Irving Harris Foundation
Tonia M. Spence
Irving Harris Foundation
Join us in congratulating our partners at the the Irving Harris Foundation! Tonia M. Spence is their next Program Director, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health.
From the Irving Harris Foundation:
The Irving Harris Foundation (IHF) is thrilled to announce the appointment of Tonia M. Spence as our Program Director, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH). Tonia brings to IHF more than 20 years of experience as a clinician, educator, presenter, and advocate serving children and families. She has worked closely with the foundation for many years as a grantee in our Harris PDN Initiative, as a member of the Diversity-Informed Tenets Initiative Advisory Committee, and as a Tenets’ facilitator. She most recently served as the Senior Director of Early Childhood Services at The Jewish Board (JB); where she oversaw Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation, Infant and Early Childhood Clinics, and a Therapeutic Nursery School. Her work at JB was expanded into the area of anti-racism organizing, as she supported the Confronting Organizational Racism Initiative and co-led the Administrators of Color. She along with colleagues, worked to impact all staff’s racial literacy; by increasing their understanding of how power, class, equity, race and racism need to be at the forefront of their work with clients. Tonia holds a Master’s in Special Education from Bank Street College of Education and a Master’s in Social Work from Columbia School of Social Work. We are fortunate to have her bring knowledge, leadership, and passion for community and equity-centered work to our collaborative efforts to strengthen the fields in which we work.
Tonia believes in the power of healthy relationships in shaping young children’s lives. As a new clinician, Tonia’s drive to learn led her to a Fellowship program at Yale’s Child Development Center Outpatient Clinic in New Haven, where she strengthened her clinical understanding of young children. She recognized how racial tension and stress added an additional layer to the trauma of the children and families she was serving. She has devoted herself to supporting families through challenges and firmly believes that engagement is the foundation of social work.
Additionally, Tonia has worked tirelessly to integrate her knowledge as a social worker and educator into an interdisciplinary approach to teaching clinicians, educators, and students. She has coached these diverse groups in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for young children who have experienced trauma through the lens of racial stress.
As the Program Director, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH), Tonia will advance and lead the IECMH grantmaking program areas, advance and grow the Foundation’s two main IECMH initiatives (PDN and the Tenets), and contribute to the development of a revised grantmaking and impact strategy centered on racial equity and aimed at having a long-lasting impact on the field of IECMH. Additionally, she will work closely with grantees and partners to strengthen existing collaborations, build new ones, and strive to develop the institutions, policies, and structures that will drive the field forward. Tonia joined the Foundation on June 14, 2021.