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Located at our 200 Channing Avenue
Office in Palo Alto
Phone Number: (650) 688-3040
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Located at our 2001 Winward Way, Suite 200
Office in San Mateo
Phone Number: (650) 931-1840
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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Stephanie Barry Agnew, BA, is the Coordinator of Parent Education at Parents Place, San Mateo.
Stephanie has an extensive background in Early Childhood Education with 20 years of teaching experience in Palo Alto area schools. She was trained at Bing Nursery School while getting her degree at Stanford and has taught all preschool age groups. She owned her own small school in Palo Alto for 5 years and has worked as a parent educator for 10 years. She is the parent of two teenaged daughters.
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Alicia Becerra-Mendoza, LCSW, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto.
Alicia is a licensed clinical social worker who has worked with parents, children, and adolescents for 25 years. She is bi-lingual in Spanish, and bi-cultural, having been born and raised in Mexico. Alicia specializes in working with Latino children and their families as well as in working with children with special needs. In her clinical work she helped establish the Latino Brief Therapy Center at the Mental Research Institute, and the Brainwise "Ready to Learn My Way" program with First 5 Santa Clara County. She also collaborated with Stanford University to develop an education and community based model to address the needs of families in East Palo Alto. She is the mother of 3 grown children.
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Marleen Didech, MA, CCCSLP, is a Parents Place Educator and Consultant in Palo Alto.
Marleen teaches classes and provides guidance for parents of school-age children and adolescents, including parents whose children demonstrate learning differences and/or attentional difficulties. Marleen is a member of the National Faculty of Schools Attuned and was a co-editor and contributing writer for Bay Area of Parents of Teens. Marleen has extensive experience providing neurodevelopmental assessments for children and adolescents. She also developed and led classes at The Children's Health Council, Parents Place and at schools throughout the Bay Area. Marleen has been a parent educator for over 18 years.
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Sheila Dubin, MS, is a Parents Place Educator and Consultant in Palo Alto.
Sheila has 20 years of experience as a parent educator and consultant. She specializes in parenting teens, raising daughters and school age children. She is the coauthor of Parentmaking: Educators Training Program and has been co-editor and a contributing writer for Bay Area Parents of Teens.
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Sue Dinwiddie, MA, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto and San Mateo.
Sue trains staffs and teaches parent education throughout the Bay Area and in New York City. In addition to publishing two books on helping children learn social problem-solving skills, she has taught classes in human development through Stanford University, Pacific Oaks College and local community colleges and agencies. Sue is a former Head Teacher at Bing Nursery School, Stanford University. Sue and her husband, parents of two grown children, play harp and flute in the musical duo "Wind in the Strings."
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Elizabeth Eastman, LCSW, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto.
Elizabeth is a therapist in private practice. She focuses her practice on working with parents in the transition to parenthood, and in supporting parents who have stress, anxiety, or depression. Besides providing individual and couples counseling, she facilitates a support group for mothers. She is also the mother of twins. Together with Julie Graham, she does presentations on Postpartum Depression to groups of physicians and their staff, and has facilitated a Postpartum Stress Support Group; they also co-teach parenting workshops. She is a Certified Gottman Educator and offers the "Bringing Baby Home" program.
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Heidi Emberling, MA, is a Parents Place Educator and Consultant in Palo Alto and San Mateo.
Heidi is an Early Childhood Educator working with parents and toddlers, two-year-olds and twins. She also facilitates the drop-in playroom times. Previously, she taught at the Peninsula Jewish Community Center Preschool in Foster City, where she teaches Music Together, a national, research-based music program for children ages 0-5 and their parents or caregivers. She also serves on the Community Advisory Committee for First 5 San Mateo, working on issues affecting young children throughout the county. She has a Master's Degree from UC Berkeley and is currently working towards her second Master's degree in Early Childhood Education at San Francisco State University. She is the parent of two young children.
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Karen Friedland-Brown, MA, is the Coordinator of Parent Education, Parents Place of the Peninsula.
Karen has been a parent educator, trainer and consultant for 30 years, including years of experience in the field of special education. She co-authored the revised edition of Parentmaking: A Practical Handbook for Teaching Parents (1995). Her specialties include early childhood issues, discipline, sleep issues and couples. She is the parent of one college-age son.
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Julie Graham, PsyD, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto.
Julie is a clinical psychologist also in private practice in Palo Alto. She provides cognitive behavioral therapy to adolescents and adults coping with anxiety, depression, and adjustment difficulties. She particularly enjoys supporting parents during pregnancy, the postpartum period, and the early years of parenthood. She is the mother of two young children. Together with Elizabeth Eastman, she does presentations on Postpartum Depression to groups of physicians and their staff, and has facilitated a Postpartum Stress Support Group; they also co-teach parenting workshops. She is a Certified Gottman Educator and offers the "Bringing Baby Home" program.
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Jomary Hillard, PhD, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto.
