LUCY DANIELS CENTER - Key Persons
Allie Rella joined the Lucy Daniels Center in 2022. Allie has professional experience working with children, adolescents and families in outpatient, residential, and school settings. Her areas of expertise and interest include childhood trauma, attachment difficulties, anxiety, adoption and working with children in foster care.
Ashley McCormick has been working as a clinician in the Family Guidance Service at Lucy Daniels Center for the better part of two decades. Before joining Lucy Daniels Center, Ashley worked with youth involved in the juvenile justice system, with children/teens and parents in an outpatient therapy clinic, and with adults in an inpatient unit. She has trained with the Psychoanalytic Education Center of the Carolinas for a number of courses. Special areas of interest include: treating issues related to trauma, adoption, grief, and attachment; treating adolescents and emerging adults; and, working with clients in intensive treatment.
Blakely Barker is a senior social work intern from Meredith College. She will complete her BSW and will graduate on May 13th, 2023. She will then continue her education at Virginia Commonwealth University to earn her MSW and become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. Blakely has a deep passion for working with kids and Lucy Daniels Center has had a huge impact on her life. She hopes to move back to North Carolina in the future and work as a licensed clinical social worker in the classroom at LDC.
Brittany Fischer is a clinician in the Family Guidance Service and a graduate of the Smith College School for Social Work. Brittany's clinical interests include anxiety, trauma, attachment, grief and loss, and relational psychodynamic child therapy. Brittany is eager to build upon her previous clinical experience working with parents and youth to foster greater emotional wellness for children and families in the Triangle area.
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- Member / President / CEO, Carolina Donor Services
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- Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Chairman / Principal, Financial & IT Consulting
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- Member / Psychoanalyst / Former E.D., the New School in the Heights
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- Member / Account Executive, Amazon
Dr. Adrian J. Mack, PhD, MBA is a business developer, strategist, business operator, and transdisciplinary academic with a background in social impact. He currently works at Amazon as an Account Executive. Dr. Mack regularly publishes and speaks about his research focused on media, technology, and society through a diversity, equity, and inclusion framework. Adrian is an adjunct professor at Southern New Hampshire University and serves as a DEI consultant and government contracts and grants consultant. He has experience in both the public and private sectors, including the Department of Defense, K-12 independent schools, nonprofits, and tech startups. Adrian serves in advisory roles for different startups and community organizations, such as NASA's Astrophysics Division's Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Council. He has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia, a Master of Arts from Duke University, a Master of Arts from Liberty University, a PhD from the California Institute of Integral Studies, and an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology. Adrian's wife is an educator for Wake County Public Schools.
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- Associate
- Clinical Director
Dr. Allison Ballew's doctoral studies emphasized clinical psychology and child and adolescent development. She completed an internship at Vanderbilt University Hospital's division of child and adolescent psychiatry and her post-doctoral training in community mental health. Dr. Ballew joined the Lucy Daniels Center in 2007. Her areas of expertise and interest include childhood anxiety and depression, adoption, play therapy, and parent guidance.
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- Juntos Coordinator and Professor
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- Emeritus Member of the Lucy Daniels Board of Directors
- Emeritus / Member
- Writer and Clinical Psychologist
Today, our dedicated team continues the work that Lucy Daniels embarked upon in 1989. Here are a few things that make us unique!
Dr. Lucy Daniels is a writer and clinical psychologist based in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1989, she founded the Lucy Daniels Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering emotional and creative freedom through education, outreach and psychoanalytic treatment and research; and the Lucy Daniels Center for Early Childhood, which uses psychoanalytic principles to promote the emotional development of young children and their parents.
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- Leadership Expert and Coach
- Member / CEO & Founder, the Limitless Lady LLC
Dr. Mary Hemphill is a leadership expert and coach, K-12 educator and administrator, author, and motivational speaker. She holds a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from North Carolina A&T State University and currently teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. With over fifteen years of professional experience as a teacher, administrator, state director, and university professor, Mary understands the importance of fusing education, empowerment, and leadership together as she works with learning and working communities and speaks to audiences across the country.
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- Psychiatrist
- Division of Medical Services - Founding Clinical / Executive Director 1991 - 2019
Dr. Rosenblitt is a child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and the founding Clinical and Executive Director of the Lucy Daniels Center. In August 2019, Dr. Rosenblitt retired from his position of 27 years as Executive and Clinical Director and transitioned into his new role as Director of Medical Services, where he will continue his vital life's work of serving children and families through in-depth evaluation and treatment and leading Lucy Daniel's Center Psychiatric services.
Don has published, taught and led workshops on subjects ranging from "Trauma in Early Childhood" and "Aggression in Early Childhood" to "Preparing the Young Child Socially and Emotionally for Elementary School" and "Treatment of Young Children with ADHD." He has served on numerous local, state and national boards including the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas, the Board of Directors of the John Rex Endowment, and the Wake County Young Child Mental Health Initiative.
