Infant Insitute

Faculty

LINKS

Tulane Institute of Infant and
Early Childhood Mental Health

Charles H. Zeanah, Jr., M.D. – a child and adolescent psychiatrist, is Sellars-Polchow Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Tulane University School of Medicine. He serves as Executive Director of the Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. He also directs the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team, a community-based intervention program for abused and neglected infants and toddlers in the New Orleans area. He has a longstanding interest in Infant Mental Health, and his research and clinical interests concern the effects of exposure to violence on the development of young children, attachment and its development in high-risk environments, risk and protective factors in development, psychopathology in early childhood, and infant-parent relationships. He has published numerous scientific papers and book chapters on these topics. He is the editor of the Handbook of Infant Mental Health, published by Guilford Press. He serves as a member of the Council (Board) of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Geoffrey Nagle, Ph.D., M.P.H., L.C.S.W. – a clinical social worker, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Tulane University Medical School and the Director of the Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. Geoff serves on numerous advisory groups in Louisiana including the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet, the Children’s Cabinet Advisory Board, which he chairs, the Child Care Development Fund Advisory Group, the Solutions to Poverty Steering Committee, and the recently created Human Services Task Force of the Governor’s Louisiana Recovery Authority. Geoff is also the state coordinator for the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Grant through the Louisiana Office of Public Health. This initiative, funded by the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau, is designed to develop a strategic approach to forging collaborative partnerships for cross service system integration in support of young children, families and communities. His research interests are in the economic benefits of prevention and how the results of research in early childhood influence public policy decisions.

Letia O. Bailey, L.C.S.W. – a licensed clinical social worker, is a Clinical Instructor at the Tulane University School of Medicine. She is a clinician and core team member with the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team, a multi-disciplinary team that provides intensive intervention to maltreated infants and their families. Her clinical focus with the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team is consultation, assessment, and treatment of infants and their families. Also, Letia provides clinical oversight and supervision for Early Childhood Supports and Services in Orleans Parish. This clinical supervision includes consultation, assessment and treatment of young children and their families. In addition, Letia is the principal investigator for an intervention targeting maternal depression in New Orleans entitled “Developing a Non-Traditional Intervention Approach to Maternal Depression in High Risk Populations,” funded by the Institute of Mental Hygiene. Letia is a graduate of the Irving B. Harris Fellowship Program at LSUHSC Harris Center for Infant Mental Health.

Allison Boothe, Ph.D.– a post-doctoral fellow and instructor in clinical psychology, is a clinician at the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team where she evaluates and treats maltreated infants and toddlers and their biological and foster parents. Her research interests include child maltreatment and exposure to domestic violence, attachment, clinical interventions, and identity development in adolescents.

Neil Boris, M.D.– a pediatrician and child and adolescent psychiatrist, is an Associate Professor at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in the Department of Community Health Sciences. He teaches in the maternal and child health section. He is also Associate Professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Neurology and Pediatrics at the Tulane University School of Medicine. He co-directs the Pediatric Psychiatry Consultation/Liaison service. After completing his residency training, Dr. Boris received a four-year Physician Scientist Research Career Development Award (K12), sponsored jointly by the National Institute of Mental Health and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. A significant focus of his research has been on the social and emotional development of high-risk children under five years of age. He has written extensively on attachment disorders in infants and young children. He has been the Principal Investigator on three major longitudinal studies. The first is a recently completed evaluation of the efficacy of augmenting David Olds’ Nurse Family Partnership model to include mental health consultation. This project targeted impoverished, first-time mothers and their infants in the Lafayette, LA, area. The second is a follow-up study of young children placed in foster care following maltreatment designed to examine outcomes of children returned to birth parents, placed with relatives, and freed for adoption. The third is a University-Early Head Start partnership study comparing two parenting interventions targeting a sample of high-risk adolescent mothers. He is also co-investigator on a longitudinal grant measuring the impact of community-based mentoring on the psychosocial wellbeing of children living in child-headed households in Rwanda. He serves on the Board of Directors for the World Association of Infant Mental Health and Agenda for Children.

