Virginia Head Start Association Health Institute
Health & Families: All Systems Go!
For Head Start Directors, Health Managers and Family Services Staff
Stonewall Jackson Hotel, Staunton, VA 24401
November 15-17, 2017
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
4:00 – 6:00pmEarly Registration
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
7:00 – 8:30amBuffet Breakfast (provided in the 24 Market restaurant)
7:30 – 8:30Registration Open
8:30 – 8:45Welcome and Announcements
12:00 – 1:00Lunch - AM & PM Break as timing fits (beverages provided)
Lunch (Sautéed Chicken Breast served over a Rice Pilaf and Roasted Vegetables. Served in a Light White Wine Sauce. Includes Chef’s Choice of Dessert.)
8:45 – 4:30pmJohn Richardson-Lauve, Director of Mental Health and Trauma and Resilience Education
Biography:
John Richardson-Lauve is a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years of experience working in community mental health. He is committed to supporting and strengthening individuals and communities that struggle with adversity. His experience includes work with chronically mentally ill adults, substance abuse, residential youth care, foster care, and outpatient mental health. He has worked with homeless veterans in New York City, in a hospice home for those with HIV in the early stages of the AIDS crisis, and six years living in a home with eight teenage girls in foster care. John is an experienced trainer, lecturer, and keynote presenter. He is the Director of Mental Health and Lead Trauma and Resilience Educator at ChildSavers.
Thursday, November 16, 2017
7:00 – 8:30Buffet Breakfast (provided in the 24 Market restaurant)
8:30 – 10:00 Opening Plenary and Keynote – Emily Ballance
Finding Humor and Purpose in the Midst of Life’s Circus
Biography: Emily Ballance, MEd, LPC, CSP is a professional speaker who travels across the country speaking to educational groups, health and child care organizations, corporations and associations. She speaks on stress management, generations, customer service, and communication, and other topics, all with a humorous twist.
Emily is a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA) and has received the Certified Speaking Professional Designation (CSP), the highest earned designation awarded by NSA. Women who have earned the CSP designation make up only 8% of the membership of NSA.
Also, a Licensed Professional Counselor, Emily is committed to helping people use positive, affirming humor to enhance their health, happiness, work and well-being. When she is not traveling, or speaking, Emily volunteers her time with older adults and the Autism Society of North Carolina.
10:15 – 11:45
Health – Fun, Fabulous, and Free Ways to Promote Healthy Weight for Head Start Children!Emily Keenum is the Health Initiative Coordinator for the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF). In this capacity, she coordinates Virginia’s Taking Steps to Healthy Steps to Healthy Success Early Care and Education Collaboratives (ECELC), an obesity prevention project led by the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation in partnership with five other ECE state agencies. Virginia’s ECELC provides regional training to equip early care programs to improve program-level health policies and practices, and convenes state and regional stakeholders to promote systems-level obesity prevention. VECF, a public-private partnership, works to ensure that all Virginia’s children enter kindergarten healthy and ready to learn.
Austin Brooks, MS, RDN Virginia Cooperative Extension Family Nutrition Program State Social Media Project Manager-Austin Brooks Monitors the content of the nutrition information on all the FNP Media Pages as well as assists community partners to develop content for their audience. She writes a monthly newsletter as well as creating Pinterest pages and tweets aimed at our families.
Kaye Shaner is a Family Nutrition Program Practitioner who has been teaching healthy eating, active living, safe food handling and thrifty shopping for nearly 20 years. She works with limited resource senior Americans but her targeted participants continues to be limited resource moms / Family Services – Understanding and Working with Different Ages, Generations, Co-Workers and Families
Emily Balance, MEd, LPC, CSP- is a professional speaker who travels across the country speaking to educational groups, health and child care organizations, corporations and associations. She speaks on stress management, generations, customer service, and communication, and other topics, all with a humorous twist.
Emily is a member of the National Speakers Association (NSA) and has received the Certified Speaking Professional Designation (CSP), the highest earned designation awarded by NSA. Women who have earned the CSP designation make up only 8% of the membership of NSA.
