About the Trainers
The Prevention Training Program


Esther Armmand, B.S., Staff Consultant for Adolescent and Adult Programs at The Consultation Center, develops prevention and wellness initiatives for youth and young adults. Ms. Armmand has extensive experience in community advocacy, youth/adult engagement and designs start-up programs for culturally appropriate client centered services. Ms. Armmand was elected five terms to the City of New Haven Board of Aldermen and organized the first citywide Commission on Substance Abuse Policy and Prevention to coordinate efforts targeting a reduction in youth substance abuse. Her interest in areas of community leadership, wellness and civic engagement are varied, including community gardens, the prevention of adolescent substance abuse, and voting patterns in urban communities.

Jeana Bracey, Ph.D., is a Senior Associate at the Connecticut Center for Effective Practice of the Child Health and Development Institute. Currently she coordinates the Connecticut School-Based Diversion Initiative, designed to reduce school-based arrests and to divert youth with behavioral health needs away from the juvenile justice system and into appropriate community-based services and supports. Her interests are in program implementation, evaluation, juvenile justice diversion, and positive social-emotional development of ethnic minority youth, with a focus on racial/ethnic socialization and identity development. Dr. Bracey earned her Ph.D. in Clinical/Community Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed pre-and post-doctoral fellowships at The Consultation Center in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Tamora A. Callands, Ph.D., is a Post doctoral Fellow in the Division of Prevention and Community Research, Department of Psychiatry, at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Callands has experience working directly with at risk adolescent from low-income communities. She has lead and supervised positive youth development programs focused on substance abuse prevention, building healthy relationship, increasing academic achievement, decreasing sexual risk-taking behavior, and promoting positive decision-making. She is actively involved in research examining peer, family, community, and cultural factors that influence healthy adolescent relationship development and adolescent sexual and reproductive health.

Donna B. Fedus, M.A., is a Gerontologist and Coordinator of Elder Programs at The Consultation Center, Yale University School of Medicine. Since joining The Consultation Center in 2007, Ms. Fedus has created more than 25 half- and full-day workshops on various issues of aging. These programs have reached more than 1,000 professionals who work with older adults. Ms. Fedus also offers educational programs and a coaching service for family caregivers. In addition, Ms. Fedus offers gerontology consultation to organizations, coordinates a program for grandparents raising grandchildren, and writes grants to fund special programs. Ms. Fedus reviews manuscripts for Journeyworks Publishing and Health Professions Press. She is an Advisory Council member of the Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the Institute of Senior Living Education, which is an affiliate of the Connecticut Assisted Living Association. Ms. Fedus earned her Master’s degree in Social Gerontology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991.

Terry Freeman, M.A.T., LCSW, CPP-R, recently retired as Director of Adolescent Programs at The Consultation Center after 17 years with the Center. She has over 30 years of experience in education and social service, with special interests in urban education, youth development, group work, management and supervision. Ms. Freeman, a certified secondary school teacher in Connecticut, has been a trainer/facilitator for the Youth Development Training and Resource Center, and has served as a consultant and trainer for schools and community based agencies in the region.

Derrick Gordon, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Program on Male Development in the Division of Prevention and Community Research of the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Gordon has considerable experience in intervention and prevention development focused on those factors that either support or undermine men transitioning from prison back to the community; the engagement of low-income, non-custodial fathers; the identification and service of adolescent fathers committed to child protection services; and men mandated to batterer intervention groups in the community. Dr. Gordon’s work with men has and continues to focus on increasing the health of men and their positive involvement in family and community life. Overall Dr. Gordon in his research seeks to identify those factors that enhance the access and use of preventive and indicated health care services by men on the “fringes.”

Amy Griffin, M.A., is an Evaluation Consultant at The Consultation Center. She has more than 10 years of experience evaluating prevention programs at the local, state, and national levels. Ms. Griffin also has extensive experience in providing technical assistance and training to state departments and community-based organizations. Her evaluation-related interests include participatory and democratic evaluation methods as well as ecological measurement strategies. 

Julianne Hellmuth, Ph.D., has conducted research and clinical work in the areas of intimate partner violence and substance abuse in a variety of populations including clinical, community, military, and advocacy settings. In a research capacity, she is interested in examining the varying etiologies of IPV and how substance use contributes to precipitation of aggressive behavior. She is also interested in examining how the confluence of individual, dyadic, systemic and environmental strengths and vulnerabilities impact the occurrence of aggressive behavior between partners. Clinically, she has a background in individual, couples, and group modalities that focus on IPV and its correlates such as substance abuse, PTSD, and character pathology. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University School of Medicine within the Department of Psychiatry, Division of Community and Prevention Research. She also recently received a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and completed her clinical internship at the VA Puget Sound, Seattle.

