A New Chapter for
ACE Resource Network

We’re excited to share that ACE Resource Network is entering its next chapter with new leadership and a bold vision to make the prevention, early detection and evidence-based treatment of toxic stress a standard part of healthcare practice in the United States.

Now led by ACEs champion and California’s inaugural Surgeon General Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, Executive Director Parker Blackman, and a team of seasoned changemakers, ACE Resource Network is committed to helping states build systems that support early detection and early intervention for ACEs and risk of toxic stress.

As part of this evolution, we remain deeply committed to advancing education and awareness – ensuring we’re meeting every state where they are with the knowledge, tools, and support they need to take action and improve outcomes for children and families.

This work is just beginning and more information will be available in coming months. Our website is currently under construction.

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Building awareness of ACEs while empowering people and communities

We are ACE Resource Network.

We work to build awareness of ACEs and to help prevent and address childhood adversity, toxic stress, and their impacts.

We aim to increase access to healing strategies and resources, and to offer hope.

About ACE Resource Network

Adversity we experience growing up can increase the odds of lasting negative effects to our health and well-being. Now more than ever, there is an urgent need for awareness and education around this issue, for preventing and addressing early adversity and trauma, and for learning more through research. Philanthropically funded, our team develops and leads awareness campaigns, supports community-based interventions, and partners to advance research and develop and promote resources.

The Challenge

Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, are stressful, potentially traumatic experiences we face before age 18. A landmark CDC-Kaiser Permanente study in the 1990s assessed ten types of ACEs, including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, physical and emotional neglect, caregiver divorce or separation, growing up in a household with mental illness, problematic substance use, domestic violence, or someone who is incarcerated. ACEs are common; two out of three of us have at least one, and one in six of us have experienced four or more.


Without protective factors and adequate support, ACEs can lead to prolonged activation of the body’s stress response, a condition known as the toxic stress response. Toxic stress can alter developing body systems and brain architecture, affecting both mental and physical health throughout the lifetime – even making changes to our DNA that can impact generations.


ACEs have a dose response relationship with more than 40 associated health conditions, including heart disease, stroke, asthma, cancer, depression, anxiety, problematic substance use, and suicide. ACEs can impact early learning and development, educational attainment, career performance and trajectory, relationships, and lifespan.


Additional studies have found that some people are likely to experience significantly more ACEs than others, including Black, Hispanic or Latino, or multiracial people, people with less than a high school education, people with low incomes, people who are unemployed or unable to work, and LGBTQ+ people. Science has also proven that adversities like racism, discrimination, poverty, and community violence can have similar impacts as ACEs.


Many people – including caregivers, health professionals, and educators – don’t know about the impacts of ACEs, other childhood adversity, and toxic stress. This leads to significant illness, intergenerational trauma and suffering, and enormous expense – much of which could be averted through awareness, education, and action.


Prevention and healing are possible, and we can break cycles and create individual, community, and systems-level change.

Our Vision

ACE Resource Network envisions a society well-informed about the impacts of childhood experiences, including ACEs, with supportive resources and systems in place to help all people thrive while minimizing the effects of childhood adversity and toxic stress in current and future generations.
Learn more about the work of ACE Resource Network.

Stay informed and get the latest updates on our efforts.

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