Staff Biographies

LINDA is the director of Working Together for Inclusion and Belonging, which includes BEGINNING TOGETHER, the California Making Access Possible (MAP) to Inclusion & Belonging, 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.

JEFF is responsible for the oversight and management of the Working Together Project, Center for Child & Family Studies at WestEd.

Previous to joining WestEd, Jeff spent 30 years in management positions, working in operational leadership, human resource development and staffing, and diversity leadership.

Jeff is very active in his church, having served as youth minister for several years. He and his wife Gale have four adult children and three very beloved grandchildren.

CINDY has worked as a research and evaluation consultant in the field of early intervention and early mental health for the past 20 years. During that time, she worked to promote the role of families in the education of their children by co-authoring the California Department of Education’s Handbook on Family Involvement and a study on family involvement activities in California early education programs. She served as the evaluator for California infant and early mental health initiatives from 1998 to 2005 and promoted lessons learned from the initiatives as part of the California First5 Special Needs Project. As Chair of the Infant Development Association’s Interdisciplinary Collaborations for Quality Committee, she leads efforts to support and promote high quality services for very young children and their families.

Currently, she is the Coordinator of the California Making Access Possible (MAP) to Inclusion and Belonging project for WestEd Center for Child and Family Studies. In this role, she works with stake holders to identify resource needs, develop materials and gather resources to maintain the MAP website that provides a clearinghouse of information and resources supporting the inclusion of children with disabilities and other special needs in early care and education settings, after school programs and in the community. Her job as a mother to three girls, one with a developmental disability, is her inspiration and the driving force behind all that she does.

ALEJANDRO serves as Technology Support for several projects out of the WestEd San Marcos office including BEGINNING TOGETHER, and the California Making Access Possible (MAP) to Inclusion & Belonging 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.