About Us

Paula G. Panzer, MD, Director, Martha K. Selig Institute
Brenda A. Rombach, Coordinator

Faculty

Joan Adams, LCSW-R, is Director of Anti-Racism and Multicultural Consultation and Training Service at JBFCS. Ms. Adams is a graduate of and has been a Supervisor in the Adult and Group analytic training programs at Postgraduate Center for Mental Health in New York City. She is also a Member of the Systems Centered Training and Research Institute based in Philadelphia.
Back to top

Paula Panzer, MD, is the Director of the JBFCS Center for Trauma Program Innovation (CTPI) and the Martha K. Selig Educational Institute. She is an expert trainer and director of programs in the area of adult and family trauma, crisis intervention, disaster response, and primary prevention. CTPI is a National Child Traumatic Stress Network Partner, the lead organization in the creation of the Psychological First Aidú Field Operations Guide.
Back to top

Faye Wilbur, LCSW, is a licensed Clinical Social Worker and family therapist. Ms. Wilbur is the Director of the Borough Park-MBCS outpatient mental health clinic for Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services as well as coordinator of family violence services to the Jewish community for the agency. Ms. Wilbur maintains a private practice with a focus on treating survivors of abuse, particularly children who have been sexually abuse.
Back to top

Randi Anderson, JD, LCSW, is the Program Administrator of the JBFCS CTPI Innovation. She was the Co-chair and founding member of the ACS LGBTQ Taskforce and is the Co-chair of the JBFCS GLBT Steering Committee and CWLA and LambdaLegal National Advisory Network.
Back to top

Elsa Pelier, MA, ATR-BC, LCAT, AT , is Clinical Coordinator of the Trauma and Loss Groups for milieu caregivers and children in residential care with the Ittleson Center of JBFCS, in association with the Loss and Bereavement Program. She is an art therapist supervisor for the Ittleson Center and has 20 years of clinical experience working with bereavement, trauma and loss.
Back to top

Veronica Csillag, MA, LCSW, is Clinical Supervisor at the JBFCS MBCS on Staten Island and Instructor at the JBFCS Martha K. Selig Educational Institute. She is candidate, Manhattan Institute for Psychoanalysis. She is also in private Practice in New York City. Her article, The child patient of this particular therapist was published in the Journal of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Psychotherapy in Fall 2005.
Back to top

Caroline Peacock, LMSW is the Trauma Services Coordinator for the JBFCS Center for Trauma Program Innovation, Social Worker at Pelham MBCS, and Co-Chair of the JBFCS LGBTQ Steering Committee.
Back to top

Christina Grosso, LCAT, ATR-BC, BCETS is the Director of Training at the Center for Trauma Program Innovation at JBFCS. She has worked as a clinician, supervisor and trainer specializing in the treatment of trauma and complex trauma in children and adolescents.
Back to top

Deborah Langosch, PhD, LCSW, is a Clinical Coordinator for the JBFCS Loss and Bereavement Program and Project Director at JBFCS’ Center for Trauma Program Innovation. She has over twenty years of clinical experience with bereavement work in both agency and private practice settings.
Back to top

Marc Fleisher, Esq., is an attorney and co-founder of The Association of Collaborative Divorce Professionals. He is an experienced mediator and teaches divorce mediation at the Ackerman Institute for the Family and Brooklyn Law School.
Back to top

Frank Delano, LMSW, is the Director of the JBFCS Institute for Child Care Professionalization and Training and adjunct faculty at the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. He is a member of the CWLA National Residential Advisory Board and recently served on a national task force that revised the CWLA Standards of Excellence for Residential Group Care in America. He has trained at numerous agencies nationally and internationally including India, France, Israel, Scotland and Canada.
Back to top

Bruce Grellong, PhD , is the Chief Psychologist and Director, Center for Child Development and Learning at JBFCS. He is also a supervisor at NYU Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Dr. Grellong teaches infant development in the JBFCS Infant-Parent Study Center and has co-taught on early relationships and the impact of early separation and with Ms. Henderson to professionals in Family Court as well as child welfare and mental health.
Back to top

Dorothy Henderson, LCSW, is the Associate Director of the Infant- Parent Study Center where she also teaches and supervises candidates. She is the Director of the Judicial and Child Welfare Consultation Project, which provides training and consultation to judges, lawyers and child welfare agencies about the infant mental health and early child development needs of young children within the child welfare system and also provides training and consultation on the impact of and treatment needs for infants and toddlers exposed to traumatic experiences. She has over thirty years of clinical social work experience working with infants, toddlers and their families.
Back to top

John Jannes, PhD, is a psychologist who has worked in community based mental health and preventive service settings for twenty five years. He has completed advanced training in Family Therapy from the Ackerman Institute, Solution Focused Therapy from the Brief Family Therapy Center and in the supervision of Motivational Interviewing. He has consulted to many community based mental health providers on the provision of time effective treatment and has managed community based mental health programs serving families at risk for the last twelve years. He teaches marital and family therapy in the doctoral psychology programs at St. John’s University, and is the Director of Community Services for the MBCS Staten Island programs of JBFCS.
Back to top

