Celebrating Dr. Leena Augimeri's Remarkable Impact and Achievements

After 39 years of profound impact and dedication to our mission, Dr. Leena Augimeri has concluded her remarkable tenure with the Child Development Institute (CDI). With heart, courage, and fortitude, Leena relentlessly worked to build awareness for the need of evidence-based solutions such as the Stop Now And Plan (SNAP®) model that she co-founded. She is a true SNAP Champion, whose work has directly impacted SNAP’s reach to tens of thousands of children and families, ensuring safe and thriving communities across Canada and internationally. As an innovative scientist-practitioner, Leena has dedicated decades to advancing child and youth mental health with great success.

Leena’s work at CDI focused on initiatives for crime prevention, risk assessment, and research/evaluation within clinical practice. Leena began her career as a researcher for the newly developing SNAP program, now an internationally recognized evidence-based model. She went on to hold various positions at CDI, including SNAP Researcher; Manager, SNAP Clinical & Director of Camp Wimodausis; SNAP Scientific & Program Development; and Director, Program Scaling & Strategic Partnerships. A key aspect of her work at CDI was the development of a comprehensive children’s mental health and crime prevention framework for young children engaging in antisocial, violent and/or disruptive behaviour, where a major focus of this framework is the SNAP program. Leena’s unwavering belief in the SNAP program was evidenced by her diligent efforts to ensure SNAP demonstrated robust outcomes for children and families, SNAP is noted in the scientific literature as one of the most effective evidence-based interventions for aggressive children under 12 years of age with serious violent and chronic potential. Under her leadership, SNAP expanded to include two additional programs: SNAP for Schools – elementary level (universal prevention) and SNAP Youth Justice (youth aged 12-18; youth in contact with the law).

In 1998, Leena’s groundbreaking work led to the development of the first structured professional judgment (SPJ) risk management guide for children at risk for future violence, the EARL (Early Assessment Risk List; Risk Assessment Tools (EARLs). The EARL has been implemented world-wide and translated into several languages (e.g., Swedish, Japanese, Portuguese, French), supporting thousands of clinicians in schools and clinical settings to balance clinical utility with prediction as a “decision-enhancing” tool. The newest edition, the EARL-V3 (2021), importantly incorporates gender and cultural considerations, ensuring a more ethno-culturally relevant and fair risk assessment.

With hundreds of publications, media interviews, and presentations, Leena’s expertise spans across early intervention and prevention, development and implementation of SNAP, children and youth in conflict with the law, and prevention of violence/youth justice involvement. Leena was appointed the Chair of Ontario Government's Youth Justice Task Force to formulate actionable and impactful recommendations to develop a modernized youth justice system that fully supports youth in conflict with the law. Over the years, Dr. Augimeri has received prestigious accolades, including the Prime Minister’s Regional Social Innovation Award for SNAP, the Elizabeth Manson Award for her exemplary contributions to children's mental health, CAMH Difference Makers of 150 Leading Canadians for Mental Health, the Child Welfare League of Canada’s inaugural Outstanding Achievement Research and Evaluation Award, and the International Society of Crime Prevention Practitioner’s Community Based Program of the Year (Population over 100,000) Award. Most recently, in 2024, Leena was awarded Research Canada’s Advocacy in Leadership Award (Individual) and the King Charles III Coronation Medal.

Congratulations Leena on a remarkable career at CDI. We wish Leena every future success as her impactful journey continues.