ABC - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Clinical and ITM Supervisor
Allison is a clinical and ITM Supervisor and ABC-Infant Parent Coach.
Allison has a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Psychology and has 20 plus years of experience working with families and children who have experienced abuse and neglect and are involved with the child welfare system. She has provided home based therapy to high risk families and children who are experiencing abuse and neglect, domestic violence, substance abuse, trauma, poverty, homelessness, and mental health issues. Allison has developed programs in several states for high risk families to prevent the re-occurrence of child maltreatment in which she has worked with biological, foster, and adoptive families as well as the court system, the school system, and community partners. In 2012, she became connected with the ABC program and is certified in the ABC Infant model, the ABC Toddler model, and as an ABC Clinical Supervisor. She now works primarily with the ABC program to provide clinical supervision to parent coaches in the ABC-Infant model. Allison has lived in all regions of the country and internationally but has resided in Hawaii for 12 years. Her clinical interests are childhood attachment, promoting safe and nurturing families, foster care, and the child welfare system.
Job Titles:
- Undergraduate Coordinator
Alyson is a Neuroscience Master's student at the University of Delaware in the Attachment & Biobehavioral Catch-Up Lab but joined the lab in 2021 as an undergraduate research assistant. She graduated from UD in 2023 with an Honors Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. In the ABC Lab, Alyson has led research visits with mABC participants and supervised undergraduates on the nurturance coding team. She has also worked closely on the DNA methylation coding and MRI quality checking team and will be Undergraduate Coordinator this coming school year.
Job Titles:
- Clinical and ITM Supervisor
Arantxa joined the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up supervisor team in August of 2021 as an ITM supervsior. Along side her work as an ITM supervisor at ABC, she is an Assistant Director for Youth Development in Foster Care, where she helps lead and ensure that the agency is meeting all developmental and educational needs for children the ages from 0-26 years old. She also wears the title as a Program Lead servicing children who have aged out of foster care with community resources and Life skills to navigate their goals. Lastly, she received an Honorary PHD from The American University For Global Peace for contributing to Global Peace World Wide.
Bernie Chen is a Clinical Science graduate student in the ABC lab. His research interests center around child-adolescent brain development, specifically using neuroimaging techniques to understand the development of emotion-cognition circuitries. He is also interested in how parent-child relationships influence youths' socio-emotional outcomes in adolescence and the strategies in which youths adapt to engage socially. Bernie graduated from Stony Brook University (SUNY) in 2019 with a Bachelor's of Science in Psychology.
Job Titles:
- Clinical and ITM Supervisor
Bo-Ram Kim, Ph.D., is a supervisor and trainer in the Attachment & Biobehavioral Catch-up dissemination team. Bo received her doctoral and master's degrees in Human Development and Family Studies from Pennsylvania State University, and her bachelor's degree in Psychology from Oberlin College. Her primary interests are the emotional quality of parent-child relationships during early childhood, the relations between infant attachment and later emotion regulation capabilities, and attachment-based interventions. Bo moved home to South Korea in 2019 but maintained her role with ABC, crucially training and supervising parent coaches in time zones in other hemispheres.
Job Titles:
- Clinical and ITM Supervisor
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Youth Law Center 's Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives
Carole Shauffer became Youth Law Center's Senior Director, Strategic Initiatives in 2012 after serving as Executive Director since 1994, and before that, as a Staff Attorney since 1981. Carole's work has focused on improving outcomes for foster youth through developing better services for infants and young children in the child welfare system, working with faith communities to provide support and services for at-risk youth, and reducing the use of shelter care for foster youth, particularly for infants and toddlers.
Cassie Cheeseman is a project coordinator in the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up Lab. She graduated summa cum laude in 2020 from the College of the Holy Cross with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Neuroscience. As an undergraduate, she was a member of the Division I Women's Soccer team and served as a research assistant at UMASS Medical School and at Holy Cross in the Paxson Lab. Cassie is interested in learning how chronic stressors that occur during childhood may affect brain development and the onset of psychopathologies later in life.
