Our Team

Parent, Infant and Early Childhood (PIEC) Team

The Parent, Infant & Early Childhood (PIEC) Team at the University of Maryland’s School of Social Work’s Institute for Innovation and Implementation leads the Kids Thrive Maryland Initiative, delivering comprehensive statewide resources and best practices for infant and early childhood behavioral health. Our team is dedicated to addressing the mental health needs of parents and young children by providing statewide coordination, training and coaching, technical assistance, implementation support, research, and evaluation to improve the systems that support young children.

The PIEC team consists of experts in early childhood, maternal and child health, program development, research and evaluation. We collaborate with child care providers and state and local agencies to improve systems of care. We emphasize support for historically underserved parents and their children.

For information or to read about our work:

• PIEC team Impact reports
• Request training/TA
• Research and Evaluation Reports:
  • Maryland’s IECMHC Equity Map Report 2023
  • Maryland’s 2022 IEMCMHC Workforce Salary Report- August 2023

PIEC Team

State Leadership Team

In Maryland, the work of the Pyramid Model is guided by an interagency, decision-making body, known as the Maryland Pyramid Model State Leadership Team (SLT). This team is comprised of representatives from the Maryland State Department of Education, local school systems, part C early intervention programs, parent advocacy groups, child care resource and referral centers, Judy Centers, and behavioral health agencies. To see current organizations represented on the SLT, please see the diagram below.

The SLT meets quarterly to make decisions regarding Pyramid Model implementation across the state. The team utilizes the Statewide Benchmarks of Quality (BOQ) to guide it’s work and develop annual goals. These goals and objectives are accomplished in monthly meetings conducted by the team’s subcommittees. There are five subcommittees of the SLT, they are the Elevating Equity Subcommittee, the Fidelity and Evaluation Subcommittee, the Implementation and Demonstration Site Subcommittee, the Professional Development Subcommittee, and the Family Engagement Subcommittee. These subcommittees are responsible for producing new resources to support their perspective areas of the work.

To learn more about our SLT, please review our most recent meeting minutes or reach out to us.

Local IECMHC Leaders

The work of IECMHC is led by 10 local consultation programs providing services in all 24 Maryland jurisdictions. To get support and direct consultation from one of these local programs, please check out our local support page.