Children's Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships

Catherine Ayoub is a licensed psychologist and nurse practitioner with research and practice interests in the impact of childhood trauma across the life span, and the development and implementation of prevention and intervention systems to combat risk and promote resilience with emphasis on young children and their families across cultures and communities.

Her present research centers on the developmental consequences and emotional adjustment of children who have experienced child maltreatment, chronic illness, and difficult parental divorce, as well as witnessed domestic and community violence. Dr. Ayoub leads ongoing research in prevention and intervention systems for young, at-risk children, including a central role in the current longitudinal evaluation of children and families in Early Head Start, and an innovative systems-wide preventive intervention related to depression and parenting within early childhood care systems.

She directs a developmental study of maltreated children and their parents in child care, a study of Munchausen by Proxy families, and a project that explores the impact of conflicted divorce and family violence on children. She is currently working with other Harvard faculty to design, implement and evaluate programs for children birth to 6 years living in poverty for the Ministry of Education in Chile.

Dr. Ayoub is currently the director of the master's program in Risk and Prevention & Counseling at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She also holds an appointment at Harvard Medical School through the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Children's Hospital. At the Law and Psychiatry Service at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Ayoub is a senior staff psychologist and serves as a forensic mental health expert for children and adults involved with the legal system across the USA and in Latin America; she is a senior fellow at the Global Health Center at MGH. At Children's Hospital through the Children's Neighborhood Partnership, she is a Principal Investigator in a large program innovation project in Head Start and Early Head Start aimed at enhancing positive parenting and child development in light of depression and adversity.

As both an interventionist and a researcher, Dr. Ayoub is a leader in the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs for young children and families. She is the Founder of the At Risk Parent Child Program (now the Parent Child Center); one of the oldest child abuse prevention programs aimed as offering supportive services to at risk children at families from birth onward. She has published over 75 articles and books related to childhood trauma and development, parenting, prevention and intervention service delivery systems and related topics. Raised in Mexico, Dr. Ayoub comes from a multicultural background and has special expertise in clinical work, program development and research with Latino families.

William R. Beardslee, M.D. is the Academic Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Children's Hospital in Boston, and Gardner Monks Professor of Child Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He received his B.A. from Haverford College and his M.D. from Case Western Reserve University.

Dr. Beardslee has a longstanding research interest in the development of children at risk because of severe parental mental illness. He has been especially interested in the protective effects of self-understanding in enabling youngsters and adults to cope with adversity and has studied self-understanding in civil-rights workers, survivors of cancer, and children of parents with affective disorders. He has received the Blanche F. Ittleson award of the American Psychiatric Association for outstanding published research contributing to the mental health of children, has been a Faculty Scholar of the William T. Grant foundation, and in 1999, received the Irving Philips Award for Prevention and the Catcher in the Rye Award for Advocacy for Children from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In 2003, he received the Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for Prevention of Mental Disorder in Children from the American Psychiatric Association and in 2005, the Human Rights Award of the Department of Mental Health of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and in 2006, the Lela Rowland Prevention Award of the National Mental Health Association.

Currently, he directs the Preventive Intervention Project, an NIMH-funded study to explore the effects of a clinician-facilitated, family-based preventive intervention designed to enhance resiliency and family understanding for children of parents with affective disorder. The original principles of family prevention have been implemented in several projects including a countrywide program for children of the mentally ill in Finland and prevention efforts targeted at various groups of low income, single parents.

He is one of the three Principal Investigators of Family Connections, a program to develop a model for strengthening families in the face of depression in Early Head Start and Head Start. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Boston site of a new four-site prevention of depression trial using a cognitive behavioral group approach for children at double risk because their parents are depressed and they themselves are already manifesting symptoms of depression. He also serves on the Board of the National Mental Health Association, on the Carter Center Task Force on Mental Health, on the Advisory Board for Families for Depression Awareness, and on the Advisory Board of the Depression Bipolar Support Alliance.

His primary interests are in the prevention of depression in families and in how to enhance resilience in families undergoing adverse circumstances. He has conducted groundbreaking empirical research on effective preventions and addressed key policy issues in the area. Dr. Beardslee is the author of numerous articles and book chapters and of two books. He is married and has four children.

Emily P. Callejas, Ed.M., holds a Bachelor's degree from Columbia University and a Masters of Education in Risk and Prevention from Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

Prior to attending graduate school, Emily worked with the Florida Charter School Resource Center in Tampa, advising families and school officials on the strategies and challenges involved in starting up charter schools. She began her career in charter school development in Boston. In her graduate program, Emily completed an internship at the Ruggles/Gilday Day Care Center. Emily joined the Family Connections staff in the summer of 2004. As a Family Connections Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant, Emily conducts parent groups, staff trainings, classroom observations, and provides case management support.

