The Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program at the UC Davis MIND Institute is dedicated to training future leaders in the field of neurodevelopmental disabilities. Our interdisciplinary team of faculty, clinicians, researchers, and community advocates work collaboratively to provide high-quality education, mentorship, and hands-on experience to LEND trainees.
Through a diverse range of expertise, our team is committed to advancing knowledge, promoting inclusive practices, and improving the lives of individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. Get to know the dedicated professionals who make the LEND program a success.
Program Director
Janice Enriquez is the Northern California LEND Training Director. She is a licensed clinical psychologist within the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Section at the MIND Institute who conducts developmental evaluations with infants and children to identify neurodevelopmental concerns related to intellectual and learning disabilities, autism, ADHD, and related mental health concerns. She currently provides training to medical residents and fellows on diagnostic assessment of infants and children, and supervises a clinical psychology internship program. Past and current clinical and research interests pertain to the identification of developmental delay in infants at high risk due to medical conditions, neuropsychological and behavioral functioning of children diagnosed with neurodevelopmental and genetic conditions, evaluation and treatment of developmental and socioemotional concerns related to child abuse, evidence based assessment and treatment of childhood concerns (PCIT, CBT, Triple P-developmental disabilities and health disparities.
Program Manager
Kelly Heung is the Program Manager for the Northern California Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) training program at the UC Davis MIND Institute. She received her Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of California, Davis. Past research interests include regression in autism and the effectiveness of applied behavior analysis on self-stimulatory behaviors. She has been a researcher and project coordinator for different studies at the MIND Institute examining social relationships in school-aged children with autism, the development of speech in nonverbal preschool children, and the epidemiology of autism in California. She is an active volunteer with the Davis Joint Unified School District and sits on several committees including the Davis Parent University, DJUSD Strategic Planning Committee, Superintendent Parent Advisory Committee, and the Davis Schools Foundation Board.
Program Coordinator
Olivia Wrisley is the Program Coordinator for the LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities) CEDD (Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities), RISE-UP and MINDGAP programs. She received her Bachelors of Theater Arts from Gonzaga University and spent five years in teaching roles at alternative learning schools. Olivia has a passion for helping people understand and empathize with the world around them and believes that theater and kindness are some of the best tools for this. She is eager to contribute to the joy and dedication she has found at the MIND Institute.
Discipline Director and Community Placement Coordinator
Vanessa Avila-Pons is the Project Manager and Play Based Team Leader for the TADPOLE Study at the MIND Institute. She assists with the management of the TADPOLE study by providing oversight to research protocols, training, and supervising lab staff professionals and paraprofessionals carrying out the ESDM. Her primary responsibilities and duties pertain to her role as team leader overseeing the program development, case supervision, direct treatment delivery, and parent coaching of children receiving the Play Based treatment within the TADPOLE Project. Vanessa is also a certified therapist, parent coach, and senior trainer of the Early Start Denver Model. Her clinical experience also includes the use Cognitive Behavioral therapy and family therapy for adults and families with emphasis on assessment and treatment of Latino clients. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and received her Master's degree from Santa Clara University.
Discipline Director for Psychiatry
Anu Gupta completed her training in general psychiatry at the University of South Dakota. She completed her fellowship in Child and Adolescent psychiatry at UC Davis Medical Center, where she is now a clinical faculty member with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Her clinic and academic interests include infant mental health, neurodevelopmental disabilities, and medical education.
Program Associate Director
Aubyn Stahmer is a Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the UC Davis MIND Institute. She received her Ph.D. at UC San Diego and has spent her research career developing and testing interventions for young children with autism, developing integrated toddler day programs, testing improvements in public school classrooms that support children with autism, and conducting dissemination and implementation studies of empirically supported treatments in community settings. She is a licensed psychologist and a board-certified behavior analyst with expertise in Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT), and Early Start Denver Model, and a wide range of other interventions as well. She is widely considered to be one of the most experienced intervention researchers in autism, with a host of publications and a recently published text on use of PRT in public school settings with children with autism.
