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Located at our 600 Fifth Avenue
Office in San Rafael
Phone Number: 415/491-7959
Please click on the linked names below to view individual bios of our staff.
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Group & Workshop Leaders
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Counseling
Parent Coaching and Consultation
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Melissa Ayotte is a Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin.
She directs one of the top 5% Kindermusik programs world-wide; she plays guitar and piano; and she is a baby sign language expert. Melissa is from Mill Valley where she studied piano for 15 years beginning at age three. Now she lives in Novato with her husband and their two children: Charlie, 9, and Isabella, 5. Isabella is featured on several recently released Baby Signs DVDs. Melissa has been a popular piano teacher in Marin for over 10 years, and teaches Kindergarten Music at Hamilton Elementary School in Novato. Melissa and her son Charlie both dance competitively with the McBride Irish Dancers. Teaching comes naturally to Melissa as she is able to combine her loves of music and dance and her talent for working with young children.
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Marcia Naomi Berger, LCSW, is a Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin.
Marcia received her Bachelor's degree from Harpur College, Binghamton New York, and her Master's degree in Social Work from the University of Michigan. Formerly an executive director of a family service agency, she is experienced in individual, couples and family therapy, inpatient and outpatient psychiatry, chemical dependency, and children's services. She enjoys providing couples with tools to keep their relationships thriving and assisting with parenting challenges, using behavioral and cognitive skills. Naomi and her husband of 18 years have a 13-year-old son.
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Susan Byrd, LCSW, is a Child & Family Therapist and Workshop Leader with Parents Place, Marin.
Susan studied at Boston University and at the Kantor Institute for Family Therapy in Boston. Prior to her tenure at Jewish Family and Children's Services, she worked as a social worker at Ross Hospital in Marin, serving children, adolescents and adults in the psychiatric inpatient section. Susan is the mother of two children ages 5 and 6.
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Sanna Delmonico, M.S., R.D. is a Workshop Leader with Parents Place, Marin.
A registered dietitian and the mother of an eight-year-old daughter, Sanna is devoted to making good food simple and delicious for families. Sanna has a bachelor's degree in dietetics from San Francisco State University, and a master's degree in nutrition from Louisiana State University. She is the founder and editor of Tiny Tummies, a food and nutrition newsletter for parents. She has counseled hundreds of parents and children both in her private practice and as an outpatient nutritionist at California Pacific Medical Center. Sanna teaches healthy eating classes to parent groups around the Bay Area.
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Ira Fateman, CFP, M.Ed, is a Workshop Leader with Parents Place, Marin.
Ira is a Registered Investment Advisor. He holds a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations from Cornell University, an M.Ed in Counseling from Northeastern University, and a certificate in personal financial planning from UC Berkeley Extension. He lectures and leads workshops in financial planning for families all over the Bay Area.
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John Gusman, LCSW, is the Director of Clinical Services for Parents Place, Marin.
John received his undergraduate degree from Michigan State University, where he trained to be a teacher. He has taught school in a variety of settings in this country and abroad, including a Swiss International Boarding School as well as in various elementary and junior high schools and preschools. Following this he went to U.C. Berkeley where he studied clinical social work. His training also included an internship at Stanford University's Department of Child Psychiatry. John has designed and taught numerous workshops and groups and has served at Parents Place and Jewish Family and Children's Services for over 20 years.
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Julie King, JD, is a Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin.
Julie has been educating and supporting parents since 1995. In addition to her work with individual parents and couples, she is a highly regarded parenting workshop leader. Julie has led workshops for Parents Place in Marin and San Francisco for more than 8 years; she offers dynamic lectures and presentations for schools and other parent organizations, and she maintains a private practice. Julie received her BA from Princeton University and her JD from Yale Law School. She also holds a Certificate in Organization Development Consulting Skills and a Coaching Certificate. She is the mother of three.
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Francis Macrae, MFT, is a consultant in the Early Childhood Mental Health Project
and a Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin.
Francis holds a BA in Social Sciences from Fordham University, a Montessori Teaching Certificate from Sonoma State University, and an MS in Counseling Psychology from San Francisco State University. Francis comes to JFCS after a 27-year teaching career at the San Francisco School, an independent progressive school serving a diverse population of 275 families, pre/K through 8th grade. He was also head teacher in a Montessori classroom of 3- through 6-year-old children where he created and taught an array of curriculum including social/emotional development.
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Leslie O'Connell, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist with JFCS Marin.
Leslie received her A.B. in Mathematics and Linguistics from U.C. Berkeley, her Ed.M. from Harvard, and her Ph.D. from C.S.P.P. As part of her training, she worked at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and Kaiser Permanente in Oakland. She also was previously a research assitant at McLean Hospital in Massachusetts. She currently works with children, adolescents and adults, in areas including child and adult depression and anxiety, parent-child attachment, and child and adolescent transitions.
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Lori Rifkin, M.S. Ed., Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin.
Lori obtained a Master's Degree in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College and worked as an educator during the 1970s. She received her doctorate from California School of Professional Psychology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Children's Hospital at Stanford and the Children's Health Council in psychotherapy and testing with children and adolescents. Lori served as staff psychologist for the Children's Institute of JFCS in San Francisco. She is the first author of Finding a Preschool for your Child in San Francisco and Marin. She is the mother of a five-year-old.
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Bonnie Romanow is a Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin.
She has been working with children and families for nearly 20 years. Trained as a Waldorf teacher and group facilitator, she has been an early childhood teacher, preschool director and founding member of the Great Oaks School in the Chicago area. Her work with children under 3 and their parents led her to the Touchpoints work as well as the RIE I training program. She served on the governing body of both the Chicago Waldorf School and the Great Oaks School and as secretary for Preschool Council of Evanston. Bonnie worked with at-risk teens for the Youth-At-Risk community program, as well as with birth parents and adoptive parents. Parent education and support has always been a part of her work.
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Robert Scott, MSW, is a Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin.
Robert is a pioneer in the field of Father Support, and is involved both locally and nationally in the Father Support movement. He has a Master's degree in Social Welfare from the University of Utah, is a certified Parent Education Teacher, and has taught Parent Education classes throughout the Bay Area for over 20 years. He developed the popular "Parents Place Lecture Series," dealing with integral stages of children's development, and the "All About Boys!" workshop curricula. He specializes in providing support and guidance to parents through individual coaching and consultation sessions.
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Robyn Stone, MA, is a Workshop Leader with Parents Place, Marin.
Robyn holds an MA in Teaching and a BA in English Literature. She has been teaching at Bay Area public and private schools for six years. Robyn specializes in teaching literacy skills to young children. She lives in the Bay Area with her husband and 3 1/2-year-old son.
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Deborah Lynne Weil Taylor is a Parent Educator with Parents Place, Marin.
Deborah holds an AB in Politics and American Studies from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University. Deborah is the Founder and Principal of GreatParents, an organization that provides expert advice to parents on all issues concerning the education of their children. In addition, she worked with eSCORE and SCORE Educational Center, working in operations as well as teaching students to read, teachers to deliver better instruction, and parents to understand state tests. She has consulted to corporate and governmental organizations around the Bay Area on a wide variety of issues concerning schools, teachers and the education of children.
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Contact Us
Call (415) 491-7959 or e-mail BonniS@jfcs.org for more information.
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