Cecilia Breinbauer, M.D., M.P.H .
Chief Executive Officer (CEO), ICDL Graduate School.
Child Psychiatry, Public Health
Courses taught: IMH 401 (FEAS Reliability Training), IMH102 (Reflective Adult Learning), IMH 301 (Ethics), IMH 310 (Consultation & Supervision)

Potomac, MD

E-Mail: cbreinbauer@icdl.com

• Dr. Breinbauer is the CEO of the ICDL Graduate School and the Executive Director of the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental & Learning Disorders, ICDL. Under the direction of Dr. Stanley Greenspan, she helped him develop the curriculum and started the ICDL Graduate School. Before joining ICDL, Dr. Breinbauer worked for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO, 2001-2005) coordinating child and adolescent health and development projects in more than 12 countries in the Latin American and Caribbean Region, and for the Inter American Development Bank (IDB, 2005-2006) evaluating early child development projects in Chile, Nicaragua and Honduras. She also worked as a consultant for UNICEF and as a child psychiatrist serving families with children with special needs, including autism, for more than 15 years. Dr. Breinbauer received her medical degree and completed her residency in child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Chile, followed by a Master Degree in Public Health from George Washington University. She has published extensively in the field of early child development and developmental disorders as well as the book Youth: Choices and Changes (PAHO, 2005), that uses a developmental perspective to promote healthy behaviors in adolescence. Dr. Breinbauer is a Chilean citizen, she speaks Spanish and English fluently.

  • Dr. Breinbauer's CV

Ira Glovinsky, Ph.D.
Academic Dean, ICDL Graduate School
Psychology & Special Education
Courses taught: IMH 101 (Human Development); IMH 213 (Individual differences and psychopathology); IMH 304 (An integrated, developmental approach to intervention I - with Barbara kalmanson, Ph.D.), IMH 305 ((An integrated, developmental approach to intervention I - with Barbara Kalmanson, Ph.D.)

Ann Harbor, MI

E-Mail: Ira1834@sbcglobal.net

• Ira Glovinsky is a clinical psychologist. His major interest areas are pediatric bipolar disorder and autism spectrum disorders. He has co-authored to books on children with mood disorders and bipolar patterns with Dr. Stanley Greenspan. He is currently doing research on the earliest signs of mood disorders in young children. Dr. Glovinsky is Director of the Mood Disorder Program at The Interdisciplinary Center for the Family in West Bloomfield, Michigan. He is Associate Editor of  "The Journal of Developmental Processes." He is also an Adjunct Professor i the School of Education at Madonna University, Livonia, Michigan.

Joshua D. Feder, MD
Director of the ICDL Graduate School Research Department
Courses taught: IMH 500 (Critical reading of research articles); IMH 505 (Research Practicum); IMH 306 (Medical and alternative treatments in Infant Mental health)

Solano Beach, CA

E-mail: jdfeder@pol.net

• Dr. Joshua Feder is a clinical assistant professor at UCSD School of Medicine, he is Director, Department of Research in the Graduate School of the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders, directing research initiatives and training PhD candidates in biostatistics and critical review of research literature and giving seminars helping candidates design, complete and report out on original research.  Dr. Feder specializes in neurobehavioral medicine and application of DIR/Floortime with families and in schools, and he is Co-Chair of the DIR/Floortime Coalition of California, advocating and giving testimony in support of parent choice in evidence based intervention, as well as recent co-chair, Early Intervention, South Counties Autism Regional Taskforce (SCART) of the California Senate Select Committee on Autism & Related Disorders. Dr. Feder does research, teaches, consults, and hosts support groups for professionals and families.  Dr. Feder is Director of Training for the Bond Regulate Interact Develop Guide Engage (BRIDGE) Collaborative, an NIH funded community-wide effort for early identification and intervention in the Southern California region, and he is medical director for the Rady Children’s Hospital Autism Research Workgroup.  Dr. Feder has served on the Autism Committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, where he helped write a Practice Parameter for Assessment and treatment of Autism and Related Disorders and has sat on the Medications and Autism panel as well. Dr. Feder reviews grants for the Organization for Autism Research and the National Foundation for Autism Research, is a primary clinical investigator for NIMH funded research in pharmacogenetics, serves as medical director for Spectrum Sims, a start up electronics company developing systems to support relationship based interventions, and he is a commentator on ValeriesList, a web-based information service for autism and related disorders. Dr Feder chairs the Ethics Committee of the San Diego Psychiatry Society, the local chapter of the American Psychiatric Association, and promotes educational initiatives in ethics at UCSD and in the local community.