Elizabeth Childs, M.D.

Elizabeth Childs, M.D. was named Commissioner of the Department of Mental Health in June, 2003. Dr. Childs has an extensive background in providing services to people with serious mental illness, which includes both the private and public sectors. Prior to coming to DMH, Dr. Childs was Chief and Director of Psychiatry at the Carney Hospital, in Dorchester, MA, a position she held since 1996. She holds Diplomates in Adult, as well as in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology.

Dr. Childs received an A.B. degree from Mount Holyoke College, and her medical degree from the University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine. She completed her residency in Psychiatry in 1990 at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, where she was Chief Resident in Adult Psychiatry. She went on to complete her training in Child Psychiatry at Massachusetts Mental Health Center and the Gaebler Children's Center in 1992.

She has been associated with the Carney Hospital since then. She served as a consultant in Child Psychiatry at the Dana Farber Institute and Children's Hospital, and worked as a child psychiatrist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Health Plan. She also has a private psychiatric practice.

Dr. Childs has held academic appointments at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, and the University of Cincinnati. She has been an active member of the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, serving as its president in 2002 - 2003, and as chair of its Legislative Committee.

Andie Hernandez, LCSW, Ed.M., is an Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant with Family Connections, Children's Hospital, Boston. She holds an MSW and an Ed.M. in special education from Boston University. Ms. Hernandez completed her social work clinical training at the Manville School at Judge Baker Children's Center.

Her career has focused on children with special needs in urban areas and their families. Ms. Hernandez has worked with children and adolescents with special needs in various settings including preschools, public schools, and special needs day schools. She currently serves on the advisory committee for the social work/ special education dual degree program at Boston University.

Linda Howes, EdM

Linda Howes, EdM is a consultant with Family Connections, Children's Hospital, Boston. She holds an Masters in Education in early childhood education from Lesley University and an Masters of Education in Mental Health Counseling from the University of Massachusetts.

She has worked in field of early childhood for over 25 years as a teacher, Educational Coordinator and a Director. She has also worked in the Mental Health field with sex offenders and adolescent offenders. Ms. Howes has also taught early childhood courses for Wheelock College and Lesley University.

Kimberly Knowlton-Young, MSW, LCSW

Kimberly Knowlton-Young is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Family Connections Mental Consultant at Associated Early Care and Education at Ruggles/Gilday. She has worked in a wide range of mental health, early education and residential programs in and around Boston honing her knowledge of child development, crisis counseling, trauma recovery and family empowerment models.

Kim holds a certificate in Maternal and Child Health from Boston University's School of Public Health and a Masters of Social Work from Simmons College. Prior to joining Family Connections, Kim worked in both the Young Parents' Program and the Brazelton Touchpoints Center at Children's Hospital Boston. Kim has worked with early care and education providers from programs across the country, including several American-Indian Early Head Start Programs and has had the opportunity to practice social work in Romania, Thailand and India.

Larisa Mendez-Penate, Ed. M, received her undergraduate education at Middlebury College in Vermont. She earned a Master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Risk and Prevention Program, with a focus on early childhood in 1997. Larisa has worked as a preschool teacher, after-school director, and as an advocate for school-based services and school-community partnerships. She joined the CHNP team in 2003.

Larisa directs the Jamaica Plain Children's Mental Health Network, which provides case management, training, and support to four schools and three health centers in Jamaica Plain. Larisa also coordinates CHNP's Parent Advisory Board and training meetings for student support staff.

Nadja N. Reilly, Ph.D.

Nadja Reilly is a licensed clinical psychologist who earned her doctoral degree from the University of Miami, Florida, with a specialty in children and families. She is a staff psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry at Children's Hospital, Boston and an Instructor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Reilly currently directs a five year depression prevention initiative through the Children's Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships Program. Her areas of expertise include childhood and adolescent depression, the co-existence of medical and psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents, and multiculturalism. She is the editor of Preventing Depression: A Toolkit for Schools. Dr. Reilly currently conducts school-wide prevention initiatives; train the trainer conferences, teacher/guidance training, and parent meetings. She is also conducting year long statewide training sessions on depression prevention for school staff in Massachusetts.

Melissa Ryan, LICSW

Melissa Ryan, MSW, LICSW is an Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant with Family Connections, Children's Hospital, Boston. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wheaton College (MA) and a Master's Degree in Social Work from Boston College.

Melissa has been employed by Children's Hospital since January 2003 where she worked as a social worker in early intervention before joining Family Connections in September 2006. Melissa has also worked in California's early intervention program, providing services to young children with special needs and their families. Additionally, she has also provided training and technical assistance to child care providers in California including children with disabilities in their child care programs.

