Michael Nunno
Extension Associate,Sr
2007
FLDCWeb Bio Page
Current Activities
Current Professional Activities
Michael Nunno, D.S.W. is a Senior Extension Associate with the Family
Life Development Center, the College of Human Ecology, Cornell
University. He is the principal investigator of the Residential Child
Care Project. His current professional activities within this project
focus on two major child welfare topics: the protection of children in
out-of-home care; and, designing and evaluating crisis prevention and
management systems for juvenile treatment, psychiatric, and
correctional facilities.
Current Research Activities
Dr. Nunno supervises the current research and evaluation activities
related to the Residential Child Care Project. A
broad range of psychological, educational and organizational research
and theory underpins both the Therapeutic Crisisi Intervention (TCI)
and Institutional Abuse (IAB) components. The project
raises research questions such as: for abused and neglected children
what constitutes safe and developmentally sound treatment in
residential care; and, what impact does this care have on their
treatment outcomes? A major project goal is to design
multi-method research and evaluation strategies that ensure fidelity
to the implementation process, as well as, the measurement of short and
longer-term child outcomes.
To
inform current practice, the RCCP 1) reviews children’s restraint and seclusion deaths; 2) analyzes
aggressive incidents and restraints within facilities; 3) supports
on-going research and evaluation on the safety, the use, and
the impact of physical interventions with children; and 4) monitors our TCI system’s effectiveness, safety,
use, and impact.
Dr. Nunno also is evaluates a basic curriculum Child
and Residential Experiences: Creating Conditions for Change (CARE)
for
residential child care workers that is built on principles of
relationship, competency, trauma sensitivity, developmental
appropriateness, family centeredness, and ecology. A core
challenge for facilities who use the principles within this curriculum
is to achieve organizational congruence within the best interests of
the children in their care, and to improve their organizational climate
and culture through participation-centered management and continuous
quality improvement strategies. In 2008 child outcome variables will be added to the evaluation design.
Current Extension Activities
Dr. Nunno's chief research and evaluation activity is to monitor and evaluate TCI implementation within a facility's organizational domains of leadership, clinical oversight, training, supervision, and critical incident monitoring. An additional component of this responsibility is to design and maintain (with colleagues) an individual knowledge and skills performance monitoring and certification system for residential child care trainers and direct workers who are part of Cornell's Therapeutic Crisis Intervention system. Complementing this work is his involvement in the 6-year national fatality survey to examine fatal restraints in residential care, and his evaluation responsibilities with the RCCP’s CARE practice model.
Biography
Biographical Statement
Michael Nunno is a Senior Extension faculty of the College of Human
Ecology, Cornell University, past Principal Investigator of the NYS
Child Protective Services Training Institute and current Principal
Investigator of the Residential Child Care Project at the Family Life
Development Center. He has written or edited articles and book
chapters in the Child Protective Services Team Handbook and Understanding Abusive Families, Child Abuse and Neglect: An International Journal, Children and Society, Protecting Children, Children and Youth Services Review, Applied Developmental Science, and the Journal of Child and Youth Care. He is the lead editor for the book For our own safety: Examining the safety of high-risk intervention for children and young people published by the Child Welfare League of America.
He is a current member of the International Society for the Prevention
of Child Abuse and Neglect and its Expert Faculty Program, and
served as a panel member and reviewer for the Child Welfare League of
America’s Best Practices Guidelines for Child Maltreatment in Foster
Care. He has expertise in the identification and etiology of familial and institutional
child abuse and neglect, forensic interviewing, fatality and critical
incident reviews in residential care, the reduction of aggressive critical incidents in
residential facilities, training and evaluation of performance
competencies, and organizational assessment to implement crisis
prevention systems in residential child-care and hospital
facilities.
Michael Nunno received his A.B from St.
Michael's College in Winooski, Vermont, his M.S.W. from the Boston
College Graduate School of Social Work, and his D.S.W. in Social
Welfare Policy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New
York.
Administrative Responsibilities
Dr. Nunno is the Principal Investigator of the Residential Child Care
Project. As the Principal Investigator, he has the responsibility
for the supervision and overall direction of the project's personnel,
policies and programs. The Residential Child Care Project is statewide
serving New York State, national serving over 35 states, and
international serving Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, Australia,
Bermuda, Russia, and Israel. Since 1980, fees-for service, grant
and contract awards with the Federal government, New York and other
states, and international organizations have totaled over $70 million.
Courses, Websites, Pubs
Related Websites
rccp.cornell.edu
www.human.cornell.edu/fldc/
Publications
Books and Book Chapters
Nunno, M. A., Day, D. M., & Bullard, L. B., Editors (2007) For our own safety: Examining the safety of high-risk interventions for children and young people. Washington, D.C.: Child Welfare League of America
Nunno, M. A., Day, D. M., & Bullard, L. B. (2007). Introduction. In M. A. Nunno, L. B. Bullard & D. M. Day (Eds.), For our own safety: Examining the safety of high-risk interventions for children and young people. Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America.
Day, D. M., Bullard, L. B., & Nunno, M. A. (2007). Lessons Learned. In M. A. Nunno, L. B. Bullard & D. M. Day (Eds.), For our own safety: Examining the safety of high-risk interventions for children and young people. Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America.
Nunno, M, Holden, M. & Leidy, B. (1997) Maltreatment in Out-of-Home Care. In Garbarino, J. & Eckenrode, J. (eds), Understanding Abusive Families, New York: Jossey-Bass.
Selected Journal Articles – Refereed
Nunno, M, Holden, M. & Tollar, A. (2006) Learning from tragedy: A survey of child and adolescent restraint fatalities. Child Abuse & Neglect: An International Journal. 30 (12), 1333-1342.
Nunno, M. (2006) Commentary on The effects of the ARC organizational intervention on caseworker turnover, climate, and culture in children's services systems. Child Abuse and Neglect An International Journal. Vol. 30 No. 8 p. 845-854.
Leidy, B, Haugaard, J., Nunno, M. & Kwartner, J. (2006) Review of Restraint Data in a Residential Treatment Center for Adolescent Females. Child & Youth Care Forum. Vol. 35, 5-6, 339-352.
Nunno, M., Holden, M., & Leidy, B. (2003) Evaluating and monitoring the impact of a crisis intervention system on a residential child care facility. Children and Youth Services Review. 25, 4, 295-315.
Warren, A.R., Woodall, C.E., Thomas, M., Nunno, M, Keeney, J., Larson, S., & Stadfeld, J. (1998) Assessing the Effectiveness of a Training Program for Interviewing Child Witnesses. Applied Developmental Science, Vol. 3, No.2, 128-135.