Certified Instructors

Adriana Castillo

Adriana is the mother of three, and has been teaching with Hand in Hand for over five years. She is a day care home provider, and has led Hand in Hand trainings in Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Redwood City and San Diego.

Alaiya Aguilar

Alaiya is the mother of three-year-old twins, and has been a Hand in Hand parent for over two years. She also has many years of experience developing pre-teen's leadership. She teaches in Berkeley, CA.

Alma Mendoza

Alma is the mother of two daughters. She has worked with children with special needs and has been a child advocate within the public school system. She has led Hand in Hand trainings in Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Redwood City and San Diego.

Ann Hefferan

Ann has one adult daughter, and is Founder and Director of Community Transformations, Inc., a not-for-profit organization established in 2003. Located in Adelaide, South Australia, she brings the Parenting by Connection approach to parents, family support workers, parent educators and other professionals, and trains leaders to forward this work.

Annie Tyson

Annie began with Hand in Hand in 1990, and has taught for Hand in Hand since 1995. She is the mother of two young adults. She teaches for Hand in Hand in Berkeley and Oakland, is active in organizing parents in her church, and is an excellent resource for parents of teens.

Danielle Hanchett Friedman, LCSW

Danielle is a mother of two young daughters and a licensed psychotherapist. She became involved with Hand in Hand to learn more about how Parenting by Connection could help her to support her children. She has since completed the Instructor Certification Program and is now bringing Parenting by Connection to other parents in the community in the South Bay.

Barbara Freeman

Barbar works for a Local Government region providing support services to young children, parents & families in Perth, South Australia. There, the Parenting By Connection approach has been incorporated into the home-visiting Early Years Program. Barbara works privately with children and parents, and offers Building Emotional Understanding classes.

Carmen Johnston

Carmen has an infant and a stepson, and is an educator/child advocate who has spent over twelve years working with children and families in Oakland, CA. She now teaches writing at Chabot College, and is a poet and author of Confessions of a B-Girl. She began teaching with Hand in Hand in 2003.

Cynthia Klein

Cynthia has one adult daughter, and has been a parent educator for 20 years. She was Project Manager for the Building Emotional Understanding curriculum project in 2005, and teaches widely on the San Francisco Peninsula, incorporating Parenting by Connection into the classes she has developed.

Dana Davis

Dana is the mother of two children. She received her Masters in Education in 1981, and has 13 years experience as a counselor and mental health worker. Dana has been affiliated with Hand in Hand since 1991, and has taught classes in Santa Cruz, California, Nyack, New York and now in Leucadia, California. Dana has led support groups for teen mothers and parents for 6 years. She received her Masters in Psychology in 2001, and is now working as a Marriage and Family Therapist in San Diego.

Deborah Betz

Deborah Betz, LCSW, is the mother of two daughters. She has a BA in Psychology from Lewis & Clark University, and a MSW from Boston University. She has worked with teens in group homes, and has trained foster families. Deborah leads Hand in Hand classes in Marin County, CA.

Emily Cernusak

Emily Cernusak has one daughter, and began teaching with Hand in Hand at the start of 2009. She has a master's degree in Counseling Psychology, and loves sharing information that parents in the trenches find to be practical, useful and illuminating. She teaches in the East Bay.

Emily Pollard

Emily Pollard is the mother of two young children. She has a BS degree in Human Development and Family Studies, and is a former preschool teacher and nanny. She has been using Parenting by Connection tools with her children since 2006, and lives in Palo Alto, CA.

Emmy Rainwalker

Emmy Rainwalker has two grown sons. She is a parent educator and a Child and Family Counselor in Ashburnham, MA, and also in Watertown, MA.

Julie Nevison

Julie Nevison is a Certified Teacher for Parenting By Connection in Ventura County. She raised three daughters, including identical twins, using Parenting By Connection tools since 1990. As a result, her three daughters (now in college) know how to be skillful and supportive listeners with each other and in friendships.

Kathy Kristjanson-Gural

Kathy Kristjanson-Gural began teaching for Hand in Hand in 2008. She has an eight-year-old daughter and a five-year-old son. She and her husband have been using Parenting by Connection since their children were babies. She is interested in building a parenting support network on the East Coast.

Kay Halle

Kay Halle is a parent and grandparent who has been working with parents and children for the past forty years. She has organized day care centers, taught children, trained and mentored teachers, served as a parent advocate and as a community activist. She is a parenting coach. With her Hand in Hand training, she offers parent education and support programs to parents and caregivers in the Baltimore, MD area.

