Linda Brault
LINDA is the director of Working Together for Inclusion and Belonging, which includes BEGINNING TOGETHER, the California MAP to Inclusion & Belonging…Making Access Possible, and CA CSEFEL Teaching Pyramid, all Working Together projects of WestEd, Center for Child and Family Studies in collaboration with the Early Learning and Care Division of the California Department of Education.
Prior to directing projects for WestEd and, previously, Sonoma State University, Linda was an early childhood special education teacher for more than 18 years. She received two Bachelor degrees from the University of the Pacific: one in music therapy and one in psychology. She received her M.A. in Special Education from CSU Dominguez Hills and holds an Early Intervention Graduate Certificate from San Diego State University. Linda has held board positions in several professional organizations and was a member of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Early Childhood Training Cadre for the International Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC/CEC). Linda was also an instructor in Child Development at Mira Costa and Palomar Community Colleges.
Linda is passionate about the inclusion of children with special needs into child care settings and has published numerous articles. She speaks frequently on the inclusion of very young children, young children with challenging behaviors, legal requirements in early intervention/early childhood special education and transition between early intervention and special education.
Linda and her husband, Tom, continue to find their adult daughters, Gerilyn and Robyn, to be sources of great wisdom and learning.
Craig Zercher
CRAIG is Senior Research Associate for WestEd’s Working Together Project, specifically working with the Teaching Pyramid and BEGINNING TOGETHER projects. He has more than 25 years working to benefit infants, toddlers, and children with special needs and other disabilities.
Craig’s career has spanned from working with Early Head Start/Head Start to serving as an education researcher for a private company. In addition, he has been a college lecturer and research associate at San Francisco State University. Prior to that, he was an early childhood teacher and director of a therapeutic preschool program.
Craig has numerous publications and presentations to his name. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley, a Master’s in Special Education from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of California at Berkeley with San Francisco State University.
Sandi Walters
SANDI is a Training & Technical Assistance Specialist for BEGINNING TOGETHER, where she uses her skills and knowledge in Child Development and Early Intervention to support inclusion for young children in early care and education programs across the state. Sandi is also a primary trainer for the CA CSEFEL Teaching Pyramid Approach. Sandi has advocated for and implemented inclusion for ALL children since her career began in child development as a preschool/kindergarten teacher.
Young children and their families have benefited from Sandi’s partnership in a variety of settings: she owned a family child care and a center-based child care program which included children with special needs; she taught Child Development classes infused with inclusion in the college classroom; through the YMCA she organized recreational and fitness classes for teens and adults with intellectual delays; she was the Child Development Specialist in the Early Intervention Program for infants and toddlers at Cal State Northridge; she trained home- and center-based early intervention program staff and managed three early intervention programs in the Los Angeles area. Sandi continued her work with children and adults with developmental challenges as a branch manager at Tri-Counties Regional Center.
While working at Child Development Resources, the local Resource and Referral, Sandi managed designated funding for Ventura County by helping the county increase capacity of child care for children with special needs. She was also a facilitator for the CAEYC state accreditation project for family and center-based child care.
Sandi has a Master of Science degree in Human Development with an emphasis in Early Intervention and a Master of Arts in Child and Family Counseling.
Ruth Rodriguez
RUTH is a coach and trainer with Working Together for Inclusion and Belonging, a program of WestEd’s Center for Child & Family Studies. She has spent 20 years in the field of early education working with families, children and early childhood professionals in the field of child development.
Her career consists of working as an infant/toddler/preschool teacher, child development specialist, professional child family educator, consultant, and a coach with professionals in the field of early education. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from San Francisco State University, and an M.A. in Social Clinical Psychology from New College of California at San Francisco. Ruth is also certified in the Program for Infant Toddler Care Modules.
Edith Purcell
Edy has been working with young children diagnosed with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families for more than 17 years. She has experience providing services in both inclusive early childhood classrooms as well as in the home setting.
After graduate school, she worked at the University of Colorado Denver for 11 years on a variety of state and federally funded projects. Prior to coming to WestEd, she was the Clinical Director for the PELE Center (Positive Early Learning Experiences), providing in-home behavioral consultation and parent training to families who have young children with autism. She also conducted research and trained early childhood providers on strategies to work with children with developmental disabilities, autism, social-emotional deficits and behavior problems in inclusive preschool settings. She concurrently worked as a bilingual independent contractor providing developmental intervention services to infants and toddlers.
Edy has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Colorado Denver. Edy, her husband Pete, and their young daughter Bego?a, enjoy traveling, exploring new parks, skiing, and spending time with friends and family.
Cheryl Potter
CHERYL serves as the Program Assistant for the Working Together for Inclusion & Belonging projects, including Teaching Pyramid, California MAP to Inclusion and Belonging… Making Access Possible, and BEGINNING TOGETHER. She assists the Working Together staff by prepping training materials, maintaining attendance and evaluation records, communicating with participants, and attending to the day-to-day logistical needs of the office.