Jomary is a California licensed psychologist. She holds a doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles and completed her postdoctoral training through the Department of Child Psychiatry at Stanford. She is a contributor to textbooks on parent education and an experienced presenter in the field of child development. In addition to having done extensive parent education at The Children's Health Council for fifteen years, she has a private practice for children and adults in Palo Alto. She and her husband are parents of three sons.
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Lori Krolik is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto.
Lori is the founder of More Time For You which provides organizing and time management services. Over the last decade Lori has helped many clients simplify their lives by adopting the organizing strategies she teaches. Her extensive background in finance, organizational management and event planning has helped to make her a successful "mompreneur." Lori lives in Palo Alto with her husband and two children.
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Anna Miller, MA, RD, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto.
Anna is a registered dietitian with a BS from UC Davis and an MS from Pennsylvania State University, both in nutrition. She has been teaching nutrition courses at De Anza College since 1991. Anna also works as a nutrition consultant at the Health Research and Studies Center in Los Altos and is the mother of two teenagers.
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Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet, PPSC, LCSW, is the coordinator of Parents Place Express.
Gloria has been a professor in the graduate program of social work at San Jose State University for 19 years. She has been a school social worker and parent educator since 1981, specializing in working with elementary, middle, and high school children and families. She also has been involved in providing consultation and collaboration to teachers and administrators in public and private school settings. Her areas of expertise include: understanding children's learning styles and creating successful learners; raising multilingual and multicultural children; twin development, temperament differences in twins, and management strategies for parents of multiples; fostering resiliency in children; and children with learning problems. Gloria is bi-cultural and bi-lingual in Spanish and the parent of three adolescent boys.
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Erica Pelavin, LCSW, PhD, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto and San Mateo.
Erica is a family therapist and Organizational Psychologist specializing in relationship issues and work-life integration. A believer in individual and family resilience, she approaches her client's family and school challenges from a strength-based perspective. In addition to her work with families, she facilitates support groups in the areas of bereavement, chronic illness and learning differences. She has also works with high tech companies in the areas of conflict resolution, team building and stress management, and teaches parenting courses at the workplace. Erica was part of a team awarded a Ford Foundation grant to study gender equity in the workplace in 1996.
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Kristin S. Reinsberg, LMFT, is the Peninsula Early Childhood Mental Health Program Coordinator.
Kristin is a licensed MFT with an MS in clinical psychology from San Francisco State University and a BA in psychology from Mills College. She was a psychology intern in the Infant-Parent Program of the University of California, San Francisco; in the outpatient clinic of Marin County Mental Health Services, where she provided long-term psychodynamic child therapy for severely emotionally disturbed children; and at the Primary Intervention Program at Neil Cummins Elementary School in Corte Madera.
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Karen P. Ross, MA, RD, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto and San Mateo.
Karen is a registered dietitian who is interested in wellness. She is also an instructor for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, teaching Taking Charge of Your Body, a non-diet weight control program, the nutrition portion of Moving Through Pregnancy; she also conducts supermarket tours at a local supermarket.
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Denise Salin, MA, LMFT, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto.
Denise is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. In addition to teaching classes at Parents Place, she is a counselor at Cupertino High School. Her experience also includes counseling children and adults, and teaching at Bing Nursery School. Denise and her husband have a daughter in high school and a son in elementary school. She has enjoyed working with children and families for over 20 years.
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Deborah Sloss, MSW, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto.
Deborah Sloss is a social worker and parent educator. She teaches classes on "Talking to Children about Adoption" and is available for individual parenting consultation for parents of young children through adolescents. Deborah also practices individual and family therapy with clients ranging in age from preschoolers to adults. She specializes in play-based therapy for young children and in addressing issues of depression, stress and anxiety in adolescents. Deborah is an adoptive parent of two school-aged children.
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Susan Stone-Belton, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto.
Susan, a Parent Coach and Educator, is a certified Special Education Teacher with over 35 years experience working with children and families. She has presented over 300 talks to Bay Area parent groups, focusing on communication and effective discipline for all ages. She has taught teenagers with emotional and behavioral problems, managed two crisis hotlines for parents and teens, operated home-based pre-schools, and taught Gymboree classes. She is the mother of a 22-year-old son, an 18-year-old daughter, and a 17-year-old step-daughter.
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Aly Yisrael, MPH, MSW, is a Parents Place Educator in Palo Alto.
Aly received her BA in psychology from Stanford University and her Master's in Public Health and Masters in Social Work from the University of California, Berkeley. She has been a health educator for 10 years, with experience in the prevention of eating disorders, sexual assault, substance abuse and HIV. Aly presents and trains on topics related to body image and media literacy, focusing on the impact of culture in the way we evaluate and experience our bodies. She serves local K-12 schools, colleges and community organizations.
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Contact Us
Call (650) 688-3021 or e-mail DianeW@jfcs.org for more information.
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