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- Elementary School Teacher
Ms. Hampton joined Lucy Daniels School in 2018 with over 17 years of experience working with young children. Many of those years were spent working in Early Intervention as a Developmental Therapist, assisting children with social interactions as well as early learning skills. Beth enjoys meeting children where they are and understanding their perspective, helping them overcome obstacles to their learning and achieve mastery in ways that feel good to them.
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- in 2021 As a Family Guidance Counselor
- School Music Teacher
Erica Dossa joined the Lucy Daniels Center in 2021 as a Family Guidance Counselor and School Clinician. She is a graduate of Smith School for Social Work and has over a decade of professional experience working with youth and families. Erica's clinical interests include attachment, grief and loss, trauma, and relational child therapy. She finds joy in supporting children and their caregivers with a variety of issues.
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- Lead Therapeutic Teacher and Early School Teacher
Ms. Haga joined Lucy Daniels School in 1999 and brings over 25 years of teaching experience to our teaching team, many of which have been spent working with children with special needs. Jennifer finds great personal reward in helping families overcome social and emotional obstacles and guiding children as they adjust to school. She is particularly skilled in the areas of early development, attachment and separation, and helping children feel comfortable in school.
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- Director of Education
- Member of the Leadership Team
Ms. Reid has been teaching and working with children since 2000, beginning as a Montessori teacher of children ages three to six. Jennifer joined Lucy Daniels School in 2005 and taught in the preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school classrooms before moving into an administrative and leadership role. Her areas of interest and expertise include therapeutic teaching and using a psychodynamic understanding of development to help children reach their highest potential as learners and members of a group.
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- Member / Associate Director of Accounting & Finance Recruiting, Vaco
John is an Associate Director on Vaco Raleigh's Accounting & Finance direct hire recruiting team. As a CPA with 8 years of tax experience in public accounting, this former Upstate New York native uses his knowledge and passion about people to help candidates find their dream accounting and finance roles. John takes pride in partnering with his clients and candidates to help them achieve long-term success. Outside of work, John is very active in the fitness world and enjoys exploring new Raleigh restaurants and coffee shops.
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- Elementary School Teacher
Ms. Halliday holds a State of Maine Special Education Teaching License for K-8 and had several years of experience working with children with autism spectrum disorders and learning disabilities prior to joining Lucy Daniels School in 2019. Katie is passionate about working with students who have behavioral, social, and emotional needs, engaging them in the classroom to help them become successful and productive students.
Job Titles:
- Administrative Staff Member
- Office Manager
Kelly Bruscia joined the Lucy Daniels Center in 2014 bringing with her a wealth of administrative and early childhood education experience. Prior to her career at the Lucy Daniels Center, she worked at the YMCA and Montessori School.
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- Member of the Resources Team
- Program Consultant, Telamon
Kristina Wrenn joined the Lucy Daniels Center team in 2023 and serves as the Program Consultant for Telamon Head Start; she supports and promotes healthy mental wellness for staff, children, and families of the program. Kristina has nine years of experience in the field of Early Childhood Education. She has a master's degree in Early Childhood Intervention and Family Support from UNC-Chapel Hill. She has had experience in Head Start as a teacher, home visitor, and mentor coach to teachers. Additionally, Kristina has had experience as a Special Education teacher in a developmental delay classroom, as well as experience supervising and supporting teachers in Early Care. Kristina's expertise includes inclusion, early intervention, supporting the social and emotional development of children, partnering with parents, as well as training and mentoring early childhood educators.
Leah Mlyn joined the SecurePath team in 2021 after receiving her MSW at Smith College School for Social Work. Leah's clinical interests include relational psychotherapy, trauma theory, and working with grief and loss. Using play therapy and a strengths-based approach, Leah finds joy in working with children and caregivers. She speaks English and Spanish.
Lizzie joined SecurePath in 2019. A graduate of Smith School for Social Work, she is a trained Circle of Security Parenting facilitator and is working toward certification in Child Parent Psychotherapy. Lizzie supports children and caregivers through play therapy and psychodynamic and attachment-based approaches. She recognizes that a person's well-being is shaped by individual, interpersonal, and societal influences, and aims to listen carefully to the ways clients have been affected by issues related to racial identity, social class, documentation status, gender, sexuality, religion, age, physical and cognitive ability and so on. Her work is also informed by her daily mindfulness practice. Lizzie provides services in both English and Spanish.
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- Member / Partner / Attorney, Jordan Price Wall Gray Jones and Carlton, PLLC
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- Administrative Assistant
- Administrative Staff Member
- Receptionist
Lori Koncz joined the Lucy Daniels Center in 2023 bringing with her more than 20 years of administrative and Early Childhood experience to her role. A few favorite past experiences were working with YMCA Y-Learning Program and working with children of all ages in daycare and preschool. Lori regularly dedicates time to serving and supporting the community. In her spare time, she likes to spend time with her husband, three children, two grandchildren, and many fur babies.