Veronique Jaquier Erard, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Prevention and Community Research, Department of Psychiatry, at Yale University School of Medicine and in Family Violence Research Programs at The Consultation Center. Trained in social psychology and criminology in Switzerland and the United States, Dr. Jaquier has taught classes in victimology, violence against women, victims' rights and counseling. She has worked at a victim's crisis center and in an association striving to prevent sexually transmitted infections and other dangers related to the practice of sex work. Dr Jaquier's program of research focuses on the interrelations of women's and girls' victimization and their use of aggression as it impacts mental health, substance use and social behaviors. Her current work at Yale is funded by a fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Kathleen A. Lutz has worked in both the educational and child welfare systems. She was Director of Early Childhood Programs at St. Andrews School for five years. She and her husband became foster parents which led to a career change that focused on the needs of homeless children. Ultimately they organized a program in their house, a Permanent Family Residence, creating a family model group home for eight to ten adolescent and teen boys. During her thirty-five years of caregiving for hundreds of children, she acquired many skills that today help grandfamilies struggling with issues of loss and abandonment. She has consulted to several agencies in New Haven and throughout the state and has offered training to local and national organizations. Having seen the trauma foster care can impact on children Kathleen is committed to the concept of relative care. She currently serves as the Coordinator of Grandparent Programs at The Consultation Center in New Haven.

Susan Ottenheimer, L.C.S.W., is Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine. She is the Director of Adult and Elder Programs at The Consultation Center, Project Director for the Coping With Work and Family Stress dissemination project, and a member of the Division of Prevention and Community Research. Ms. Ottenheimer has extensive experience providing organization development and technical assistance consultation, serving as a senior consultant and lead trainer in the development and implementation of preventive interventions particularly in the workplace, and in the behavioral health field. She has designed and implemented a wide array of preventive and community-based programs for adults at risk for psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, chronic diseases, and homelessness.

David L. Snow, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist in the Departments of Psychiatry and Epidemiology & Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Snow has extensive experience in the design and evaluation of preventive interventions in community settings, primarily the workplace and schools, and in research aimed at identifying key risk and protective factors predictive of psychological and substance use outcomes. Dr. Snow has special interests in the protective and stress-mediating effects of coping and social support, methodological and ethical issues in prevention research, service system development, and technical assistance and organizational consultation. His workplace research has been conducted in various types of work settings ranging from manufacturing to utility to telecommunications companies. Coping with Work and Family Stress: A Workplace Preventive Intervention was developed as part of this research and has been designated as an Evidence-Based Intervention through the National Registry of Effective Programs and Practices (NREPP) and as a SAMHSA Model Program.

Deborah S. Stewart, B.A., CPP, is Director of the Youth Development Training and Resource Center (YDTRC) located at The Consultation Center in New Haven. She has led a number of youth development initiatives in Greater New Haven and the state (e.g., Project Manager for the statewide initiative Connecticut for Community Youth Development (CCYD), a 5-year project funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the CT Office of Policy & Management). A trainer, consultant, and advocate for many years in education and youth work, Deborah is a leader in youth development efforts on the local and state levels. YDTRC’s role as one of 15 national B.E.S.T. sites (Building Exemplary Systems of Training in Community Youth Work) has brought Deborah national level contact with other leaders in youth development. Deborah’s work in YDTRC and CCYD has led to implementation of training in youth development and developmental youth outcomes for hundreds of youth workers. YDTRC continues to provide on-site technical assistance to youth-serving agencies, community networks, and consultation to agencies, policy makers, and diverse funders concerned with youth development and youth issues.

Jim Tackett has worked in the field of veterans’ affairs for the past 28 years. He currently serves as Director of Veterans Services with DMHAS, where he directs the CT Military Support Program (MSP) which provides statewide outpatient behavioral health services to Citizen Soldiers, Veterans and their families. He directs the National Guard Embedded Clinician Program which includes 29 MSP clinicians within Guard Units affected by deployment(s). Jim also serves as Project Director for the Connecticut Jail Diversion and Trauma Recovery Services for Veterans Program, a $2 million dollar grant funded by SAMHSA. He developed and leads DMHAS’ Veterans Resource Representative Training Program, a workforce development initiative that prepares clinicians to work with returning veterans and their families. Jim is the DMHAS Advisor to the Dept. Public Safety, Division of State Police Peer Support program -- State Troopers Offering Peer Support (STOPS); serves as faculty for law enforcement Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) in CT, and as faculty for the national VA/DoD/SAMHSA Policy Academy on Returning Veterans and Their Families. He is a nationally recognized resource in veterans affairs, recently presenting at conferences and meetings called by SAMHSA, the U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs, the National GAINS Center, and the U.S. Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. Prior to joining DMHAS he served for 8 years as Director of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System’s Healthcare for Homeless Veterans (HCHV) Program. He also served for 15 years as Connecticut Chief Service Representative (VSO) for Vietnam Veterans of America.

Raynetta Woods, M.S.W., is a Coordinator of an interdisciplinary team servicing an urban alternative high school in New Haven, CT. She has a wealth of experience working with adolescents and their families in foster care, adoption, and urban education. Ms. Woods' special interests include youth development, group work, training and facilitation as well as supervision of an interdisciplinary team. Ms. Woods has trained at the national level on various subjects including substance abuse, birth families, permanency, foster care, adoption, transracial/transcultural placements, and therapy through the arts. She also serves as a consultant and trainer for schools and community-based organizations in the region.

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