Kristin Stephenson, Ed.M., holds a Bachelor of Science from Vanderbilt University in Elementary Education and Child Development and a Masters of Education in Risk and Prevention from Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Kristin wrote an honors thesis at Vanderbilt on Parent/Teacher communication. She then taught 3rd and 4th grade in Washington DC for two years prior to attending graduate school. While at Harvard, Kristin completed an internship at the Jamaica Plain Head Start and the Developmental Pathways Research Project. She joined Family Connections in August 2005 and serves as the Project Coordinator.

Joyce E. Tanner, Ed.D.

Joyce E. Tanner, Ed.D. is the Program Director of Jamaica Plain Head Start in Boston. She holds an Ed.D. in educational administration and supervision from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, an M.A. in psychology (child development) from the University of Manchester, UK, and a teacher certificate from the St. Nicholas Training Center for the Montessori Method of Education, London, UK. Her career has focused on educational practice with learners born outside the United States.

Dr. Tanner is a former Associate Professor of the National Taiwan Normal University, where she taught graduate and undergraduate courses in the English Department, and a former Professor at the Universidad de las Americas, Puebla, Mexico, where she taught graduate and undergraduate courses in the Psychology, Education, and Languages Departments. At Rutgers University, she taught English as a Second Language to graduate students and was the director of the Community Outreach ESL Program.

Her areas of interest include practices in democratic leadership, administrative humanism, first and second language development, and human rights education. In her current position as a Head Start program director, Dr. Tanner has experimented with developing staff leadership skills and self esteem using democratic problem solving and lateral delegating in a playful environment.

Mary Watson Avery, MS, is the Director of Family Connections, Children's Hospital Boston. She holds a M.S. in early childhood development from Wheelock College and a B.F.A. from Manhattanville College. Her career has focused on infants, toddlers and preschoolers who have experienced abuse and neglect and their families. She has been a teacher, administrator and consultant in several urban preschools in New York City and the greater Boston area. She has served as the Assistant Director to the Gilday Center (Roxbury, MA) and the Parent Center (Brighton, MA), both innovative child care programs emphasizing family preservation and parent engagement.

Ms. Avery is a former faculty member of Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she served as the coordinator of the early childhood practicum sites for the Risk and Prevention Program, and a co-instructed a year-long course in child development for masters' students training in prevention and intervention programs based within child care and early education settings. Her areas of interest include the professional development and continuing education of individuals working with families in crisis; the play of typical and traumatized children; and therapeutic parent education. A visual artist and writer as well, Ms. Avery co-authored and illustrated the children's book, What Is Beautiful? (1995, Tricycle Press) with her husband David M. Avery.

Caroline Watts, Ed.D.

Caroline Watts, Ed.D. has been Director of CHNP since its inception in 2002. She holds a Doctorate of Education in Counseling and Consulting Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

For nearly 20 years Caroline's work has focused on the ways in which schools can foster the healthy growth of all students through coordinated supportive services involving community partners. Her clinical practice and research applies developmental and relational approaches to the design of prevention and intervention services for children and youth. She also has an academic appointment as an Instructor at Harvard Medical School.

In her previous work, Caroline developed the School Partnerships Program at the Judge Baker Children's Center. She was the founding director of the Early Childhood Prevention Project (ECP), an elementary-level prevention program funded by the U.S. Department of Education Secretary's Fund for the Improvement of Education as a demonstration program for elementary school counseling partnerships. She served as clinical director of the Devereux-Deerhaven Residential Treatment Center for Girls in Chester, NJ.

Her research has focused on the development of relational competence in children and adolescents. She has been co-director of a longitudinal evaluation project examining the use of pair therapy with traumatized girls in residential treatment, and an evaluation of the Boston Public Schools' (BPS) Transition Services programs for BPS students at risk for academic failure.

Jacqueline Zeller, PhD earned her master's degree in school psychology and her doctorate in clinical psychology. She is also a licensed elementary school teacher and has an Early Childhood Specialization Certification. Her clinical interests focus on prevention and intervention efforts in educational settings and promoting resiliency in children.

Dr. Zeller's research focuses on understanding factors that contribute to the quality of teacher-student relationships and ways to help support teachers' efforts in schools. She has worked as a therapist in a variety of settings, including residential treatment centers, day treatment centers, outpatient clinics, hospitals, and schools. In addition, she has served as a consultant to schools serving preschool through high school-aged children. Currently, Dr. Zeller provides ongoing direct psychological, preventative, and consulting services to Boston Public School administrators, teachers, and students through Children's Hospital Neighborhood Partnerships.

Dr. Zeller is also part of the faculty at The Harvard University Graduate School of Education's Master's Program in Risk and Prevention and School Counseling. In addition to teaching graduate courses on child development and counseling through that program, she is also the coordinator of the early childhood and elementary school practicum placements.