Angela S. Breidenstine, Ph.D. – is an Instructor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Tulane University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Neurology. She works as a clinician with the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team, where she evaluates and treats maltreated infants, toddlers, biological parents, and foster parents. Angie is also a psychology consultant to Orleans Parish Early Childhood Supports and Services (ECSS), one of a state-wide network of clinics operated by the Louisiana Office of Mental Health. At ECSS, she provides consultation, assessment, and treatment to young children and their families. Angie serves as co-coordinator of the Infant Mental Health training program, an intensive training experience offered through the Tulane Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. Her research interests include questions related to developmental psychopathology, attachment relationships, and risk and resilience.

Melanie Bronfin, J.D.– an attorney, is a clinical faculty member at the Tulane University School of Medicine. Her focus is on public policy affecting children. Melanie is currently the associate state coordinator for the Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems Grant through the Louisiana Office of Public Health. This initiative is a federally funded effort to assist states in developing a true system for early childhood, including five critical component areas: access to health insurance and medical homes, mental health and social-emotional development, early care and education/child care, family support, and parenting education. Melanie also serves on the boards of other agencies providing services to at-risk children, including Kingsley House, Summerbridge, and Agenda for Children.

Mary Margaret Gleason, M.D.– a pediatrician and child psychiatrist, is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Tulane University School of Medicine, and an NIMH T32 Research Fellow and Clinical Assistant Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Brown Medical School. Her clinical work includes evaluation and treatment of high-risk infants, young children and their families through Louisiana’s Early Childhood Supports and Services program. She is interested in facilitating early identification of high-risk young children in the community to optimize intervention efforts. To this end, she has developed and validated a screening tool specifically for primary care physicians. She will be assisting the Rhode Island Department of Health in the implementation of a universal screening program for emotional and behavioral problems in young children. She also has academic interests in primary and secondary prevention in early childhood maltreatment, parent-child relationships, and biological stress responses in early childhood. Currently, Mary Margaret is involved in training residents in pediatrics and child psychiatry at Brown, where she is on the Triple Board Training faculty.

Sherryl Scott Heller, Ph.D.– an applied developmental psychologist, Sherry has worked with maltreated children and foster parents as a part of the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team since December of 1994. While a faculty member at the Tulane University School of Medicine, Sherry served as a co-investigator on two longitudinal research projects. The first project collected follow-up data on maltreated children treated by the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team and a non-maltreated comparison group. The second research project was in collaboration with Early Head Start. This project investigated the outcome of two parent training protocols within a high-risk adolescent parent population. Currently, Sherry provides consultation services on infant mental health to a local Early Head Start program—an extension of work started under a competitive national initiative, coordinated by Zero to Three, to increase the reflective practice at elected EHS sites. Also, Sherry is involved with a project focused on developing a quality rating system for child care centers in Louisiana. She has long-standing clinical and research interests in the effects of maltreatment on child development, the development of attachment and attachment disturbances in very young children, child care, gender development and disturbances, the effects of violence on child development, and perinatal loss.

Angela Keyes, Ph.D.– an applied developmental psychologist, is a Research Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Tulane University School of Medicine. She is involved in the development of a Quality Rating System for child care in Louisiana and serves on the state Steering Committee. Her work involves supervising the administration of the Environment Rating Scales which are used to evaluate quality in child care centers. She is also currently developing a curriculum for mental health consultation to assist centers in fostering children’s social-emotional development as well as teaching techniques to modify children’s challenging behaviors in a positive way. Angela also provides consultation as well as Reflective Supervision in Early Head Start settings in Baton Rouge, LA. Her research interests include quality of care and its effects on children’s development, positive discipline, and parenting.