Charles H. Zeanah, Jr. is the Mary Peters Sellars Polchow Chair in Psychiatry and serves as Vice Chair for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, and Director of the Institute for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health at the Tulane University School of Medicine. He received his bachelor's degree in English and his M.D. from Tulane University. He completed a pediatric internship at the University of Virginia, a residency in general psychiatry at Duke University, and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry and a research fellowship at Stanford University.
Throughout his career, Dr. Zeanah has studied the effects of adverse early experiences, including trauma, abuse, and neglect on young children's development. He has been a leader in infant mental health, exploring attachment and attachment disorders in conditions of extreme risk. He also has studied interventions designed to enhance recovery following exposure to adverse experiences and has published widely on these topics. With fellow Ruane recipients Drs. Nelson and Fox, he has explored the effects of severe early deprivation on brain and behavioral development in the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, and is co-author of Romania's Abandoned Children: Deprivation, Brain Development and the Struggle for Recovery (Harvard University Press, 2014).
Dr. Zeanah has won numerous awards, including the Irving Phillips Award for Prevention (2006) and the Norbert and Charlotte Rieger Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement (2016) from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Blanche F. Ittelson Award for Research in Child Psychiatry (2009) and the Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for Prevention (2015) from the American Psychiatric Association, and the Serge Lebovici Award (2010) from the World Association for Infant Mental Health.
Chloe started providing ITM Supervision for the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up Lab in 2022 during her senior year at The University of Delaware. In May 2023, she then graduated with an Honors Bachelors of Arts in Psychology, along with minors in Neuroscience and Sociology. She is continuing her studies by pursuing a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology at Roosevelt University, with an interest in working with children and families, as well as uplifting diverse communities.
Christiana joined the Infant Caregiver Project as a Clinical Science graduate student in the summer of 2017. Prior to joining the lab, she received her BS in Psychology and Biology at Gettysburg College and worked at the National Institute of Nursing Research, where she studied epigenetic factors associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury. She is interested in biological correlates (DNA methylation, gene expression) and developmental trajectories of children affected by relational trauma and neglect, particularly children who have experienced institutional care and disrupted parent-child relationships.
Christopher is an undergraduate Psychology student at the University of Delaware. He joined the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up lab in the spring of 2023 as an undergraduate research assistant and ITM supervisor. In the lab, Chris assists with neuroimaging during research visits and supervises parent coaches on their in the moment commenting. He is also a member of the MRI quality check team, and is working towards his level 2 MRI safety certification. Chris hopes to eventually go to grad school and further his academic studies.
Dani Katz a Clinical Science graduate student in the ABC lab and is interested in the influence of the caregiving environment on infant neurological and socio-emotional development within at-risk populations. Prior to joining the ABC lab, she was the lab manager of the Ziama Arkin Infancy Institute at the Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, where she studied the effects of perinatal maternal mental health and mother-infant relationships on infant development throughout the first year of life. Dani graduated from the University of Maryland in 2016 with a Bachelor's of Science in Psychology and a minor in Neurosciences.
Job Titles:
- Undergraduate Coordinator
Daria is a Neuroscience master's student in the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up Lab, but joined the lab in the fall of 2021 as an undergraduate research assistant. She graduated from the University of Delaware in 2023 with a Honors Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience with a minor in Disability Studies. For the 2023-24 school year, Daria will be one of the Undergraduate Coordinators in the lab. Her interests include child-adolescent brain development and how adversity affects mental health trajectories.
Job Titles:
- Research Associate
- Research Associate for the Attachment & Biobehavioral Catch - Up Lab
Elisa is a research associate for the Attachment & Biobehavioral Catch-Up Lab, but joined the lab in 2021 as a research assistant. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Delaware in 2022 with an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with Distinction, with minors in Disability Studies and Medical Social Services. She is interested in how early adverse experiences can impact the neurobiological and psychopathological development of children and adolescents.