Alice Psirakis, LCSW, is the Director of the JBFCS Veterans and Families Initiative at the Center for Trauma Program Innovation. She is a former Army mental health officer with experience in treating wounded combat veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Back to top

Judith Levitan, LCSW , is the Director of Clinical and Community Support Services for the Jewish Connections Division of JBFCS.  She is a member of the JBFCS Supervisory Institute faculty and has taught this popular and dynamic seminar for the past ten years.
Back to top

Daniel Sieber, LCSW, is a Clinical Supervisor and Family Therapist at the JBFCS Pelham Office and a graduate of the Martha K. Selig Institute’s Advanced Training Program in Family Therapy. He is a consultant mediator for the Nassau County Family Court and for the Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution (IMCR) in the Bronx where he mediates custody-visitation, landlord tenant, PINS, and harassment disputes.
Back to top

Alexander Rand, LMSW, CASAC has close to 6 years of experience working with adolescents and addiction. He has worked as a therapist at an inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation center for adolescents for 3 years, worked in outpatient substance abuse treatment setting, and most recently joined The Jewish Board in the past year. Currently he is working at various high schools and treating adolescents in the Break free clinic
Back to top

Rachel Rubenstein, LCSW has over twelve years of experience working with adolescents and addiction. She has worked as a therapist in a residential treatment program for adolescent males
for four years and , currently the supervisor of Break Free, the agency’s intensive outpatient substance abuse program for adolescents.
Back to top

Martha Spital, LCSW-R is a psychotherapist with more than 20 years of experience. Ms. Spital has received CBT education at the Anxiety Wellness Center in Rochester, NY and at The American Institute for Cognitive Therapy in NYC. She currently is the Administrative Supervisor at the Beatman Counseling Center, JBFCS. She also maintains a private practice.
Back to top

Arnold Markowitz, LCSW, for over 17 years was the director of the Brooklyn Adolescent Service programs for JBFCS. These programs included an Outpatient Mental Health Clinic for adolescents and their families, an outpatient partial hospitalization substance abuse treatment program, a substance abuse prevention program, an on site alternative high school and special programs for immigrant youth, as well as onsite mental health services at several local high schools.
Back to top

Kathleen McGlade, PhD, has extensive experience in the practice, supervision and management of family, children and community services. As an Associate Executive Director for JBFCS, she encourages the use of professional ethics to guide therapeutic and administrative decisions. Her special expertise is in helping administrative, supervisory and direct service staff integrate clinical and compliance practices. Whether related to treatment or management decisions, Dr. McGlade teaches how to assess information and develop realistic plans that reduce risk and maximize achievement.
Back to top

Linda Payne, LCSW, is the Coordinator of the Crisis Consultation Unit and Clinical Coordinator for the Loss and Bereavement Program at JBFCS.  She has worked as a clinician and speaker/trainer specializing in bereavement and trauma.
Back to top

Rebecca Wulf, LMSW, a graduate of Hunter College School of Social Work, is Director of JBFCS’ Coney Island Community Support Services, which provides out-patient mental health and continuing day treatment services to adults. Rebecca has extensive experience as a social worker and administrator in diverse settings that include mental health, criminal justice, residential, and family and children’s services.
Back to top

Ruth Kreitzman, LCSW, is a Clinical Supervisor at JBFCS in the Loss and Bereavement Program for Children and Adolescents. She is also a faculty member of the Selig Institute.
Back to top

Hillel Hirshein, LMSW, MPH, an expert in test preparation for several years. Hillel received his undergraduate training in Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, and his graduate degrees in Social Work and Public Health from the University of Michigan. He has nine-year's experience as a teacher, tutor and trainer I the for-profit sector, preparing more than 2000 students for a broad range of standardized tests including the Social Work Licensure examination, SAT I, SAT II, GRE, GMAT, LSAT, DAT and MCAT. As an instructor for JBFCS and as an independent educational consultant he has helped dozens of clinicians pass the Masters and Clinical Level ASWB Licensure examinations.
Back to top

Susan Paula, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and the Clinical Program Administrator for the JBFCS
Center for Trauma Program Innovation. Her responsibilities include trauma treatment program
development and providing training on the impact, assessment, and treatment of trauma. She
has given numerous conference presentations on child trauma, childhood aggression, cognitivebehavioral therapy, and behavior management, and has published on the topics of child sexual abuse and childhood aggression.
Back to top

Steven Demby, PhD, is a New York State Licensed clinical psychologist. He evaluates divorcing families for New York, Kings and Richmond County Supreme Courts; is co-President of the New York chapter of the Association for Family and Concilation Courts; Chairman of The New York Freudian Society Divorce Committee; and a member of the faulty of the Family Forensics Program at the Washington Square Institute.
Back to top