Julie Larrieu, Ph.D.– a developmental and clinical psychologist, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Tulane University School of Medicine. She is a senior trainer at the Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health, involved in both the didactic instruction and the clinical supervision of field practice of trainees. She is the Associate Director of the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team, a multidisciplinary team that provides intensive intervention to maltreated infants and their families. In addition, she is an infant mental health consultant for the Louisiana Office of Public Health, where she trains nurses and other health service providers about the mental health needs of infants and young children. She is the site director for the Tulane component of the Early Trauma Treatment Network, a treatment and service development program within the Child Traumatic Stress Initiative. This program, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is evaluating child-parent psychotherapy for children ages birth to six who have experienced interpersonal violence and sudden loss. Julie is a certified Instructor for the Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training (NCAST) Feeding and Teaching Scales that measure parent-infant interactions. Her ongoing research interests include developmental psychopathology, child abuse and neglect, and symptoms arising from early trauma.

Michael S. Scheeringa, M.D., M.P.H. – a child and adolescent psychiatrist, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, as well as an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, at the Tulane University School of Medicine. Michael is carrying out a programmatic series of studies of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in preschool children. His initial studies pioneered assessment of the validity of the diagnostic criteria. He is conducting two NIMH-funded study of traumatized preschool children. One study aims to assess their psychiatric symptoms, autonomic reactivity, and family functioning. The second study is exploring the feasibility and effectiveness of a manualized cognitive-behavioral treatment for 3-6 year-old children. He also has academic interests in parent-child relationship difficulties, diagnostic assessment of children, neurobiological correlates of psychiatric disorders, and development of protocol-driven therapies. Michael served as chair of the Task Force on Research Diagnostic Criteria for Infant and Preschool Children and is past chair of the American Psychiatric Association Preschool Committee.

Anna T. Smyke, Ph.D.– an applied developmental psychologist, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Tulane University School of Medicine. She is the Director of the Foster Care Team which provides developmental and behavioral evaluation and treatment of very young foster children followed by the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team. She also serves as the Coordinator of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a research project conducted in Romania designed to examine the effects of institutionalization on children's development and whether placing previously institutionalized infants and toddlers in foster homes can repair some of the behavioral, social, and emotional abnormalities associated with institutionalization. Her research interests include attachment disorders and disturbances, effects of maltreatment on young children, and high-risk parenting.

Susan W. Sonnier, M.P.A.- is a Research Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Tulane School of Medicine. She previously served as the Executive Director of the Louisiana Children's Cabinet in the Administrations of Governors Mike Foster and Kathleen Blanco as the Senior Policy Advisor to the Governor on issues such as early childhood systems development, access to primary and behavioral healthcare, education accountability, and juvenile justice reform. She is a Zero to Three Early Childhood Leadership Fellow Alumni member and member of the Louisiana Covering Kids and Families Coalition (Chair), Health Care Centers in School Advisory Council, Louisiana Law Institute Child Support Committee, Children's Advocacy Centers of Louisiana, Board of Directors and the Statewide Council for the Identification of Hearing Impairments in Infants. Her research interests include improving outcomes for children, implementing systems reform and mobilizing leadership to promote strong public policy.

Valerie A. Wajda-Johnston, Ph.D. – a clinical psychologist, is an Assistant Professor at the Tulane University School of Medicine. Valerie is the training coordinator for the Infant Mental Health Training, a year-long training for that is offered through the Institute of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. She is a clinician with the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team, a multidisciplinary team that provides intensive intervention to maltreated infants and their families. Her clinical focus on the Tulane/JPHSA Infant Team is consultation, assessment and treatment of infants and their families. She also provides psychology services to the Delta and Ouachita ECSS sites. Valerie provides consultation services at the Louisiana Children’s Museum, which includes program development and direct consultation to parents and children. Her research and clinical interests include child abuse and neglect, substance abuse, and professional training issues.

Paula Zeanah, Ph.D., M.S.N. – a clinical psychologist and pediatric nurse, is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Tulane University School of Medicine. She is co-director of the Pediatric Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison service at Tulane Hospital. She serves as a mental health consultant for the Louisiana Office of Public Health, involved in professional training, consultation, and program development regarding mental health issues for the Maternal and Child Health section. She also is the Director of the Louisiana Nurse Family Partnership Program. Paula is certified as an instructor for the Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training (NCAST). She has various early childhood research interests related to nurse home visiting, chronic illness in childhood, and professional development

8/16/07