Keiko Sato-Perry

Born and raised in Japan, Keiko taught in Tokyo for 10 years before coming to Palo Alto in 1998 for a second Masters degree in education. Now with two sons, she has been reaping the benefits of Parenting by Connection classes since 2007, becoming an Instructor in 2010.  In addition to translating Hand in Hand materials, Keiko enjoys sharing the effectiveness of the approach with Japanese- and English-speaking parents and educators in study groups, presentations and workshops. She can be contacted at ksatoperry@me.com.

Kirsten Nottleson

Kirsten Nottleson is mother of two boys, 9 and 3, and has been working with families in Austin, Texas since 1994. She has been using the Parenting by Connection Approach with her own family for 6 years, and is now a Certified Instructor. She loves her work with families, especially her play and wrestling workshops. See her website www.handinhandworkshops.com.

Laura Ossa

Laura Ossa is the mother of two sons, and the director of Sunset Co-Operative Nursery School in San Francisco. Laura has been teaching at Sunset since 1985 and has been the director of the school since 1994. She has taught Parent Education classes there, and at City College of San Francisco. She became a Hand in Hand Instructor in 2006. Laura has been sharing Parenting by Connection tools with the parents at Sunset Nursery School.

Leigh Jamison

Leigh Jamison is the mother of two young boys and is the first Hand-in-Hand Instructor in Europe. She has been using the Parenting by Connection approach in her family for over two years with wonderful results. Aside from a career in business administration, Leigh has over 20 years of experience in a variety of personal development modalities and now teaches Parenting by Connection classes in Stockholm, Sweden. Her website is www.heart-to-heart.se (English translation available here).

Magdalena Cabrera

Magdalena came to Hand in Hand twelve years ago. Since 1988, she has directed and taught an environmental education preschool program in Palo Alto in which she regularly uses the Parenting by Connection approach. She sponsored a Hand in Hand class for her single parents church group and has participated in several weekend workshops over the years. Parenting is a passion and a primary focus of hers and she is happy to report that her two children are pursuing their education, and are doing well. In her spare time, Magdalena likes to garden, play guitar and sing.

Martín Lamarque

Martín is the father of three, and the translator for Hand in Hand materials into Spanish. He is a Hand in Hand trainer and workshop leader in the Bay Area. He works as an interpreter/translator at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose. He is the co-author and editor of How and Why We Organized--the experience of CEPRI in Nicaragua (Cómo y por qué nos organizamos--la experiencia de CEPRI), and is the translator of the medical text Donde hay no doctor (Where there is No Doctor).

Mary Lou Johnson

Mary Lou was raised in Tucumcari, New Mexico and San Francisco, California. She is owner and Director of Happy Hall Schools in San Bruno. There, she is responsible for six day care and after school care programs that serve the children of 200 families, ranging in age from 18 months through sixth grade. Mary Lou is a Chapter President of PACE, a California-wide association of early childhood educators, past President of the San Bruno Rotary Club, a current member of the San Bruno Planning Commission, and was awarded the PACE Administrator of the Year award in 2001, and the San Mateo County 4-C's "Hero for Advocacy for Children" award in 2002.

Mary Lou has been using Hand in Hand’s Parenting by Connection principles at Happy Hall Schools for over a decade, and has led Hand in Hand classes, talks and workshops in English and Spanish since 1996. She is the mother of two sons.

Mary Robinson

Mary Robinson has been the Parent Outreach Coordinator for FamilyConnections in Austin, Texas since 1993 and reaches thousands of parents every year. Mary is the parent of two young adults. She has been using Parenting by Connection tools since 1986 and loves sharing this information with other parents.  Mary also runs a summer camp and keeps herself busy restoring a piece of Texas hill country.

Maria Olivia Jauregui

Maria Olivia Jauregui was born in Mexico and has lived in the U.S. for over 30 years. She has 3 sons; two 26 year old twins which have already graduated form college and an 18-year-old that just started college.

Since she started working as a preschool teacher about 16 years ago, she has been involved with Hand in Hand. She has taught parenting classes in Spanish for over 9 years on the San Francisco Peninsula.

Everything she has done at Hand in Hand has helped her become a better parent and a better teacher. She has been able to help the children a lot more. Hand in Hand has taught her to better understand children’s behaviors so that she can work with them more effectively and more efficiently.

Michelle Pate

Michelle Pate is a mother, writer and Parenting by Connection Instructor living in beautiful Bend, Oregon. She believes even when we feel the most baffled and clueless, there is an answer within us. Often we simply need a supportive listener to help us clear the unhelpful thoughts and past conditioning that make parenting difficult.

As a former preschool teacher and ESL instructor Michelle understands the unique challenge of caring for a group of children. She is excited to be introducing Parenting by Connection to parents and teachers locally through the Preschool Partners Program. She also loves reaching out to those without local resources through her writing, on-line discussion groups and as blog editor for the Super-protective Factor blog.