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- Member / Global HR Director, ThermoFischer Scientific
Prachi Desai is responsible for defining and implementing talent and workplace strategy across multiple geographies globally. Prachi is a Business-focused HR leader recognized for providing integrated HR solutions that drive profitable growth, enhanced productivity, and positive change. She also serves on the African Heritage Business Resource Group. She has over 20 years of experience driving successful change, growth, and innovation across complex and global organizations in the Life Sciences, Agriculture Supply Chain, and Banking industries. She has led large-scale transformational agenda in acquisition, ramp-up, turnaround, and integration environments. Prachi has demonstrated success in aligning HR strategy with business goals resulting in stronger leaders, deeper succession plans, engaged employees, and a healthy corporate culture. She has a Master's degree in human resources from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. In addition to serving the Lucy Daniel Center's board, Prachi has been volunteering at Green Hope Elementary School as a Science Olympiad Head Coach to instill a passion for STEM education in elementary students.
Sara Rubin joined Lucy Daniels Center as a SecurePath Clinician in 2019. Prior to joining the SecurePath team, Sara worked intensively with homeless and formerly homeless adults as a Social Worker with the Center for Urban Community Services in New York City. Although her work was extremely rewarding, she saw first hand the lasting effects in adults when attachment, safety, security and other basic needs have not been met in childhood. Sara Rubin became committed to childhood early intervention and attachment therapy and is extremely passionate and dedicated to the children she serves through her work at Lucy Daniels Center.
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- Administrative Staff Member
- Administrator, Farley - Manning Family Guidance Service
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- Co - Owner & Chief Consulting Officer of Mattingly Solutions
Sertrice Grice is Co-Owner & Chief Consulting Officer of Mattingly Solutions, a woman-owned diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consulting firm. Co-Author of Inclusalytics, How Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leaders Use Data to Drive Their Work, Sertrice is passionate about helping organizations use metrics to create data-driven DEI strategies that drive meaningful change. She serves clients through DEI executive advising, DEI measurement consulting, and building/delivering inclusive behavioral change solutions. Sertrice also makes time to give back to the community through various board positions and volunteer roles. Sertrice has her M.S. in Industrial Organizational Psychology and is currently located in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Balcazar is a native Peruvian and holds a law degree from Peru's Catholic University. He obtained his master's degree in cooperation and development, with a concentration in immigration studies. Most of his career has been focused on human rights and social justice work.
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- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director of Medical Services
- Director of Medical Services / Doctor of Medicine, American University of Antigua
Dr. Kunaparaju has always been deeply intrigued with the mind and finished her psychiatry training at Cooper University Hospital in New Jersey before completing a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Duke University. She was drawn to North Carolina for its beautiful outdoors and moderate climate where she loves hiking and playing badminton. Currently, her career interests include prevention, psychoanalysis, mindfulness and education. Dr. Kunaparaju is excited and grateful for an opportunity to be on staff at Lucy Daniels Center and is looking forward to her role as the Medical Director.
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- Member of the Resources Team
- Project Director, Circle of Security Parenting™ Program
Stephanie Timpe joined Lucy Daniels Center in 2018 to direct the implementation of the Circle of Security Parenting™ program in pilot locations in Early Head Start centers. She provides reflective consultation for COSP facilitators across the state through our expanded work with the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas. As a counselor and coach, Stephanie is committed to supporting programs that promote secure attachment and healthy family relationships. She is focused on boosting well-being by improving developmental pathways of children, strengthening caregiver skills, and coaching practitioners to effectively serve families.
Stephany Mejia joined Lucy Daniels Center as a SecurePath Clinician in 2019. Stephany is passionate about children's mental health, trauma treatment and somatic work to address trauma symptoms. She is also interested in continued work with marginalized populations in the mental health field. Stephany completed a specialization year internship at El Futuro, A community mental health agency in Durham, North Carolina serving Latinx families, and individuals. At El Futuro, she provided individual psychotherapy using evidence-based practices while applying a culturally relevant, and sensitive lens as a bilingual and bicultural practitioner. Stephany co-facilitated Trauma Center, Trauma Sensitive Yoga groups on a weekly basis in Spanish and used standardized measures to monitor clients stress, anxiety and depression scores.
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- Elementary School Teacher
Ms. Dugan has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology with a concentration in Clinical Psychology. She spent three years doing community outreach, focusing specifically on literacy development with at-risk youth in the Wake County Public School System. She was a kindergarten teacher for two years before joining Lucy Daniels School in 2018. Taylor has a strong interest in behavioral and social-emotional development and its impact on learning and a passion to help students become successful in all aspects of their education.
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- Secretary of the Board of Directors
- Secretary / Director of Partnership, Dynamic Videocasting
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- Associate Executive Director
- Member of the Leadership Team
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- Member of the Board of Directors
- Facilities
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- Treasurer of the Board of Directors