Megan R. Holmes, Ph.D., MSW, LISW-S, is a Professor of Social Work and Co-Director of the Center on Trauma and Adversity at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Using her clinical experience with families from domestic violence households to set the foundation for her research, the overarching goal of her work is to contribute to the optimal development of children who have been exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) by identifying risk and protective factors that will be translated into interventions. To that end, her research contributes to child welfare knowledge and has three distinct areas of focus that merge to inform interventions in reducing the negative consequences of IPV exposure: (1) identifying sensitive or critical developmental periods when IPV exposure has a significant effect on children’s behavioral and mental health outcomes; (2) focusing on optimal child development by examining risk factors (e.g., co-occurrence of child maltreatment, cumulative risk of violence exposure, etc.) and protective factors (e.g., maternal warmth, child well-being, etc.); and (3) identifying specific dimensions of sibling relationships that may ameliorate poor future behavioral and mental health outcomes for IPV-exposed children. Her current research also focuses on creating community and system responses to trauma that promote relational health and healing throughout Cleveland and the state of Ohio.