KAIMH annual conference
Doors open 7:30 am both days, sessions start 8:30 am.
Location: Trinity Methodist Church, 901 E Neal Ave., Salina, KS 67401
Thank you to our sponsors Central Kansas Mental Health Center and Sunflower Health Plan for their conference support!
We have limited scholarship opportunities. If you are an early educator we encourage you to apply for a KCCTO scholarship here. We also have some Preschool Development Grant scholarships open to all early childhood professionals that work in Kansas. Click here to apply.
For the best conference price, become a KAIMH member for $35 (the conference and membership is less than the conference fee for non-members). Member Registration ($275), Non-Member Registration ($325) Become a member here.
Registration closes April 22, 2025. Need help registering? Check out the video below!
Refunds/cancellations will be accepted until April 15, 2025, 5PM, there will be a $45 processing fee for cancellations. No refunds will be provided after April 15, 2025 5PM, but we will accept substitutions. For cancellations or substitutions, please email [email protected]
Thursday Conference Keynote:
Tabatha Rosproy
2020 National Teacher of the Year
Tabatha Rosproy
“From Tiny Seeds Grow Mighty Trees”
Working with children and families is one of the most worthwhile endeavors one can choose, but it’s also a field that experiences frequent burnout. Join Tabatha Rosproy, 2020 National Teacher of the Year and fellow Early Childhood educator, for a morning and afternoon session where we explore how to cultivate tiny seeds of joy in our lives that will sustain us through challenges and reinvigorate our passion. Tabatha will use her background in improvisational comedy and knowledge of play-based practices to help us take an active role living lives of joy! Come ready to laugh and learn and play together!
Join us Thursday evening from 5:00 – 6:30 pm to celebrate our 30th year with mocktails, appetizers, art, jazz and games!
Salina Art Center, 242 S Santa Fe Ave.
Alice Eberhart-Wright Visionary Award
AEW Nomination
The Alice Eberhart-Wright Visionary Award recognizes outstanding achievements and significant contributions in the field of infant and early childhood mental health. The award is given to those who represent the mission of KAIMH and illustrate passion, creativity and best practices in their work supporting infant and early childhood mental health in Kansas. This award will be presented each year at the KAIMH annual conference. If you would like to nominate a candidate for the 2025 award, please complete the nomination form below by March 1st, 2025.
Congratulations to the 2024 AEW Recipient:
Shana Schmidt
They say it takes a village. Our village is composed of our matriarch, Alice, for whom this award is named. A true visionary and storyteller that I am honored to be associated with.
Across the span of my 30-year career I have witnessed multiple changes and challenges to the strength of our village. The privatization of foster care, the creation of the Children’s Cabinet, and the understanding that early childhood emotional and relational development has a place in the mental health community. With each change came a challenge, yet slowly we saw a change.
Services such as training, consultation, coaching, and reflective supervision have taken me to every corner of our state and into many of your programs. From Hiawatha to Garden City, you each became a part of my village. You taught me about your community and the needs that are specific to that population. You laughed with me, and sometimes at me, when I made ridiculous assumptions about what I thought I knew your community needed.
The mentors in this room held me up when I took myself way too seriously, and the new energies entering this field of work rebuilt my hope for the future.
Look around you. This is your village.