The Legacy Lives On: Honoring Jane Stevens, Elizabeth Prewitt, and the Future of Trauma-Informed Work

By Jesse Kohler, CTIPP's Executive Director

The Campaign for Trauma-Informed Policy and Practice (CTIPP) plays a vital role in the trauma-informed movement, standing on the shoulders of giants, including the work of many founders, board members, and partners who helped us launch and continue to help us sustain and grow this vital work.

This piece aims to recognize one particular organization and only a few specific individuals who helped launch that organization, which did more for this movement than I can put into words. I recognize that many individuals and other organizations that have played and continue to play important roles in the movement are not listed. This is not meant to be an exhaustive recounting of the movement; perhaps that is a project for another day. This piece serves to honor the lives and legacies of specific people. 

In 2025, we lost Elizabeth Prewitt and Jane Stevens. As a journalist, Jane founded ACEs Connection in 2012 to connect people integrating the science of ACEs into their work. Around fifteen years after the original ACE Study was published, impacted by the information and wanting more people to know the power and integrate the learnings, Jane created a platform on which anyone could connect, that developed and nurtured communities doing amazing work, and information/resources could be shared and learned. Around fifteen years after the founding, we recognize how critical this work was and continue to work toward that same vision.

Jane, while the founder, was not alone in building out the incredible network ACEs Connection became. There were many contributors and members of this team, one of whom was Elizabeth, a government relations specialist who devoted her career to issues around health care and mental health. In addition to her job as a writer and advocate for ACEs Connection, Elizabeth was also an early board member and consistent contributor for CTIPP. 

As it was for so many, ACEs Connection was one of my first entrees into the trauma-informed movement. As an intern in a cubicle working on a project, pretty though not entirely isolated, without resources to afford training, the network was a starting point for information. Soon, I became more engaged with some of the communities they convened. And then, I had the pleasure to partner with them on various efforts in my role with CTIPP. 

More can be found about Jane and Elizabeth from folks who know them better on the web. What will always stay with me about both of them was a tremendous humility despite the huge role they played in the movement, their curiosity that fueled their interest in the movement and work throughout their many contributions, and their genuine love for humankind. They are and will continue to be missed by those who knew them and so many who did not know them personally but were connected to them through the network they helped develop.

That legacy continues to live on through PACEs Connection. I want to finish with a recognition and thank you to two other early team members at PACEs Connection - Carey Sipp and Dana Brown - who have been tirelessly working as volunteers for the past year and a half to keep PACEs Connection alive as a resource following its financial struggles. I have watched the hard work to maintain the site firsthand, and it is a tremendous tribute to the legacies of their friends.

CTIPP wants to honor and thank Jane and Elizabeth, and their many partners, for their work to advance the trauma-informed movement. You can access the site at pacesconnection.com.