FACULTY BIOS - TRAINING INSTITUTE CLASS OF 2008 - 2010

ELIZABETH DAVIDSON ARELLANO , MSW, LISW, is an Infant Mental Health Therapist for the Las Cumbres Santa Fe Community Infant Program, and a Field Consultant and Instructor at New Mexico Highlands University. Elizabeth is a member of the Early Childhood Action Network Steering Committee and the World Association of Infant Mental Health.  She has previously worked as a CYFD Social Worker and a Tribal Court Administrative Assistant.  Elizabeth is a graduate of the 2006-2008 Institute. 

MARYTHELMA BRAINARD, PhD, is a psychologist in private practice in Albuquerque.  She is a Clinical Assistant Professor for the Department of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico, where she has taught and supervised for 20 years, and she has provided Reflective Supervision for the Las Cumbres Santa Fe Community Infant Program for five years.  Marythelma’s practice is devoted primarily to remediation, but prevention is her passion.  She is particularly interested in integrating brain research and infant studies in her practice with adults.  Dr. Brainard synthesizes this information with psychoanalytic and attachment theory, all of which she has studied since the late 1970’s. 

MARTHA BRISKY, PhD, is a child clinical psychologist in western New Mexico.  A graduate of the University of New Mexico's doctoral program in psychology, Dr. Brisky specializes in clinical services spanning birth through early adulthood.  Her expertise includes Infant Mental Health and cross-cultural clinical work with Native American families.  She currently works with both early intervention and special education programs in New Mexico’s western communities. 

ROSE CAVALCANTE, PhD, is a faculty member of Northern New Mexico College in the Teacher Education Program, with a specialization in Cognitive Therapy.  She is also the Director of the Alternative Licensure Program. Formerly, Dr. Cavalcante was on the faculty of the Baptist College of Campinas in San Paulo, Brazil, and served as a school psychologist in Bedford, Indiana. She has 10 years of experience in educational psychology.

MICHELLE PEIXINHO is the Coordinator of the TEWA Birthing Project and is a member of the Rio Arriba Maternal and Child Health Council and the New Mexico Teen Pregnancy Coalition.  Michelle is a midwife, a health educator in the Española Schools, a counselor at the Te-Teh-Lah Youth Learning Center, and the Development Director of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indian Development.  As an Institute graduate of the class of 2006-2008, Michelle is currently developing a community doula program.

DOREEEN SANSOM is the Personnel Development Coordinator for the Family Infant Toddler Program at the New Mexico Department of Health, Long Term Services Division.  She is responsible for a comprehensive system of staff development for all Early Interventionists working in Part C, IDEA programs.  Doreen was the Home Visiting Coordinator for the New Mexico Department of Public Health Family Health Bureau, and a Health Educator for home visiting, early childhood and family support programs.  She is co-author of Day One, Your Baby Knows, and Day Two booklets and is an endorsed member of the New Mexico Association of Infant Mental Health.

MARY ELLEN SEERY, EdD, is retired from full-time teaching at the University of Dayton and currently serves as an adjunct professor for special education and early childhood at the University of Dayton, the University of Cincinnati and Northern New Mexico College. Her interests, research and publishing have focused on development of early literacy, communication and social skills. She spent five years serving as a member of a diagnostic team for children with developmental disorders at Children’s Hospital in Cincinnati.  Current projects include development of a mentoring program for individuals with developmental disabilities for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northern New Mexico and the Developmental Disabilities Planning Council of New Mexico.

ALICIA TER AVEST, LMSW, PISW, is a Family Therapist in Early Intervention in Las Cruces. Alicia is a Family and Staff Management Therapist and a member of Peak Behavioral Health Utilization and the Board of Review of Multi-Systemic Therapy.  She was a graduate assistant, a member of the Peace Corps and is a graduate of the Institute Class of 2006-2008.

AMY WILLIAMS, MS, LPCC, CCFC, is the Director of Behavioral Health at Las Cumbres Community Services and a private practitioner. Amy has more than 20 years experience as a therapist. She has researched and worked across life span development, focusing on adolescents and early childhood attachment and relationships issues. She has also worked with clients and families recovering from trauma and abuse issues, as well as with people who live with chronic mental illness and dual diagnoses. Before coming to Las Cumbres, she was Clinical Director of the Residential Treatment Center at Casa de Corazon in Taos. Amy is a single mother raising two sons.