Barbara Kalmanson, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychology & Special Education
Courses taught (with Ira Glovinsky): IMH 304 (An integrated, developmental approach to intervention I)

Kentfield, CA

E-Mail: BKalmanson@earthlink.net

• Dr. Kalmanson has over 30 years of experience working with schools, children and their families. She is a founder of the Oak Hill School in Marin City, California. Dr. Kalmanson has extensive experience as a clinical psychologist, a special educator, and as an infant mental health consultant including work with the Infant-Parent Program at University of California in San Francisco; The San Francisco Psychoanalytic Institute, Child Development Program; California Pacific Medical Center, Child Development Center and in private practice in San Francisco and Marin County. She consults to schools and agencies nationwide. She has served on multiple boards of directors including the Mayor's Advisory Board on Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health in San Francisco, California. She received her doctorate in Psychology and Special Education from the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Kalmanson is a recipient of the Zero to Three: the National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families Harris Fellowship, The Frederic Burk Foundation for Education Fellowship and a National Institute of Mental Health Training grant. Her many publications focus on diagnosis and treatment of autistic spectrum disorders, affective development, relationship-based intervention and the importance of family-provider relationships.

  • Dr. Kalmanson's CV

Ron Balamuth, Ph.D.
Psychology
Courses taught: IMH 206 (Social Emotional development Practicum)

New York, NY

E-Mail: rb248@columbia.edu

1. Faculty, DIR Institute. Faculty and Supervisor, William Alanson White Institute and the National Institute for the Psychotherapies Programs in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy. Supervisor, Infants - Parent Study Center, JBFCS. Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology, Teachers College Columbia University. Graduate, New York University Post Doctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. DIR consultations and training with children families and professionals both nationally and internationally. Psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, Evaluation, treatment and consultations with children teens adults and families. Past presentations in DIR institutes included: The challenges of long-term DIR work, Engaging and coaching families in DIR work, the DIR Therapist’s Use of Self in facilitating reflective practice with children and families, and DIR and Attachment Theory: Similarities and Differences.
2. Joined the DIR® Faculty:  2000

Devin Casenhiser, Ph.D.
Chair, IRB
Infant Mental Health Research, Language Learning and Development
Courses taught: IMH 502 (Statistics I), IMH 503 (Statistics II), IMH 504 (Psychometrics), IMH 508 (Advanced Research Design)

Ontario, Canada

E-Mail: devin.icdl me.com

• Dr. Casenhiser completed his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois specializing in Psycholinguistics. He later worked at Princeton University where he conducted post-doctoral research in the department of Psychology. Dr. Casenhiser is currently the Head of Research at the Milton & Ethel Harris Research initiative (MEHRI), at York University, Canada. His work focuses on cognitive psychology with a particular interest in child language learning and development.
  • Dr. Casenhiser's CV

Gerard Costa, Ph.D.

Developmental Psychology
Courses taught: IMH 205 (Social Emotional Development), IMH 208 (Cognitive Development Practicum)

East Orange, NJ

E-Mail: gcostaphd@optonline.net

• Founding director of training and consultation, clinical service and research institute concerned with the optimal development of infants and young children within the context of their earliest relationships.  Institute offers APPIC doctoral internships in psychology, doctoral externships and in partnership with the APA Doctoral Psychology Program (APA approved) at Seton Hall University. Institute offers a Graduate Specialization and Post-Graduate Certificate in Infant Mental Health.  Institute operates the state’s only licensed, Medicaid approved mental health clinic, specializing in infants and young children, birth to six years, and their families.  Institute is one of 60 national Brazelton Touchpoints Centers.  Principal activities: Conduct trainings and ongoing consultations in Infant Mental Health and DIR approaches to assessment and intervention. Clinician and supervisor. Serve on graduate adjunct faculty at Fairleigh Dickinson and Seton Hall Universities. Served as consultant to Pathways to Prevention - infant mental health consultation project under the Early Head Start -National Resource Center (EHS-NRC). 

Barbara Dunbar, Ph.D.
Clinical and Developmental Psychology

Atlanta, GA

E-Mail: bardunbar@bellsouth.net

• Barbara Dunbar is a developmental psychologist specializing in assessment and treatment of infants and children with developmental and learning disorders.  She is an adjunct professor in the psychology department at Georgia State University.  Dr. Dunbar has also has a masters degree in special education, and has been a preschool teacher, and a learning disabilities specialist.  She consults with teachers and parents regarding developmental variations in learning, and work closely with children with autistic spectrum disorders and their families. Dr. Dunbar teaches courses for parents on DIR/floortime, train floortime players, and help families develop comprehensive home programs.  