Clinical Placement and Interdisciplinary Clinic Coordinator
Carrie Silver is licensed clinical psychologist at the UC Davis MIND Institute. Her interests include diagnostic assessment of neurodevelopmental and mental health concerns in children. She also has specialized training in providing evidenced based therapy with at risk youth including those with a history of trauma and co-morbid neurodevelopmental disabilities. These include Parent Child Interaction Therapy, PC-CARE and Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
Discipline Director for Nursing
Charleen Singh is an assistant clinical professor in the clinical programs at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. She has a strong pediatrics background and teaches primarily in the family nurse practitioner and Master’s Entry Program in Nursing. She is part-time faculty member who also teaches at the San Jose State University School of Nursing Wound Ostomy program and is a co-director and co-founder of the program.
Singh earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Degree from University of British Columbia in 1997. She then completed the wound ostomy continence program at Emory University in 2009, followed by a Master of Science in Nursing at the University of Phoenix in 2010. She completed the University of Phoenix nurse practitioner program in 2012 and earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Healthcare Services from Walden University in 2017 and an MBA in 2021.
Having spent much of her nursing practice focused on pediatrics at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, she helped develop best practices in pediatric wound and ostomy care. Singh also focused on pediatrics for her doctoral work. She has collaborated with children’s hospitals across the country in developing best practices and research for pediatric pressure injury prevention.
Discipline Director for Speech-Language Pathology
Heather L. Thompson, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is an associate professor and coordinator for the speech-language pathology assistant program in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at California State University, Sacramento. Her line of research is focused in the areas of developmental speech and language disorders. She has a specific interest in examining speech and language outcomes in children with cleft palate and developmental syndromes of Ras/MAPK pathway dysregulation. She is the principle investigator of research projects in the areas of dysphagia, interprofessional education, neurofibromatosis, and cleft palate. She also is part of the Response Evaluation in Neurofibromatosis and Schwannomatosis International Collaboration and serves as co-leader of the Patient Reported Outcomes Working Group. She serves as volunteer clinical faculty in the Department of Otolaryngology at UC Davis and participates on the professional advisory board for the Costello Syndrome Family Network.
Discipline Director for Special Education
Jean Gonsier-Gerdin is a tenured Professor in the Departments of Teaching Credentials and Graduate and Professional Studies in Education at California State University, Sacramento. She teaches courses in legal and social foundations of inclusive education, collaborative program planning, positive behavioral supports, evidence-based practices for students with autism and dual diagnoses, and other Masters courses. She also coordinates the M.A. in Education, Special Education concentration program and supervises student teachers. Jean is an active member of the Board of Directors of TASH, an international disability advocacy organization, and of Cal-TASH.
Discipline Director for Genetics
Joseph Shen, M.D., Ph.D., is in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Genomic Medicine at UC Davis as an Associate Clinical Professor. He has interests and has published broadly throughout the genetics field including in molecular genetics, clinical genetics, inborn errors of metabolism, genetic counseling, dysmorphology, and laboratory genetics variant interpretation. He comes to UC Davis and the MIND Institute to initiate clinical and molecular research into CNKSR2-related neurodevelopmental and seizure disorder.
Discipline Director for Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics
Kathy Angkustsiri is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. She is Program Director of the MCHB Developmental Behavioral Pediatric Fellowship Program and Medical Director of the 22q Healthy Minds Clinic. She is a board-certified developmental-behavioral pediatrician with clinical expertise in autism, ADHD, chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, fragile X syndrome, and high-risk infant follow-up. Her research includes behavioral phenotyping in children with 22q and Down syndrome, along with clinical trials in autism, Down syndrome, and fragile X.
Discipline Director for Physical Therapy
Katrin Mattern-Baxter is a Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Sacramento State. She received her Physical Therapy degree from Albert-Ludwig's University of Freiburg, Germany and her post-professional Doctor of Physical Therapy from A.T. Still University in Mesa, Arizona. She has worked as a physical therapist for 30 years. Her practice focuses on the assessment and treatment of individuals with pediatric and neurological conditions. She has completed neurological residency training in Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation and certification in Neurodevelopmental Treatment. She is an American Physical Therapy Association Board Certified Pediatric Specialist. She currently teaches the pediatric and neurological curriculum in the Doctor of Physical Therapy program at Sacramento State. Her research activities mainly focus on treadmill training in young children with cerebral palsy and other neurodevelopmental disabilities.
