Presenters

Alicia F. Lieberman, PhD, is the Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair in Infant Mental Health; Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs at the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Psychiatry; Director of the Child Trauma Research Program at San Francisco General Hospital; and a former Board Member and President of ZERO TO THREE. Dr. Lieberman is the developer of Child-Parent Psychotherapy, an evidence-based treatment for traumatized children from birth-5 years old that has shown efficacy in five randomized controlled studies. She has made major contributions to the field’s understanding of attachment, toddler development, and cross-cultural perspectives on early development through her research, writing, training, and consultation.

Gilbert M. Foley, Ed.D., currently serves as Consulting Clinical Director at The New York Center for Child Development (NYCCD) in Manhattan and Consulting Psychologist and faculty member of the Institute for Parenting at Adelphi University. He is a retired tenured faculty member from the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he taught for 20 years in the Department of School-Clinical Child Psychology and coordinated the Infancy Early Childhood track. For 13 years, he was Senior Clinical Supervisor in the Department of Pediatrics at NYU School of Medicine, Bellevue Hospital Center following his tenure as Chief Psychologist in the Department of Pediatrics’ Special Needs Preschool Program at Schneider Children’s Hospital, Long Island Jewish Medical Center.Dr. Foley has focused his entire career as a psychologist and educator primarily in the field of infancy and early childhood. He began as the psychologist for the Berks County (PA) Preschool, Head Start and Childcare Programs. Following this position, he directed and served as Principle Investigator of the Family Centered Resource Project, a federally funded model/ demonstration, outreach and technical assistance agency that provided training and consultation to Infant/ early-childhood professionals and programs across the nation. While serving as the Chief Psychologist in the Pediatric Department of the Medical College of Pennsylvania, he trained in psychoanalysis and also completed a fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center with the late, Sally Provence. Dr. Foley is co-author of the Cognitive Observation Guide(Communication Skill Builders/Psych. Corp),The Supportive Play Model(Teacher’s College Press) and with Dr. Jane Hochman, Mental Health in Early Intervention: Achieving Unity in Principles and Practice(Paul H. Brookes). The Loss-Grief Model developed by Dr. Foley, is the official approach adopted by the State of Colorado Department of Education, Division of Exceptional Children’s Parent Program. He is the author of numerous articles and has lectured nationally and internationally recently returning from a lecture tour in South Africa and was an invited speaker at the first international conference on preschool education in China sponsored by UNICEF and Nanjing University. Dr. Foley serves as a faculty member at the Parent-Infant Study Center of The Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services (JBFCS), New York City; The Institute for Parenting, Certificate Program in Infant Mental Health, Adelphi University; The DIR/Floortime Institute of Profectum Foundation, The Interdisciplinary Council for Learning and Developmental Disorders(ICDL)/Fielding University Ph.D. program in Child Development and the College of Education and Human Services, Center for Autism and Early Childhood Mental Health at Montclair State University in New Jersey. He is a founding board member of the Pennsylvania Association of Infant Mental Health and has served as a co-president of the New York Zero to Three Network and president of the Association of Early Childhood and Infant Psychology. His work has been acknowledged by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, The State of Connecticut Birth to Six Planning Committee, The State of Kansas and the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens. He served as a member of the State of Pennsylvania Task Force on the Family.

Director of the Interdisciplinary Training Institute, Los Angeles /Connie Lillas, PhD, MFT, RN is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Training Institute with a background in high-risk maternal-child nursing, family systems, and developmental psychoanalysis. She is a National Graduate Zero to Three Leadership Fellow and a Court Team Liaison for a birth to three-year-old Fostering Family Partnerships pilot promoting child welfare reform in Los Angeles. Connie has a full-time private practice, specializing in dual diagnosis across both developmental delays and mental health concerns. In addition, she trains locally, nationally, and internationally on the Neurorelational Framework (NRF, 2009) based upon her co-authored book—Infant/Child Mental Health, Early Intervention, and Relationship-Based Therapies: A Neurorelational Framework for Interdisciplinary Practice, which is a part of the W. W. Norton Interpersonal Neurobiology Series.

Linda Gunsberg, PhD is Chair of the Family Law and Family Forensics Training Program at the Washington Square Institute for Psychotherapy and Mental Health in New York City. She is a Consulting Editor for Psychoanalytic Inquiry. Dr. Gunsberg has co-edited the volume, A Handbook of Divorce and Custody: Forensic, Developmental, and e Analytic Press, 2005), and co-edited the monograph for Psychoanalytic Inquiry, The Psychoanalyst in the Courtroom (2009). She received her adult psychoanalytic training at the New York University Postdoctoral Training Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. In her clinical private practice and forensic work, Dr. Gunsberg sees children of all ages, adults, couples, and families.

Mona M. Delahooke, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist specializing in the development of infants, children, and their families. She has received specialized training as an infant mental health specialist, and works widely with multi-disciplinary teams supporting children with developmental or emotional delays. She is a faculty member of the Early Intervention Training Institute (EITI) of the Los Angeles Child Guidance Clinic. She is a senior faculty member and Mental Health Working Group Co-Chair of the Profectum Foundation. Dr. Delahooke also provides training to personnel in the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health and the Westside Infant Family Network. Currently in private practice in Arcadia, California, she consults with parents, preschools, regional centers and school districts in the areas of developmental screening, assessment and intervention for children and their families.

Dr. Wieder is the Clinical Director and a founding member of the Profectum Foundation, dedicated to advancing the development and infant mental health of all children, including children, adolescents and adults with autism and special needs through training and educational programs. She also co-founded the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders with the late Stanley Greenspan. Dr. Wieder is a Board Member of Zero to Three and also serves on Advisory Boards to various programs serving infant mental health and other special needs. She established DIR-Israel and provides consultation and training to international and national programs. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Wieder has pioneered important approaches to diagnosing and treating infants and toddlers with infant mental health and developmental disorders. She co-developed the DIR Model with Stanley Greenspan, edited two diagnostic manuals for infants and young children, and created models for interdisciplinary post-graduate case based training and work with parents. She has co-chaired and organized national and international conferences integrating development, neuroscience and intervention approaches for nearly 20 years. Dr. Wieder also developed approaches to integrate visual-spatial knowledge to advance emotional and cognitive development. Her research interests concern follow up studies of children on the Autism Spectrum who have received DIR comprehensive interventions and the evaluation of training and educational programs. Dr. Wieder co-authored Engaging Autism, The Child With Special Needs and Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health with Stanley Greenspan, M.D. They also co-edited Infants in Multi-Risk Families as well as the ICDL Diagnostic Manual for Infants and Young Children (DMIC) and the original Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood (DC 03).  Most recently, Dr. Wieder co-authored Visual Spatial Portals to Thinking, Feeling, and Movement with Harry Wachs, O.D. She has published numerous journal and book chapters and presents at multiple conferences nationally and internationally. At this time, Dr. Wieder also has a private practice in NYC for diagnosis, treatment and consultation regarding complex developmental and mental health challenges.