Trauma and Adversity
Presenter: Cathy Ayoub, EdD

The training will emphasize the nature of early childhood trauma and the developmental consequences in later childhood and adult parenting. The concepts of risk, psychopathology, and resilience will be examined in the context of traumatic exposure, and the transformation of developmental processes and alternate developmental pathways. Examples of childhood victimization and trauma will include child maltreatment, family violence, illness, loss, and war. Intervention and advocacy as well as the institutional and community responses to traumatized children and families will be addressed.

Cross Cultural Perspectives on Depression
Presenter: Nadja Reilly, PhD

"Culture is the lens or template we use in constructing, defining, and interpreting reality." (Cuellar & Paniagua, 2000). Therefore, to people from different cultural contexts, reality, including their emotional reality, will be experienced in very different ways. Research indicates that cultural differences account for differences in the perceptions of the causes, nature, onset, symptom expression, and disability levels of different mental disorders. This has been true for even the most severe disorders, including depressive disorders. Understanding the differences culture may play in the recognition and treatment of depression is crucial when designing programs aimed at early identification, as the symptoms might vary based on the populations served. During this workshop, cross cultural perspectives on depression will be discussed and recommendations will be offered for working with families from different backgrounds.

Fostering Responsive Teacher-Child Relationships
Presenter: Jackie Zeller, PhD

This session focuses on the importance of positive teacher-child relationships to promote emotionally responsive classrooms and centers. The workshop begins by exploring the value of teacher-child relationships and their potential for building resiliency in children. Contextual factors that impact on teacher-child relationships, including family, center and community influences are explored. The speaker gives special attention to the application of attachment theory for promoting trusting relationships with children, including children who present with more challenging behaviors. Practices that facilitate responsive relationships are discussed. Participants will have an opportunity to engage in small groups to apply information from the workshop.

Assessing Your Program's Needs
Presenter: Caroline Watts

This roundtable discussion will consider strategies and challenges involved in the process of gathering information from multiple perspectives about program needs, strengths, resources and gaps. We will discuss an approach to program development that proactively plans capacity building.

Leading Democratically
Presenter: Joyce Tanner

This round table discussion will explore the role of cultural values, desire for order and control, emotional climate, and ever changing priorities in Head Start and other multi-service programs that work with families experiencing adversity.

Fostering Resilience
Presenter: Linda Howes

Believing in oneself can enhance one's ability to cope with adversity. Fostering resilience in families is important. It builds self esteem and helps them feel more confident about the world around them. Let's come together and talk about ways that we can help children and the families we serve to be more resilient.

Engaging Parents
Presenter: Emily Callejas

This roundtable will provide participants the opportunity to reflect on the importance of working with families in schools. We will share best practices for engaging families; discuss challenges that may arise; and analyze various models for family support (i.e open groups, curricula models, drop-in). Please join us to either enhance current practices that take place in your school, or to plan new efforts to support families in your school.

Building Your Resource Network
Presenter: Larisa Mendez-Penate

A key element to effective parent engagement includes a reliable resource network. Learning more and reaching out to the services available in the community is an important step to building support. This discussion will include strategies for building one's network, including mental health resources.

Better Home Visits
Presenter: Melissa Ryan

Home visiting is an important component in effectively reaching out to families. This roundtable will discuss the benefits and challenges of home visits as well as help participants identify strategies for successful home visits.

Working with the Families of Children with Special Needs
Presenter: Andie Hernandez

Children with special needs often require additional care and attention. Parents and caregivers can provide important insight to the challenges their children face and the strengths they possess, but many teachers and administrators find it uncomfortable or difficult to have conversations with the families about such a sensitive topic. In this roundtable discussion, find words that can help you express concerns, ask questions, and give support to the families of children with special needs.

Supportive Supervision in Early Child Care and Education
Presenter: Cathy Ayoub and Kimberly Knowlton

Making and taking time to engage in supportive supervision can be challenging amidst the demands of child care. This round table discussion welcomes both supervisors and supervisees into a conversation about how we can more easily create a learning community. We will explore how strategies, such as reflective practice and supervision, can support the mental health of the program staff as well as transform and sustain the work that we do together.

Mental Health First Aid in the Early Childhood Setting: Lessons learned through Family Connections
Presenter: Mary Watson Avery, MS

Reaching out to families experiencing adversity and mental health issues presents special challenges. This workshop will give participants an overview of of the lessons learned through Family Connections' efforts to build Head Start programs' capacity to reach out to these parents and explore ways this information can be applied to early childhood settings interested in this type of growth. The session will introduce the concept of Mental Health First Aid, a model for responding to the range of mental health needs in the families we serve.