Discipline Director for Disability Advocacy
Kiki Godfrey is a LEND Alumni, disability advocate, teacher, researcher, and mother. She currently teaches neurodiversity at UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education. Kiki holds a degree in Child and Developmental Psychology with highest honors from Southern New Hampshire University. She is deeply passionate about disability rights, educating others, and advocating for precise language and terminology related to autism. As an autistic adult and mother to two autistic children, Kiki offers a unique perspective on navigating the world both personally and as a parent. She has participated in numerous symposia and panels on neurodiversity and co-authored an article on unmet patient and family needs in autism. Kiki’s interests include disability rights, refining diagnostic criteria to be more inclusive, and supporting autistic women and mothers.
Psychology Mentor
Megan E. Tudor, Ph.D., is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and a Licensed Clinical Psychologist at the UC Davis MIND Institute. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Stony Brook University and completed her postdoctoral training at the Yale Child Study Center. Her research examines the experiences and clinical presentations typically developing siblings of youth with autism. She co-runs the Anxiety Treatment Center wherein she supervises trainees, provides direct clinical care, and administers community trainings related to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for youth with anxiety and co-occurring conditions. Her clinical specialties include CBT, sibling relationships, anxiety, disruptive behavior, and neurodevelopmental assessment. She is also an avid teacher, including courses and student groups at the UC Davis campus, didactics for medical students and other trainees within UC Davis Health, and events within the broader community.
Seminar Instructor and Affiliate Faculty
Meghan Miller is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the UC Davis MIND Institute. Her research uses a developmental psychopathology framework to understand the early emergence of neurodevelopmental disabilities, with a particular focus on autism and ADHD. The long-range goal is that this work will help identify factors that account for the transition from risk to disorder, and will be highly translational, delineating core shared processes to be targeted by transdiagnostic prevention and early intervention efforts. She is also a licensed clinical psychologist.
Speech-Language Pathology Mentor
Nancy Castignetti is a pediatric Speech Language Pathologist, and has served as a Research Associate at the MIND Institute since 2012. She also provides direct intervention and assessment with English and Spanish speaking children at the Language Academy of Sacramento. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University Chicago, Master of Education degree from Marquette University, and Master of Science degree in Communicative Disorders from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a Speech-Language Pathologist, her special interest lies in phonological learning disorders and early literacy.
Social Work Mentor
Robin Stewart is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker at the UC Davis MIND Institute. Robin works in the Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (CEDD) and the Massie Family Clinic. She manages the Family Navigator Program, a peer mentoring program for families seen at MIND who are seeking support in accessing community-based services. Robin also manages the ECHO Program, a virtual educational program for professionals, advocates, and families. She is the clinic coordinator for the Baby Steps High Risk Infant Clinic and provides support to the BRIDGE Toddler Assessment Clinic. Robin received Masters' degrees in Social Work and Special Education from Boston University and specializes in family supports for young children with neurodevelopmental disabilities.
Discipline Director for Psychology
Sarah Dufek is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the UC Davis MIND Institute. She is a licensed psychologist and board-certified behavior analyst with expertise in the assessment and treatment of autism across the lifespan. She received her Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego. She has had formal training in and is actively practicing many intervention programs such as Pivotal Response Training, Classroom Pivotal Response Training, Picture Exchange Communication System, Project ImPACT, the Early Start Denver Model, and the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills. In addition, during her postdoctoral training and subsequent faculty appointment at Weill Cornell Medical College, she received comprehensive training in the assessment and diagnosis of autism and related conditions. She became a trainer for both the Autism Diagnostic Interview- Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS-2) in 2014. She has been working with children, adolescents, and adults with autism and related developmental disabilities in clinical and research contexts since 2000.
Seminar Instructor and Affiliated Faculty
Jonathan Bystrynski, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics division at UC Davis Health. He teaches NorCal LEND trainees in clinic as well as in the Understand Families Across Contexts course with Vanessa Avila-Pons, LMFT. He currently provides developmental evaluations for children and teens, including in the 22q11.2 Healthy Minds clinic and the PEARS clinic. He also provides trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) for neurodivergent youth. His interests include neurodevelopmental conditions, gender-based violence, trauma-responsive care, and developmental psychopathology.
Seminar Series Instructor and Affiliated Faculty
I am a specialist in English as a second language as well in the supervision of academic programs, needs assessment, and coaching/training/supervising of school staff. I am a foreign trained linguist and lawyer who specializes in language development. My past roles include being on State Council on Developmental Disabilities as a Governor's appointee, classroom teacher, English Language Development (ESL) program coordinator, curriculum creator. I have also worked in the designing, creation, and evaluation of academic content programs for educators with the focus on students who are speakers of languages other than English. As a former LEND trainee, I credit the program for helping me become more focused on how I wanted to direct my advocacy.