Prior to joining WestEd, Cheryl worked as an administrative assistant for executives, high-level managers, and staff at a large retail organization. She holds several business certifications from Palomar College. She and her husband Al have two adult children and are very proud grandparents of one granddaughter. At every opportunity, they love to travel and camp with the family.
Dana Cox
Dana has worked in the field of child health and development for over 30 years, as both a Registered Nurse/Public Health Nurse and an Early Childhood Special Educator. She credits her three children, one a young adult with cerebral palsy as her greatest teachers.
Dana’s career path has been diverse and includes experience in pediatrics/ maternal-child health, home-visiting, and supporting the inclusion and belonging of young children with special needs. Dana has been involved in adult education for most of her career including serving as faculty at several institutions, including both the Nursing and Early Childhood Education Departments at Cabrillo College, Santa Clara University, UCSC Extension, and the EPIC (Education Preparation for Inclusive Education) Credentialing Program. She has consulted for a range of programs including UCSF Child Care Health, First-5, and WestEd.
Prior to coming to WestEd, Dana worked as a Program Coordinator /Early Interventionist for the Santa Cruz COE Early Start Program. She has been the author of many articles and continuing education publications related to child health and development. Dana was a founding Board Member of the Special Parent Information Network of Santa Cruz, and is a Board Member of the IDA (Infant Development Association).
Dana received her BS in Nursing from San Francisco State in 1984, and her MA in Early Childhood Special Education from Santa Clara University in 2004. She was a Napa Infant-Parent Mental Health Fellow in 2010, and completed the first Napa Fellowship Program’s Reflective Supervision, Consultation and Facilitation Academy in 2015. She is endorsed in California as an Advanced Trans-disciplinary Mental Health Practitioner (0-5) and Reflective Practice Mentor. She is a certified trainer for many programs including PITC, Positive Discipline, and is completing certification in the Child Trauma Academy’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics.
Alejandro Castillon
ALEJANDRO serves as Web & Database Administrator for several projects out of the WestEd San Marcos office including BEGINNING TOGETHER, and the California MAP to Inclusion & Belonging…Making Access Possible project.
Alejandro holds a B.A. in Graphic Design from California State University, Sacramento. Outside of work, he and his family enjoy bike rides, touring museums, and exploring the great outdoors.
Stephanie Castillo-Johnson
STEPHANIE is a Research Associate with the Working Together Project for the WestEd San Marcos office. As such, she coaches teachers in the principles of CA CSEFEL for the Teaching Pyramid project, evaluates Teaching Pyramid Partner sites, and serves as faculty for the BEGINNING TOGETHER Training-of-Trainer Institutes.
Previously, she was a Program Assistant for the California MAP to Inclusion & Belonging? Making Access Possible project of the Working Together office. She has six years experience working in early childhood classrooms including dedicated time with children with special needs.
Stephanie also has experience working in a non-profit agency focusing on educational research and development. Among her many talents are developing curriculum based on individual and classroom needs, as well as engaging children in innovative and creative activities using all modalities of learning.
A true believer in the importance of helping children in developing mindfulness, and ways to calm their bodies and minds, Stephanie completed a yoga teacher training for children through Radiant Child Yoga, and has enjoyed developing yoga curriculum for use by children and participants at various trainings and conferences.
Stephanie has a Bachelor of Arts degree in communicative disorders from the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and a Master’s degree in early childhood special education from the University of San Diego.
Stephanie and her husband Ben enjoy road trips, camping and snow skiing, often accompanied by their dog Bernie, when they are not entertaining friends.
Cindy Bernheimer
CINDY, as a Senior Research Associate for the San Marcos office, is responsible for supporting ongoing continuous improvement across all projects, designing evaluation instruments for Teaching Pyramid and BEGINNING TOGETHER trainings, analyzing and summarizing the data, and sharing the results with WestEd staff and funders.
Cindy has spent more than 30 years in the field of early childhood special education. Her work has focused on program evaluation and longitudinal research on children with disabilities and their families. She served as a co-director of Project REACH within the UCLA Department of Psychiatry’s Sociobehavioral Group from 1985 to 2004. She has been involved in program and systems evaluations at the local, state and national levels and has served as evaluator for the Chartwell Education Group, the Hilton/Early Head Start training program, the California Early Intervention Distance Learning Project, and the California Early Intervention Evaluation: Implementation of Part H and the Family Resource Centers.
She has published and presented widely on early childhood special education and issues pertaining to families of children with disabilities and has been a reviewer of academic journals including Child Development, Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, American Journal on Mental Retardation, Infants and Young Children and Early Childhood Research Quarterly.
Cindy has an M.A. in Communicative Disorders from University of Southern California and a Ph.D. in Early Childhood and Developmental Studies at University of California, Los Angeles.