Job Titles:
- Clinical and ITM Supervisor
Emily Freedman began working with the Infant Caregiver Project team in 2014 as an undergraduate student. She has continued her role as a research assistant, working with the dissemination team and helping out with database programming. Emily received her B.A. in Spanish and B.S. in Cognitive Science from the University of Delaware, and is currently continuing her education in graduate school at Temple University to receive a Masters in Speech Language Pathology.
Job Titles:
- Manager of Fidelity Supervision for the ABC Implementation
Evan is a Manager of Fidelity Supervision for the ABC Implementation team. He first began with ABC as an undergraduate research assistant in 2019, and joined the ABC dissemination team after graduating college in 2021. On the ABC team, Evan provides ITM and clinical supervision to parent coaches, trains and supports ITM supervisors, and oversees various administrative tasks. Evan is interested in parental mental health, trauma, and understanding how such things are influenced by systemic barriers and oppression. Evan is passionate about delivering clinical services in a person-centered and culturally humble manner. Evan is planning to pursue a masters in social work in 2024.
Hailey joined the ABC supervisor team in January 2020 and has also served as an ABC parent coach. Alongside her work with ABC, Hailey is a licensed Marriage & Family Therapist - Associate and private practice owner in Texas, specializing in parent-child therapy.
Haylee Jansen joined the Attachment & Biobehavioral Catch-up lab in her fall semester of sophomore year as an undergraduate research assistant. She has trained since then with In the Moment coding techniques, and she recently became an ITM supervisor in January of 2020. Haylee has since provided fidelity supervision to parent coaches, and she will be working this year along her peers as a Lead undergraduate research assistant. She looks forward to graduating in the spring with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology and a minor in Human Development & Family Sciences. Haylee aims to continue her education in graduate school next fall and receive her Master's in Social Work.
Honorable William L. Chapman, Jr. earned with law degree from the Georgetown University Law center and currently is the Chief Diversity Officer, Director of Pro Bono Services and Senior Counsel at the Potter Anderson: Delaware Law Firm. At Potter Anderson, he leads the firm's diversity and inclusion initiatives while spearheading the firm's pro bono program and commitment to community outreach, including mentoring associates in connection with these programs. Prior to joining the firm, Judge Chapman served as a Family Court judge for the state of Delaware. He also served as Deputy Attorney General for the Delaware Department of Justice.
In 2007, Jennifer Rodriguez joined the Youth Law Center (YLC), a national public interest law firm that has worked for 4 decades to transform foster care and juvenile justice systems so every child and youth can thrive, and has served as Executive Director since 2012. Jennifer is the recipient of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform Janet Reno Women's Leadership Award, the Juvenile Law Center's Leadership Prize, and was recognized in 2021 as a federal Children's Bureau Champion for her national impact in transforming foster care to support families.
Job Titles:
- Clinical and ITM Supervisor
Job Titles:
- Clinical and ITM Supervisor
Job Titles:
- Clinical and ITM Supervisor
JoAnna is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in both Minnesota and Ohio. She joined the ABC team in September 2019 as a Clinical and ITM supervisor and has experience as an ABC parent coach. Her experiences include providing reflective supervision, providing therapy that focuses on supporting and strengthening the parent-child relationship, and training in other evidence-based and trauma-informed interventions. She received her M.A. in Community Counseling from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Julianne became involved with the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up lab in 2014 as an undergraduate research assistant. Following her graduation from the University of Delaware with an Honors B.A. in Psychology in 2016, she worked as a Clinical Subjects Coordinator at the University of Michigan for a few years before returning to school in 2020 to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Louisiana State University, specializing in the assessment and treatment of childhood conduct disorders. Julianne was delighted to rejoin the ABC team in 2023 as an ITM supervisor.