Also, a Licensed Professional Counselor, Emily is committed to helping people use positive, affirming humor to enhance their health, happiness, work and well-being. When she is not traveling, or speaking, Emily volunteers her time with older adults and the Autism Society of North Carolina.
11:45 – 1:15Lunch (Herb Roasted and Sliced Pork Loin. Served with Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Green Beans. Includes Chef’s Choice of Dessert.)
1:15 – 2:45
Health – Should She Stay or Should He Go? Inclusion, Exclusion, and Readmission of Children Exhibiting Health Symptoms AND Bed Bugs and Other Creepy Crawly ThingsBethany Geldmaker is currently a program consultant in the Office of Family Health Services at the Virginia Department of Health and has been in this position for over ten years. Her current job involves responsibility for early childhood state systems building, integrating service delivery, policy development, evaluation and finance. Prior to that, she held a variety of administrative, teaching and research positions. Bethany received her B.S.N. in nursing from the University of South Florida, her Masters from the University of Virginia and a PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University. She has received a number of awards including Outstanding Young Women; Outstanding Achievement in the Research Awards Competition, Sigma Theta Tau International Conference; and the Martha Borlick Research Award for her dissertation. She was a State Early Childhood Policy Leadership Fellow, National Governor’s Association and Zero To Three, October 2003-May 2005. / Family Services – Exploring Social-Emotional Resources that Engage Families
Deborah Krotec – has over 35 years of experience in early childhood education, including 17 years working directly with Head Start programs. Her work with Head Start programs includes staff development, supervision and program management. Deb has worked as a teacher and child care center director where she led the center in obtaining NAEYC accreditation. Deb has extensive experience in early childhood project management and coordination throughout her career. She has also provided training and technical assistance for over 25 years to child care center staff, Head Start staff and Head Start grantees at both the local, state and federal levels with a focus on inclusion and positive behavior support. As a Program Specialist for the state of Pennsylvania, Deb developed strong local and state knowledge and has developed numerous collaborative relationships which serve to strengthen the services being provided to children and families throughout the state and region. Deb has a BS in Elementary Education and a M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education with a specialization in child abuse and neglect from the School of Social Work at the University of Pittsburgh.
2:45 – 3:00Break (beverages provided)
3:00– 4:30
Health – Emergency Preparedness in Early Childhood and Home Safety for FamiliesToussaint Morgan
Toussaint is an experienced Health Systems Specialist with over 25 years of experience as a subject matter expert in program management and evaluation, administration, compliance, continuous quality improvement, risk assessment, behavioral health, and mental health. He is and advocate for health and wellness in school aged children and has served in this capacity administering and consulting with Head Start and Early Head Start programs in the District of Columbia for over ten years. Presently serves as Head Start Regional Health Specialist for Head Start Programs in DC, MD, VA, WV, DE and PA.. / Family Services –Creating Mentally Healthy Environments for Young Children
Karin Spencer, EdD and Lorelie Pisha, EdD
Karin H. Spencer, EdD is the Supervisor of Preschool Programs at Loudoun County Public Schools including Head Start and Virginia Preschool Initiative. She has over twenty years of experience in the field of early childhood education as a teacher, teacher coach, administrator and teacher educator. Dr. Spencer was the Project Director for three OSEP funded personnel preparation and training programs at the George Washington University, directed an OHS national training and technical assistance center, and coordinated the early education program at Shepherd University. Dr. Spencer has published and presented frequently on resilience, physical activity, inclusion and culturally responsive practice.
Lorelei Pisha, Ed.D. is an early interventionist with extensive expertise in designing and implementing individualized intervention plans for young children with autism spectrum disorders and other neurodevelopmental disorders, language delays, and challenging behaviors. Dr. Pisha also prepares personnel for leadership, teaching, and intervention positions in programs and systems serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities through her roles at the George Washington University and Georgetown University.