Lorraine Ehlers-Flint, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychology
Courses taught: IMH 403 (The theory and practice of DIRFloortime - course qualifies for C1 level of training of DIRFloortime certificate)

Mamaroneck, New  York

E-Mail: lehlersflintphd@gmail.com

• Dr. Ehlers-Flint has focused her extensive clinical practice in working with children with neurodevelopmental disorders and their families using an interdisciplinary team model.  She also supervise doctoral psychology students completing clinical work in community based or hospital intervention programs for children with disabilities and their families.  Dr. Ehlers-Flint has served as adjunct faculty at psychology doctoral program and dissertation committee member and worksin the NY area as a preschool mental health consultant.

Alan Fogel, Ph.D.
Psychology

Salt Lake City, UT

E-mail: alan.fogel@psych.utah.edu

• Alan Fogel is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. He obtained his undergraduate degree at the University of Miami (Florida), his masters at Columbia University (New York), and his PhD in Education at the University of Chicago in 1976. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association. He taught at Purdue University from 1976 to 1988, and has been at the University of Utah since then. He has been an active contributor to research on infant social and emotional development and is one of the first to apply dynamic systems (or chaos) theory to the study of developmental change processes. His theoretical perspective is best summarized in Developing through Relationships (University of Chicago Press), and he as authored a textbook on infant development, Infancy: Infant, family, and society, 5th edition, Sloan Publishing

Gil Foley, Ed.D.
Clinical Child Psychology
Courses taught: IMH 207 (Educational and cognitive development)

New York, NY

E-Mail: GMSqF@AOL.com

• Dr. Foley is an associate Professor of School-Clinical Child Psychology at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, New York. he is also a Senior Clinical Supervisor at the NYU School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Bellevue Hospital Center, New York. Dr Foley is a Faculty Member of the Infant-Parent Study Center, Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, New York. His current activities include teaching, supervision, consultation, private practice, research and writing.

Sima Gerber, Ph.D., C.C.C.
Speech-Language Pathology
Courses taught: IMH 203 (language development); IMH 204 (Language development practicum)

Forest Hills, NY

E-Mail: simagerber@verizon.net

• Sima Gerber is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Communication Disorders of Queens College, City University of New York. She is currently the Graduate Admissions Coordinator of the Masters program in Speech-Language Pathology. Dr. Gerber has taught courses in language acquisition and language disorders in children and has supervised graduate students' clinical work for over 30 years. Dr. Gerber has presented many workshops and seminars on the topics of language acquisition and developmental approaches to language intervention in the United States and abroad. She has recently completed a training video supported by the Bamford-Lahey Children's Foundation which illustrates the use of developmental language acquisition models for language assessment and language intervention. Dr. Gerber has published numerous articles and has recently received an award for Outstanding Professional Achievement from the New York City Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the Louis Di Carlo Award for Outstanding Clinical Achievement from the New York State Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and has been elected a Fellow of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association.

Ellen L. Halpern, Ph.D.
Chair, Dissertation Committee
Clinical Psychology
Courses taught: IMH 501 (Basic research design and methodology); IMH 502 (Statistics I); IMH 503 (Statistics II); IMH 509 (Dissertation seminar)

Flemington, NJ

E-mai: anamgirl@earthlink.net

• Ellen L. Halpern is a licensed psychologist on the staff of Salazar Associates in Clarks Summit, PA.  In addition to clinical practice, she teaches Statistics, Developmental Psychology, and other clinical and methods courses at NY/NJ area univerisities.  She has completed postgraduate training in neuropsych research, infant mental health, and statistics for mental health research, and is in the process of obtaining DIR certification.  From 1999-2005, she directed the  program evaluation component of the Head Start - Early Childhood Group Therapy: Relationships for Growth project in NYC.  She has been an independent research and statistics consultant since 1993.  Prior to her career as a psychologist, she was a systems analyst.
  

Connie Lillas, Ph.D, M.F.T., R.N.
Infant Mental Health, Early Intervention Specialist
Courses taught: IMH 404 (Bridging the gap: An introduction to the neurorelational framework - NRF)

Los Angeles, CA

E-Mail: infantmentalhealth@earthlink.net

Dr. Connie Lillas is a National Graduate Zero to Three Leadership Fellow and an infant mental health and early intervention specialist with a background in maternal-child nursing, family systems, and developmental psychoanalysis. Dr. Lillas is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Training Institute, whose curriculum regarding high-risk pre-birth to five-years-olds in the foster care system is employed to train service providers across disciplines in Los Angeles County, through collaborative training efforts from the Department of Child and Protective Services, the Department of Mental Health, and Regional Centers.  She currently co-chairs the Foster Youth Mental Health Initiative Capacity Building Policy Workgroup at the Children’s Law Center, which houses 90% of all attorneys representing infants and children in the foster care system. She also functions as a Court Team Liaison for a 0-3 court team pilot that is being organized in Service Planning Area 6 (South Los Angeles). She is the co-author of Infant Mental Health, Early Intervention, & Relationship-Based Therapies:  A Neurorelational Framework for Interdisciplinary Practice (2009)

