Dr. Petrenchik is Associate Professor in Northern Arizona University’s Department of Occupational Therapy located on the Phoenix Biomedical Campus. She has extensive experience working with and on behalf of vulnerable children and youth, including children and youth involved with child protective services, living in residential care and foster care, and children in families who are homeless. Dr. Petrenchik has held faculty positions in both the U.S. and Canada and she has extensive experience as a program development and evaluation consultant to both private and public agencies serving vulnerable children and families.

Her area of specialty is the promotion of self-regulation and self-leadership in children with regulatory difficulties, including children and youth with developmental trauma and pervasive developmental conditions. She has served as Trauma Informed Care Champion (Wisconsin) as well as a transition and developmental consultant to biological, adoptive, and foster parents.

Dr. Petrenchik has been providing training in traumatic childhood stress and trauma informed practices for nearly 14 years. She is also a certified parent educator and biofeedback practitioner as well as a licensed occupational therapist and childhood disability researcher. Her research interests include the translation of research and developmental science into systems of care and service delivery with a focus on creating environments and opportunities to promote developmental health in vulnerable and maltreated children.