Isaiah Pickens

Dr. Isaiah Pickens is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in consulting, counseling, and educational services for individuals and organizations. Dr. Pickens was the Assistant Director of the Service Systems Program at the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress (NCCTS), the coordinating site of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). In this role, he was responsible for supporting diverse national, cross-disciplinary, and collaborative efforts to make child- and family-service systems more trauma-informed. His research focuses on trauma-informed and culturally responsive programming in numerous service sectors and optimizing service utilization among underserved communities.

Dr. Pickens is also the founder of iOpening Enterprises, a professional development and media company specializing in building the capacity of individuals and organizations to unlock their potential using psychological science and implementation best practices. In this capacity, Dr. Pickens has developed the Bridge Trauma-Informed Culturally-Responsive (TICR) Program, a multi-day professional development for educators that provides a practical toolkit for managing youth traumatic stress responses in the school setting. Dr. Pickens is currently a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leader. In this capacity, he collaborates with cross-sector scholars and practitioners to promote a culture of health in America.

Dr. Pickens currently sits on the National Board for Communities In Schools (CIS). Dr. Pickens has received awards from the American Psychological Association Early Career Achievement Award, and the Black Enterprise BE Modern Man award for his contributions to psychology. Dr. Pickens aims to continue sharing psychological science with diverse audiences through scholarly publications, writings for the general public, and practice in communities.

With Dr. Schenike Massie-Lambert, he is the co-author of the laminated guide A Trauma-Informed and Culturally Responsive Approach in Classrooms.