Job Titles:
- Clinical and ITM Supervisor
Katie Rosch Hegedus is the Attachment & Biobehavioral Catch-up Lab Project Manager overseeing the research projects. On the modified ABC (mABC) study for mothers using opioids or other substances during pregnancy, Katie leads the recruitment efforts, is a newborn ABC parent coach and research visit lead. Katie is part of the ABC Dissemination Leadership team and is a one-to-one fidelity supervisor. She joined the ABC lab in 2022. Past positions include leadership and project roles across the nonprofit, education, social services, healthcare and engineering sectors. Katie received her bachelor's of science degree in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University. She is a long-time resident of Newark, Delaware, where the ABC lab is located, mother of two sons and grandmother of 2 amazing grandsons!
Job Titles:
- Project Coordinator
- Project Coordinator for the Attachment
Kelsey is a project coordinator for the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up Lab, but first joined as a research associate in March of 2022. She graduated summa cum laude from Temple University in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and minor in Communication Studies. In the ABC Lab, Kelsey leads research visits and parenting sessions with mABC participants and is also a part of the play coding team. She looks forward to learning more about child development during her time in the lab.
Job Titles:
- Director of Site Implementation and Contract Manager
Job Titles:
- Manager of Program Evaluation
Kirsten McLaughlin, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Delaware's Psychology and Brain Sciences Department and the Manager of Program Evaluation for on the Attachment Biobehavioral Catch-up Implementation team. Dr. McLaughlin received her doctoral and master's degrees in Developmental Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Family Science from the University of Maryland. Her research is guided by the evidence that 1) early life experiences have long lasting effects on child health and development and 2) both the biological mechanisms underlying development and the broader sociocultural contexts in which women and children are embedded will inform promising mitigation strategies. She is particularly interested in understanding how adverse conditions in early childhood can lead to persisting changes in a variety of metabolic, physiological, and structural factors that influence the development of self-regulatory behaviors and how caregiver behaviors may mitigate or exasperate these effects. As part of the ABC Implementation team, Dr. McLaughlin is an active ITM Supervisor, engages in implementation research, trains staff in behavioral coding of parenting behaviors, and leads program evaluation efforts.
Maia is an undergraduate Psychology student at the University of Delaware. She joined the Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up lab in the spring of 2023 as an ITM supervisor. In the lab, Maia assists with several coding tasks and supervises parent coaches on their in the moment commenting. She also takes part in research visits, either as a visit assistant to conduct tasks like ASA or as "the stranger" in the stranger activity. Maia eventually wants to attend graduate school and further her academic studies in the field of psychology.
Mallory received her undergraduate degrees in Biology and Psychology from Bloomsburg University, her Master's degree in Clinical Psychology from West Chester University, and her Ph.D in Psychology from the University of Delaware. She is broadly interested in how poverty and other forms of early adversity impact child development and family functioning.
Maria joined the ABC lab in the spring of 2018 as an undergraduate research assistant. She joined the dissemination team that same year and became an ITM supervisor in August 2020. She has also supported other undergraduate students at the lab as a lead research assistant. She received her Bachelor of Science with Distinction in Psychology and a minor in Public Health from the University of Delaware in 2019. She is now pursuing a Masters of Public Health from George Washington University.
Marta is a doctoral student in the clinical science program at the University of Delaware. Her research focuses on the short- and long-term effects of enhanced parenting on the neural, behavioral, cognitive, and physiological (cortisol regulation) outcomes of adversity-exposed infants and adolescents. Marta uses structural and functional MRI, EEG, and behavioral methods to understand how parenting interventions can promote resilience among infants who were exposed to opioids in-utero and adolescents with a history of Child Protective Services involvement.
Job Titles:
- Manager of Implementation Research
Regina Fasano, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Delaware's Psychology and Brain Sciences Department and the Manger of Implementation Research for the Attachment Biobehavioral Catch-up Implementation team. Dr. Fasano received both her Ph.D. and Master's degree in Developmental Psychology from the University of Miami in 2023. Prior to attending graduate school, she received her Bachelor of Science in psychology from the University of Scranton in 2018. Her research interests have included early childhood social, cognitive, language, and linguistic development, with a particular focus on children with developmental disabilities, including autism. These interests have transformed into questions of how early intervention can help children's social and cognitive development, and how such interventions and outcomes may differ for children with and without developmental disabilities. As part of the implementation team, she oversees the screening process for new potential ABC coaches, is an active ITM supervisor, and the Manager of Implementation Research.