Friday, November 17, 2017
7:00 – 8:00 Buffet Breakfast provided (provided in the 24 Market restaurant)
8:00 – 8:10Opening Plenary (no keynote on final day)
8:15 – 9:45
Health –HAC MeetingAgenda to follow / Family Services –
Success in Father Engagement - the Spotsylvania Head Start Father Engagement Program
James “Woody” Biggs A retired United States Marine, Mr. Woody Biggs served for 21 years primarily as an Intelligence Analyst and Military Planner. During his career, Mr. Biggs was a Command First Sergeant, Family Readiness Officer, Assistant Family Readiness Officer, mentor, and leader of Marines helping families adapt to the military lifestyle. Mr. Biggs was also a trainer in the Marine Corps Mentors in Violence Prevention Program. Retiring from the Marine Corps in 2006, Mr. Biggs moved his family to Fredericksburg, VA from Okinawa Japan. In 2008 he became a volunteer with the Spotsylvania Head Start Program supporting his awesome wife Danielle Biggs, in the classroom. In 2012, Mr. Biggs brought his volunteer efforts to the Spotsylvania Head Start Program from the classroom where he helped design, plan, and build the Spotsylvania Father Engagement Program.
9:45 – 10:00 Break (beverages provided)
10:00 – 11:30
Health – Hunger Vital Signs: Assessing Food Insecurity and Becoming a Hunger Champion in Head StartAmy Joyner RN BSN has served as the Fairfax County Office for Children Health Specialist/Public Health Nurse III for the past 3 years. She has been a Pediatric Registered nurse for over 29 years in the Northern Virginia region. Throughout her career, she has had the opportunity to work in acute, chronic, community and well child care. This experience allows her to ensure that high standards of culturally competent healthcare are received by the wide variety of Head Start and Early Head Start participants with diverse needs that she serves.
Everludis Lopez is a registered dietitian nutritionist that manages the Nutrition Services Area for Fairfax County Early Head Start and Head Start program. She has over 35 years of experience working with children and pregnant women. Everludis earned her Bachelor’s degree in Home Economics with a concentration in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Puerto Rico. Her area of expertise is working with children and pregnant women of low-income families. She speaks and writes fluently in Spanish. Proper nutrition is the key for a healthy and happy life!
Natalie Thornock has served for 7 1/2 years as a Health Manager for Greater Mount Vernon Community Head Start and Early Head Start in Fairfax County. Prior to working for Head Start, she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from Brigham Young University-Idaho. She is also a certified medical assistant with clinical experience working with patients of all ages. She has always had a special interest in early childhood health, specifically preventative health and health education.
Daniela Sensini: Daniela Sensini is a Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Coordinator at Fairfax County Greater Mount Vernon Community Head Start and Early Head Start. She obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutrition and Food Science from the University of the District of Columbia and completed her dietetic Internship at Iowa State University. With a previous degree in Culinary Arts from her native country, Argentina, she conducts cooking classes to Head Start and Early Head Start parents in English and Spanish and she is passionate about educating parents and children on healthy habits.
Jennifer Ferraro : Jennifer Ferraro, MSN, RN, PHCNS-BC, Maternal Child Health (MCH) Coordinator with the Fairfax County Health Department, is a Head Start community partner. The goal of the MCH program is to reduce infant mortality and morbidity and to promote the health of women, infants and children in our community. The MCH program includes three Public Health Nurse Home Visiting Programs (MCH Field, Healthy Families, and Nurse Family Partnership); Immunization services, child safety seat education and distribution and a collaborative practice model for prenatal care services with the Inova Cares Clinic for Women. / Family Services – Empowering Families
Nickie Brandenburger
Nickie Brandenburger is married and a mother to two children. Her son participated in Early Intervention services when he was a toddler and receives ongoing support for Sensory Integration Disorder and Anxiety Disorder. Originally educated as a special education teacher, Nickie began working in Support Coordination in the early 1990s at the onset of Virginia’s participation in the Home and Community Based ID Waiver. She has had the opportunity to work in South Carolina’s Developmental Disability service system and spent 17 years at Chesterfield Community Services Board helping families of adults and children with Intellectual Disabilities. She is now the Director for the Family to Family Network of Virginia at the Center for Family Involvement.
11:30 – 11:45Closing, Reflection, Door Prizes
Updated 11/2/17