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Patricia
Mulhearn Blasco, PhD, is an associate professor in the department
of pediatrics at Oregon Health & Science University. She currently
conducts assessments of young children at the Child Development and Rehabilitation
Center. She has completed postdoctoral research in early intervention/early
childhood education at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Her PhD from the University of Virginia is in special education/early
childhood education. She is currently on the editorial board of Young
Exceptional Children and The Journal of Early Intervention.
Dr. Blasco is the author of one book and many articles on early intervention.
She has presented at national and local conferences on family-centered,
culturally responsive intervention, and the social and emotional development
of children birth to three.
Elizabeth Dannhorn, MS, is a graduate of the first cohort of Portland State University’s Infant/Toddler Mental Health Certificate program. She also has her master’s degree in Special Education, and currently works for Clackamas ESD’s Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education program. As an educational specialist, she teaches children birth-5 with special needs, especially those with social-emotional or behavioral difficulties. Prior to this, Ms. Dannhorn worked with the Northwest Early Childhood Institute on the development of a new screening tool for social/emotional health in infants and toddlers, the Behavioral Health Screen. She began her early childhood career working in Chicago with toddlers affected by HIV/AIDS, and continues to study parent-infant attachment in the face of chronic illness, abuse/neglect, poverty, substance abuse, and foster care.
Mary Foltz,
BS, is an early childhood specialist at the Early Childhood Training
Center at Portland State University. She provides consultation and training
to programs serving children from the prenatal period to five years of
age, both regionally and nationally. Ms. Foltz has been instrumental in
the initiation and development of Early Head Start programs in Oregon,
Idaho, Washington, and Alaska. She has presented at and coordinated numerous
regional and national conferences and was a co-developer of The Infant/Toddler
Caregiver Program. She has provided consultation and early childhood-education
professional support for 27 years. During this time, a strong focus of
her work has been on assisting programs to develop effective systems that
promote reflective practice.
Stephen Mandler, MD, is a physician with specialty training in child and adolescent psychiatry. He has extensive experience in the evaluation and treatment of very young children and their families. After medical school, Dr. Mandler completed his adult, child, and adolescent psychiatry training at the Menninger Clinic. He served as a clinical researcher at Menninger's Child and Family Study Center. He has research interests in the areas of mental illness prevention, the role of the father in children's personality development, and the treatment of disorders of relatedness. He is a clinical instructor for the Oregon Health & Science University in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry and in the medical school. Dr. Mandler has served as a consultant to the Portland Public Schools Early Intervention Program and was one of the founding members of the Northwest Early Childhood Institute.
Leslie J. Munson, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Special Education at Portland State University. She also serves as the faculty liaison for the Infant/Toddler Mental Health program. During her doctoral program at Vanderbilt University, Dr. Munson focused on infant development and parent-infant interaction. Dr. Munson developed the Infant-Caregiver Interaction Scale (ICIS), a tool to assess the interactive behaviors of caregivers and infants during feeding and playing in the home environment. In addition, she participated in the development of the Behavioral Health Screening Tool (BHS). She has worked extensively with young children with special needs in a variety of settings, including hospitals, health departments, early intervention programs, and public schools. Her areas of interest include parent-infant interaction, families, parenting when the parent has a cognitive disability, and grief related to the death of a child.
Nancy Parker, MA, has a certificate in Infant Mental Health from the University of
Washington. She has worked as a child and family therapist in a range of settings—private
for-profit and non-profit agencies, state hospital, schools, and private practice. She was
the clinical director of children’s services for a large community mental health agency
and served as a senior administrator overseeing children and adult in-patient and out-patient
mental health and chemical dependency services. Ms. Parker is currently the executive director
of Columbia River Mental Health Services, and she provides consultation services in the area of
system change and development.
Redmond Reams, PhD, has a doctorate in psychology from the University of Washington and has also earned a postgraduate diploma in infant mental health. He is on the faculty at Pacific University and Oregon Health & Science University. Dr. Reams has presented research on infant/toddler mental health at national conferences and in professional journals. He is in private practice seeing children, adults, and families and in consulting to Early Head Start programs, child care centers, and mental health agencies.
Donna R. Weston, PhD, is a licensed psychologist with over 25 years of experience in teaching, training, research, and clinical work with young children and their families. After completing her PhD in developmental psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, she interned at the Infant-Parent Program at the University of California, San Francisco for clinical training in infant-parent psychotherapy. Dr. Weston was director of the Graduate Certificate Program in Infant Mental Health at the University of Washington from 2001-2007. Currently, Dr. Weston is co-principle investigator and clinical supervisor for a pilot research project in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington integrating infant mental health practice into the treatment model of the Parent-Child Assistance Program (PCAP), an intensive case management program for mothers in recovery. In addition she is principal infant mental health consultant on a project funded by Group Health Community Foundation that is supporting infant mental health staff development at Childhaven, a child abuse prevention program in Seattle/King County. Dr. Weston is a a graduate fellow of Zero to Three and a member of the Zero to Three DC: 0-3 Training Task Force. She is a graduate of the Child Psychotherapy Program at the Seattle Psychoanalytic Institute and Society and is a fifth year candidate in the course in child psychoanalysis at the Hanna Perkins Center. Dr. Weston has a private practice in Bellevue, Washington.
Lara T. White, MSW, LCSW, is a counselor in private practice with
20 years of experience working with children and families. Ms. White has extensive
experience in community mental health agencies, foster care, and interfacing with school
systems. She received her graduate degree in social work from the University of Denver
and received her LCSW in 2005. Ms. White is a graduate of the inaugural cohort of
Portland State’s Postgraduate Training Certificate in Infant/Toddler Mental
Health: A Relationship-Based Approach. Ms. White continually seeks to increase her
knowledge in her field and has advanced training in infant mental health, play therapy,
and trauma recovery for infants, children, and adults.