 

Andra C. Munger, Ph.D.
Bio-medical Science
Courses taught: IMH 209 (Visual-Spatial development)

Lexington, MA

• Andra Munger, Ph.D. is the founder and director of The Interactive Learning Center in Lexington, Massachusetts. Andra and her staff specialize in helping children with autism spectrum and other developmental disorders to achieve the visual, sensory motor and logical reasoning skills they need for learning. The Interactive Learning Center staff offer child/therapist interactions that are aligned with the principles and practice of Thinking Goes To School and DIR/Floortime to acknowledge and support the dynamic of emotional regulation and cognition. Our goal is to support each student’s ability to advance his or her conceptual foundations for learning.  Andra provides training and consultation to school personnel and other professionals locally and across the country to help them to implement developmental approaches to improving students’ cognition and conceptual understanding. Andra’s academic background includes a Bachelor’s degree in education and cognitive developmental psychology from Clark University. She holds a holds a teaching certificate in Waldorf Education and has experience teaching in Kindergarten through College classrooms. Prior to this, Andra received her doctoral degree in Biomedical Science from the University of Connecticut Health Center with continued research in developmental systems at the National Institutes of Health.

Kathleen A. Platzman, Ph.D.

Developmental Psychology
Courses taught: IMH 302 ( An Integrated, Developmental Approach to the Assessment, Evaluation, and Diagnostic Process ); IMH 303 (Assessment practicum)

Atlanta, GA

E-Mail: platzman@floortimeatlanta.com

• Private Practitioner and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Private practitioner in Atlanta; Part of a transdisciplinary practice treating infants, children and their families. The practice has psychologists, counselors, speech, occupational therapists, and educators. It focus on children with a wide range of neurological and cognitive problems that affect social, emotional, and communicative function.  The practice uses the DIR model when working with the children.  It offers diagnostic evaluation and consultation, treatment, parent training and coaching, team training and coaching, consultation to schools, and professional courses; Sponsors monthly professional meetings for professionals in the Atlanta area who use or wish to know more about the DIR approach; Co-Investigator on several projects focusing on long term developmental effects of prenatal drug exposure.  Currently involved with projects focusing on effects of nicotine exposure on language development from 0-24 months, cocaine exposure on self-regulation and neurocognitive status and brain structure and function in adolescents, and brain structure and function in adults with prenatal alcohol exposure.
• Joined the DIR® Faculty: 2004

Michele Ricamato, M.A., CCC/SLP
Speech and Language Pathologist
Courses taught (with Sima Gerber): IMH 203 (language development); IMH 204 (language development practicum)

West Chicago, Illinois

E-Mail: m.ricamato@comcast.net

• Michele has a master’s degree in Speech and Language Pathology that she received from Northwestern University. Since 1997, Michele has worked in a private practice in the Chicago Land area where she collaborates with a multiple disciplinary team serving children and families with disorders in relating and communicating. Michele is a faculty member for the DIR ® institute. She is also a co-founder of Soaring Eagle Academy, a private school for children with Autism that utilizes the DIR ® model. Michele enjoys lecturing across the country and abroad to support parent and professionals as they incorporate developmental language intervention into their own work.
  

Ruby Salazar L.C.S.W., B.C.D.
Clinical Social Work
Courses taught: IMH 301 (Ethics, Values, Cultural Competency and Legal Aspects of Professional Clinical Practice)

Clarks Summit, PA

E-Mail: rubysa1@aol.com

• Ruby Salazar is the Director and Senior Clinician at Salazar Associates. She is also Adjunct Faculty at Marywood University and Keystone College; Faculty at the Institute for Children and Infants and The Napa Valley Infant Mental Health Program. Salazar is a member of the Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work (BCD) and the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW). She is also the Pennsylvania Coordinator for Touchpoints and a Founding Member of the Pennsylvania Autism Taskforce; Pennsylvania's Autism Diagnosis and Assessment Workgroup, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Salazar is a Consultant for Bucks County Assessment Model Project; for The Arc of Montgomery County Children's Services Early Intervention DIR®  Model Project and for various Pennsylvania and New Jersey Public School Districts

Stuart Shanker, D. Phil
Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy and Psychology

