Chicago—Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA America) announced today that after a nationwide search its board of directors has selected Dr. Melissa Merrick (right) as the organization’s next president and chief executive officer.
Merrick brings more than 18 years of clinical, research and leadership experience related to the etiology, course and prevention of child abuse and neglect. Merrick currently serves as a senior epidemiologist at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and will begin with PCA America on July 15.
“We’re pleased to have found an individual so uniquely qualified to assume leadership of the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit organization focused on the primary prevention of child abuse and neglect,” said PCA America Board Chair Andrea Robertson. “Dr. Merrick has strategically framed the prevention of early adversity as an urgent public health need, directly connected to positive child welfare, social and economic outcomes in her work at CDC. We’re thrilled she’ll be leading the next chapter of PCA America’s important work.”
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