Pia Dominguez

Piedad (Pia) Dominguez lives in Austin, TX and has a fourteen-year-old son. Since she began practicing Parenting by Connection three years ago, she has rediscovered the joy of being a mom. Pia works for a Child Abuse Prevention Project, with grass roots parent leaders. They co-facilitate classes in Spanish in the community and share their stories about using Listening Tools with their children.

Randi Freundlich

Randi Freundlich, MSW, is a social worker and Parent Educator living in Somerville, MA. She has been Director of Community Programs at the Family Nurturing Center of Massachusetts since 2001. Randi is the mother of one son, now in his mid-twenties. She leads parenting classes and workshops in the Parenting by Connection approach for both parents and professionals in the Boston area.

Ravid Aisenman

Regina Segura-Khagram

Regina Segura-Khagram is a Licensed Marriage Family therapist with two inspiring sons, Ram age 8 and Raul age 3. She works at the University of Washington and has a private practice in Seattle WA. Regina has been using Parenting by Connection tools since 2005 and is currently in the process of making Hand in Hand classes available to parents and child care providers wanting to build emotional understanding and connection with the little people in their lives.

Sara Wood Smith

Sara Wood Smith has been working with children and parents for over 35 years as a midwife, childbirth educator, family advocate, community health worker, and workshop leader. She has an adult daughter, and is a Trainer with Hand in Hand in the Santa Cruz area, teaching in English and Spanish. She sits on the Hand in Hand Board of Directors.

Shelley Macy

Shelley Macy has been working in the field of early childhood education for over 30 years, the last 20 of them as the early childhood education instructor and parenting instructor at Northwest Indian College in Bellingham, WA. Shelley has taught a great variety of early childhood education and parenting courses over the years. The ones she most enjoys sharing with parents and early educators are those that use Parenting by Connection tools. Shelley has two young adult children, four adult step-children, and five grandchildren.

Susan Hutchison

Susan Hutchison is a stay-at-home adoptive mom to three year old David. They enjoy visits a few times a year with David's birth mother and other family members. Susan leads classes and workshops for adults on listening and emotional healing in the Seattle area, and has been a counselor for many years.

Susan Karle

Susan Karle, MFT, mother of 2 grown daughters, has over 20 years of experience working with children and families, including extensive work with Hand in Hand Parenting.  Her background includes teaching preschool, counseling at the Wilmar Center for Bereaved Children, and coordinating for the Stand By Me Mentoring program.  Susan currently has a private practice in Sonoma and Santa Rosa.

Susana Witte

Susana Witte has been a teacher with Hand in Hand for over 12 years.  She was born and raised in Uruguay, South America, and is the daughter of Jewish immigrants who moved to Uruguay from Russia and Germany in the 1930s.  She has been a Berkeley, CA resident since she moved to the US in 1972.  She works locally in the printing industry, and is also a parent and a visual artist.  She started with Hand in Hand as the mother of a four-year-old son (he is now 21), and became a Certified Instructor, teaching in English and Spanish.

Suzy Heltzel

Suzy Heltzel is an LCSW who has been working with children and families for fourteen years. She has three school-age children and has been involved with Hand in Hand since 2007. She works as a counselor with parents and children at San Jose State's Child Development Center and teaches Parenting by Connection classes in the South Bay.

Teresa Zepeda Kelleher

Teresa is a native of El Salvador, and has been with Hand in Hand for over three years. She has two young children, is a Hand in Hand Board member, and lives in Palo Alto, CA. She teaches classes in English and Spanish.

Todd Erickson

Todd Erickson is the father of three. He is a Teacher at Bing Nursery School, Stanford University, and is acquiring his Masters in Early Childhood Education. He taught for eight years at Foundations School Community in Los Angeles, a private school founded on Parenting by Connection principles.

Tom Idleman

Tom is the father of three. Tom specializes in providing one-on-one parent consulting as well as teaching Building Emotional Understanding and Parenting from the Same Page classes. Tom especially enjoys working with parents of middle schoolers and his Skillbuilding groups with Fathers. Tom became a Certified Hand in Hand Teacher in 2007, and teaches in Palo Alto and the South Bay.

Torri Chappell

Torri Chappell has been a Hand in Hand instructor since April 2008 but has been personally using the tools since 2005.  Torri is also a certified classroom elementary school teacher and has been teaching and tutoring for over 20 years.  In addition to teaching and tutoring children, Torri teaches adults how to be effective volunteer tutors in public schools.  She has incorporated and adapted Parenting by Connection tools into her teaching work in Marin County with great success. Torri has been married for twenty years and has two adolescent children.

Usha Sangam

Usha Sangam is the mother of one daughter.  After many years in the software development industry as a software engineer and manager, Usha is now working toward obtaining a California teaching credential.  She lives in Sunnyvale, California.