Job Titles:
- ITM Supervisor
- Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Silvia Rodriguez is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist in Mexico (3855126-5170038) and a Licensed Couple and Family Therapist in California (140212). She holds a Graduate Certificate in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health from the University of Minnesota. She is a certified ABC Infant and Early Childhood parent coach and ITM supervisor, working with the University of Delaware and the University of Minnesota in the ABC fidelity program.
Job Titles:
- Graduate Student
- Lab As a Project Coordinator
Tabitha joined the ABC Lab as a project coordinator in the fall of 2018 and as a Clinical Science graduate student in the fall of 2020. Prior to joining the lab, she received her B.S. in Child Psychology and a minor in French Studies at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. She is interested in using multi-method approaches to study how adverse experiences may influence the development of regulatory and neurobiological systems and how sensitive caregiving may serve as a protective factor from chronic childhood stress.
Tracey's focus as First Lady is to support efforts that, in a foundational way, help give children a chance to succeed. With funding and operational support from Casey Family Programs, she coordinates those efforts under the umbrella of the First Chance Delaware initiative. First Chance has three pillars - ending childhood hunger in Delaware; promoting early language skills; and advancing effective recognition of, and response to, childhood trauma. Tracey seeks to use the convening and outreach powers of the First Lady's office to bring organizations together to work collaboratively toward those goals.
"When kids and their families face foundational challenges, each adversity deepens all of the others in a geometric - and often generational - erosion of opportunity," Tracey has said. "So to be effective-and to be efficient- the efforts to alleviate those challenges must also be interconnected and mutually reinforcing." Tracey likens the coordinated approach of First Chance to the collaborative Family Services Cabinet Council, revived by Governor John Carney when he took office.
A month after becoming First Lady of Delaware, Tracey left her job as a senior administrator at Wilmington Friends after 15 years at the School. Previously, Tracey had worked for 15 years on the staff of then-Senator Joe Biden-both in the District Office in Wilmington, Delaware, and on the Judiciary Committee staff during Senator Biden's term as chairman.
A proud native Delawarean, Tracey was born at the Dover Air Force Base and grew up in New Castle. She has a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors and received the Ronald J. Caridi Memorial Award for scholarship. Tracey and John are the grateful parents of two grown sons.
Tracey's focus as First Lady of Delaware is to support efforts that, in a foundational way, help give children a chance to succeed. With funding and operational support from Casey Family Programs, she coordinates those efforts under the umbrella of the First Chance Delaware initiative. First Chance has three pillars - ending childhood hunger in Delaware; promoting early language skills toward healthy brain development and school readiness; and advancing effective recognition of, and response to, childhood trauma. Tracey seeks to use the convening and outreach powers of the First Lady's office to bring organizations together to work collaboratively toward those goals.
Job Titles:
- Director of Training
- Director of Training for Attachment
Vinaya Rajan, Ph.D., is Director of Training for Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up. In this role, she oversees the implementation of ABC as an evidence-based intervention across national and international partner organizations. Dr. Rajan received her Ph.D. in Developmental and Biological Psychology from Virginia Tech and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cognitive science and education from the University of Delaware. Her research interests are in infant and early childhood cognitive and socioemotional development. She is particularly interested in understanding early experiential and biological influences on the development of self-regulation and the ways in which self-regulation can be cultivated through parent-child interactions. She is committed to ABC's mission to meaningfully improve the trajectories of vulnerable families because all children deserve a supportive, nurturing, and sensitive environment in which to grow and thrive.
Job Titles:
- HR Coordinator and Manager of Fidelity Supervision