MARTHA FARRELL ERICKSON, PhD, has had a long and distinguished career at the University of Minnesota, linking research, practice and policy in the areas of parent-child attachment, child abuse prevention and children’s mental health. Building on her research on parent-child attachment and attachment-based interventions that she has developed with Byron Egeland, Dr. Erickson speaks and consults extensively throughout the U.S. and abroad. The author of many academic articles and books, she also reaches out to general audiences each week through a syndicated newspaper column (Growing Concerns), TV news features on KARE-TV (NBC), and a 2-hour radio talk show, Good Enough MomsTM, which she and her daughter co-host on Twin Cities’ WFMP Radio (FM 107.1).

KRISTI BRANDT, RN, CNM, NP, PHN, MSN, DNP, is Director of the Parent-Infant & Child Institute, a Child Trauma Academy Faculty Fellow, and teaches nationally and internationally with Dr. Brazelton on the National Seminar Series.  She was Chief Public Health Manager for Napa County Public Health, retiring in January 2007 after nearly 25 years overseeing Maternal and Child Health and other public health services.  She consults nationally and internationally, is coordinator of the Napa Touch Points Project, is a Nursing Child Assessment Satellite Training (NCAST) instructor, and works in a private Ob/Gyn practice in California.  She has been a board certified nurse-midwife since 1984 and a nurse practitioner since 1981.  She earned both her Master’s and a Doctorate in nursing at Case Western Reserve University.

DIANA S. EDWARDS, PhD, is based in Silver City, New Mexico. Her work focuses on cross-cultural studies of the family, and adoption practices; her dissertation looked at the early life and post-surrender lives of women who surrendered a child to adoption. She taught and researched the family with a cross-cultural perspective at the University of North Florida.  Dr. Edwards completed her internship while earning her counseling degree at the Child Development Center, Western New Mexico University, where she helped to develop the Family Counseling Center. She currently works with Life Quest Early Intervention as a counselor, working always to promote healthy families and to stay informed about best practices for infant mental health.

ROBIN WELLS, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Special Education and a Speech Pathologist. Dr. Wells has earned the Certificate of Clinical Competence and is an Associate Professor at Eastern New Mexico University.  She has over 40 years of experience in Speech Pathology in Kansas and Missouri, and is Assistant to the Editor of Young Exceptional Children publications.

CYNTHIA FULREADER, MA, is Program Director of the Santa Fe Children's Project, a family therapy program of United Way of Santa Fe County.  She has been in private practice in child and family therapy since 1989.  Previously Cynthia has been a Parent Educator and Clinical Consultant, the Director of Family Services at UNM Children's Hospital and Adjunct Professor at Southwestern College in Santa Fe.

PAULA D. ZEANAH, PhD, MSN, RN, is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Pediatrics, and an Adjunct Professor of Public Health at Tulane University. She serves as the Chief of the Psychology Division for the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, and is the Co-Director of the Pediatric-Psychiatry Consultation-Liaison service at Tulane Hospital for Children. She also serves as a mental health specialist with the Los Angeles Office of Public Health, Maternal and Child Health Division and is the Director of the Louisiana Nurse Family Partnership (NFP) program, a statewide nurse home visitation program for first time, low-income mothers. As a certified instructor in the Nurses Child Assessment Satellite Training (NCAST), Parent-Child Interaction Feeding and Teaching Scales, and the Keys to Caregiving Program. Dr. Zeanah provides ongoing trainings in assessments and interventions.

VICTORIA JOHNSON, MA, LPCC, has been involved with early childhood programs for more than 20 years, both in service delivery and management. She has been a family therapist in both Michigan and New Mexico, and she is the founder of the First Born Program, a home visitation program for families parenting for the first time.  In 2002 First Born was named one of the nation's 10 most innovative and exemplary prevention programs by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and other collaborative national agencies.  The First Born Program is currently being replicated in three northern New Mexico counties.  The RAND Corporation is conducting a 10-year longitudinal evaluation of the replication projects.  Currently, Victoria is the Development Director for the replication projects.  Victoria lives in Silver City, New Mexico.