The Bernard L. Pacella, MD Parent Child Center

About Us: Our Staff

Program Coordinator

The Program Coordinator has long experience working with parents and children from infancy to two years. This person plays a crucial role in the programs as she engages with the parents as well as the babies and toddlers. She personally meets with all prospective group members with their child to answer any questions. She is the general coordinator of all the programs and interviews and selects externs.

Group Leader

The Parent Child Center is an educational program designed to help parents develop their parenting skills. The goal of the program is to inform parents about critical issues in child rearing and child development. The group leader, who is an expert in child development, facilitates discussion among the parents who discuss their children's development, behavior, activity, interactions at home, and the child's activity in the group. He or she provides general educational information about development as well as appropriate observations about individualized issues. Many parents and children develop friendships with the others in the groups. Group cohesion is an important factor.

Child Development Specialist

The Child Development Specialist engages the children and facilitates the play. She supervises the externs’ interactions with the children and acts as a liason between the babies/toddlers and their mothers during the group. She provides feedback about each child’s development and play.

Early Childhood Externs

The early childhood externs are students in various levels of study, usually leading to an advanced degree in a field of psychology or child development. They are closely supervised by the Child Develoment Specialist and participate in all staff conferences. They play and interact with the children and/or children and parents during the parent child groups. They observe the developmental levels of the children and the play and activities appropriate for young children.

Roster of Staff

Executive Committee
Director
Leon Hoffman, MD

Associate Directors
Anna Balas, MD
Roger A. Rahtz, MD
Lissa Weinstein, PhD

Program Coordinator
Alice Rosenman, MS, CSW

Senior Advisors
Patricia A. Nachman, PhD
Marlene Nunberg, PhD

Senior Professional Staff
Helene Keable, MD
Mary Sickles, MD

Professional Staff
Lisa Deutscher, MD
Ellen D. Glass, MD
Jason Gold, PhD
Kristine Lupi, CSW
Lois Mound, MD
Donna Smith, CSW
Beverly Stoute, MD

Research Division Director
Wilma S. Bucci, PhD

Program Administrator
Cheryl A. Williams, PsyD

Senior Research Scientist
Patricia A. Nachman, PhD

Consultants
Sylvia Brody, PhD
Eleanor Galenson, MD
Wendy Olesker, PhD
Bernard L. Pacella, MD
Arnold D. Richards, MD
Susan P. Sherkow, MD

Advisory Board
Lucy Daniels, PhD
  Writer and founder of
  Lucy Daniels Center for Early Childhood
Robert N. Emde, MD
  Professor of Psychiatry
  Univ. of Colo. Medical School
Ilene Sackler Lefcourt
  Director, Sackler Lefcourt Center for Child Development
Donald Rosenblitt, MD
  Director, Lucy Daniels
  Center for Early Childhood
Rebecca Shahmoon Shanok, CSW, PhD
  Director of Institute for Clinical
  Studies of Infants, Toddlers, and
  Families at JBFCS

Friends of the Parent Child Center
Development Committee Chair
Marlene Nunberg, PhD

Executive Board
Carol Abend
Eleanor Galenson, MD
Barbara Julius
Edith Meininger, MA
Marjorie Pfeffer, PhD
Roger Rahtz, MD
Ruth Streeter
Steven Wein, MD

Honorees of the Friends of the Parent Child Center

Arnold D. Richards, MD (Honored in 2003) for his generosity of spirit and mind
and his dedication to The Pacella Parent Child Center.

Bernard L. Pacella, MD (Honored in 2002) for helping children,
which has been the most significant part of his career as a
psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, dating back to writing
a text book on Child Psychiatry in the early 1940s.

Peter B. Neubauer, MD (Honored in 2001) for his many contributions to
psychoanalytic thinking about young children.

John McDevitt, MD (Honored in 2000) for his contributions to the integration of
Separation-Individuation theory and conflict theory in understanding
development in childhood.

Sylvia Brody, PhD (Honored in 1999) for her pioneering studies of mothers and
infants.

Eleanor Galenson, MD (Honored in 1998) for her central theoretical and clinical
contributions on early childhood

Erma Brenner (Honored in 1997) for her contributions to educating parents and
professionals on the importance of play for the child's development.