Ontario, Canada

E-Mail: shanker@yorku.ca

• Dr. Shanker is the Director of The Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative, at the York Universit, Canada. Through this research initiative, he is involved in a number of different studies looking at the processes involved in the development of language and reflective consciousness in young infants; studies in evolutionary theory involving nonhuman primates; and clinical studies designed to significantly enhance the capacities of children with various types of impairment. Prof. Shanker was educated at Oxford, where he obtained a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, and a B Phil and D Phil in philosophy. He has received numerous academic distinctions, and his research is currently being funded by Cure Autism Now, The Harris Steel Foundation, The Templeton Foundation, and The Unicorn Foundation. Among his recent publications are Apes, language and the human mind (with Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Talbot Taylor, 1998); Wittgenstein.s remarks on the foundations of AI (1998); and most recently, The First Idea (with Stanley Greenspan, 2004). In addition to serving as Co-Director of the Council of Human Development, he is also the Chair for Canada of the Interdisciplinary Council of Learning and Developmental Disorders.

Rebecca Shahmoon Shanok, L.C.S.W., Ph.D.
Child Psychology, Social Work, Early Childhood Education
Courses taught: IMH 210 (Family systems theory and functioning); IMH 211 (Family systems practicum)

New York, NY

E-Mail: rss@jbfcs.org

• Director, Institute for Infants, Children & Families; Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, which includes two transdisciplinary training programs for individuals: Early Childhood Group Therapy Program and the Infant-Parent Study Center; Consultation and tailored training for programs; Private Practice- Children, babies, families, adults, couples/parents; Editorial Board, The Journal of Developmental and Learning Disorders; Editorial Board, The Journal of Infant, Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy; Facilitator,  Interdisciplinary/Case Study Group on Assessment and Intervention with Autistic Spectrum Young Children and Their Families; Facilitator, New York Zero-to-Three Network Study Groups; Leadership; Founder and Board Member, Co-President (2001-2004), New York Zero-to-Three Network; Board Member, Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families; Advisory Board Member, Rita Gold Infant and Early Childhood Center, Teachers College, Columbia University; Board Member, Martha K. Selig Educational Institute, Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services; Founding President (1981-1991) and  Board Member, Abraham Joshua Heschel School (preschool thru high school), New York City.
• Joined the DIR® Faculty: 1999

Jim Stieben, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Courses taught: IMH 212 (Neuroscience); IMh 402 (Social emotional and brain development in infancy)

Ontario, Canada

E-Mail: jstieben@yorku.ca

• Dr. Jim Stieben is Director of Clinical and Developmental Social Neuroscience for the Milton and Ethel Harris Research Initiative in the Faculty of Health at York University. Dr. Stieben has three intersecting lines of research. As part of the large randomised control study assessing the impact of DIR/Floorime on children with autism, Dr Stieben is investigating the neurophysiological markers of change with successful treatment. Autism is principally a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting the core brain structures and networks responsible for social cognition. The goal of my work is to target these structures and monitor changes with treatment. In a second line of research, Dr. Stieben has investigated the neurophsyiological correlates of antisocial and externalizing behavioural problems in children. The goal of this research has been to identify neurophysiological markers of subtypes of aggression (e.g., pure externalizing versus mixed internalising and externalizing groups) so that treatment can be better tailored to children's unique clinical problems. In a third line of research, Dr. Stieben has been investigating the link between maternal empathy, parenting styles and the development of neural systems associated with emotional self-regulation.

Harry Wachs, O.D .
Visual-Spatial Development

Washington, DC

E-Mail:

• Director of The Vision and Conceptual Development Center. Dr Wachs is co-author of the book Thinking Goes to School and the test Wachs Analysis of Cognitive Structures. He started studying Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget's theories about the nature and development of thinking, and began working with one of Piaget's colleagues on an educational innovation. In 1991, Wachs opened the center in Washington featuring developmental optometry based on a Piagetian approach. His visual-cognitive therapy regime is based on the premise that "visual-spatial knowledge" -- how we understand and manipulate what we see -- plays a major role in the way children live and learn.

Rosemary White, OTR/L, Dip.O.T.

Occupational Therapy
Courses taught: IMH 201 (Motor and sensory processing development); IMH 202 (motor and sensory processing development practicum)

Seattle, WA

E-Mail: aussiebud@comcast.net

• Rosemary White is the Director of the Pediatric Physical and Occupational Therapy Services, Seattle, WA. Director Play Project West, Seattle; Partner Pacific Northwest Pediatric Therapy, Portland, Oregon; Adjunct Clinical Faculty Infant Mental Health Certificate Program, University of Washington.