I use my background and expertise in the public school district to oversee the district-wide adult ESL program. I am an independent advocate who supports parents like me who have children with disabilities. I focus on helping them better understand their rights, helping their children thrive through language development, better understand their child's conditions, feel empowered, and emotionally safe. I have a very specific focus on intersectionalities and how they affect access to services for linguistic and cultural minorities. Currently, I am in the process of being admitted to the CA BAR association to further my advocacy and support for civil/disability rights.
Seminar Series Instructor and Affiliate Faculty
Yue Yu is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, Davis Health, and a licensed clinical psychologist at the UC Davis MIND Institute. She is the Co-Director of the MCHC/RISE UP Program at the UC Davis MIND Institute site. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis and completed her clinical psychology internship at Charleston Consortium - Medical University of South Carolina, and her postdoctoral training at the UC Davis MIND Institute. Her research focuses on community implementation of evidence-based practices for young children with autism or other neurodevelopmental conditions, especially in the under-resourced areas. She also has an interest in psychosocial outcomes in caregivers of autistic individuals.
Former LEND Faculty
Faye Dixon is a licensed clinical psychologist with a long history in child psychopathology, specifically the areas of depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD and learning differences in children. Currently, she is the director of clinical management and community outreach for the AIR Lab. She coordinates the ADHD Parent Education curriculum and groups for the MIND clinic. She is also a member of the UC Davis Medical Center Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences as well as a MIND Institute faculty member. Her clinical and research interests include attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), learning differences, anxiety, and mood disorders in children.
Former MIND Director & LEND Faculty
Leonard Abbeduto is a nationally recognized expert on the behavioral profiles of individuals with intellectual disabilities, with a particular focus on the development and use of language by these individuals. Abbeduto's research focuses broadly on the development of language across the lifespan in individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities and on the family context for language development. He also investigates the effects of stress on parents and caregivers who raise children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, and how parent stress affects the behavior and development of their children. Current research projects in Abbeduto's lab examine the feasibility of using samples of spoken language collected in naturalistic contexts as outcome measures in clinical trials. His lab also is developing telehealth-delivered interventions that involve training parents in strategies they can use to facilitate their children's development of language.
Former LEND Faculty
Robin Hansen is Professor of Pediatrics, and founder of the UC Davis Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. She is a board-certified developmental behavioral pediatrician with vast experience in treating children with neurodevelopmental disabilities as well as in clinical research. Her clinical research has focused on children's temperament, long-term effects of prenatal drug exposure, gene-environment interactions related to causes and early identification of autism, and biomedical treatments for neurodevelopmental disabilities.
Founding LEND Director
Sally J. Rogers, Ph.D., is a developmental psychologist whose research focuses on young children's developmental problems, particularly involving cognition, language and communication, social interactions, and problem behaviors. She is best known for her research work in understanding early developmental trajectories of young children with autism and in developing and testing intervention strategies for them focused on the use of the Early Start Denver Model, which she developed with her colleague Dr. Geraldine Dawson. She provides intervention for young children and their families as well as for infants who are at risk of developing autism. Her work with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and other advanced trainees also focuses on working with parents and their young children with or at risk for developing autism.
Her focus in working with families and their young children with autism is to maximize the everyday learning opportunities that exist in everyday life and maximizing those moments of interaction to hold children's attention and provide them with learning opportunities that involve communication, language, and social interaction embedded within the typical daily activities of young children: meals, toy play, social games, books, outdoor play, and care activities. Rogers and families work together to identify a child's learning strengths, areas of learning need, and prioritizing the focus of their work together for a 6-12 week period. Individual learning plans for a child based on these priorities provide clear steps for designing child learning, beginning at the child's current level of understanding and moving along a developmental or behavioral sequence of steps until the goal is reached. Parents are young children's most effective and important teachers, and she supports family members to provide needed learning opportunities at home.
Her research focuses on young children's developmental problems, particularly involving cognition, language and communication, social interactions, and problem behaviors. She is best known for her research work in understanding early developmental trajectories of young children with autism and in developing and testing intervention strategies for them focused on the use of the Early Start Denver Model, which she developed with her colleague Geraldine Dawson.