate with a diverse group of providers such as public health nurses, doulas, program managers, as well as members of the SCC Perinatal Equity Initiative group.
As a life course health centered provider, I will continue to bridge and connect a transdisciplinary, relationally informed lens in my work and those whom I train.
Vision: All children and families in California experience relational health, resilience, and overall well-being I will continue to participate in and support experience relational health, resilience, and overall well-being for all children and families in California.
I believe my current program of research links to CalAIMH’s vision. Specifically, my qualitative research aims to better understand reflective functioning within the context of an African American/Black maternal lived experience. Current reflective functioning questionnaires used in research studies have been normed primarily on White, European families, and, to date, these existing measures have not yet been used to explore reflective functioning in a sample of only African American/Black mothers. Given this, it is likely that culturally rooted, nuances related to how African American/Black mothers show interest and curiosity in their child’s emotions and behaviors are not being identified. When African American/Black mothers voices are uplifted in a genuine, strengths-based manner, I assert experience relational health, resilience, and overall well-being will be felt on a great level.
BIO
Vivian L. Tamkin, PhD, is a dual state licensed, community-oriented psychologist (CA and WI), and she is an Assistant Professor of Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University. Dr. Tamkin holds a PhD in Counseling Psychology and a minor in Child Clinical Psychology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (SIUC). She completed a specialized clinical
postdoctoral fellowship in Child Development and Infant Mental Health from the Irving B. Harris Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado, Denver, School of Medicine. Dr. Tamkin also completed a mentored research fellowship in the Health Disparities Research Scholars T-32 Training Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Medicine and Public Health. She is a fellow with the Life Course Research Intervention Network (LCIRN) as well as an alum of the NAPA Parent-Infant Mental Health Fellowship Program.
postdoctoral fellowship in Child Development and Infant Mental Health from the Irving B. Harris Program in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado, Denver, School of Medicine. Dr. Tamkin also completed a mentored research fellowship in the Health Disparities Research Scholars T-32 Training Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Medicine and Public Health. She is a fellow with the Life Course Research Intervention Network (LCIRN) as well as an alum of the NAPA Parent-Infant Mental Health Fellowship Program.
Clinically, Dr. Tamkin’s practice spans the life course, with an emphasis on community-oriented service. Her graduate level teaching holds an ecological systems framework which threads through to her qualitative research program. Utilizing a multi-method qualitative approach (e.g., in-depth, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, video data), Dr. Tamkin’s target outcome is to operationalize reflective functioning through a culturally attuned lens to better inform the development and implementation of Black/African American maternal and child interventions across the life course. Dr. Tamkin finds it critical to identify pathways which support increased understanding of emotional health and well-being in African American/Black maternal-child dyads.
