Executive Staff

President & Chief Executive Officer
Pamela Cantor, M.D.

Dr. Pamela Cantor is the President & Chief Executive Officer of Turnaround for Children, formerly Children’s Mental Health Alliance (CMHA). Her professional activities reflect a longstanding interest in public health approaches to children’s mental health issues. For many years, Dr. Cantor has worked with communities and organizations in both the United States and abroad to support the healthy social and emotional development of children and their families.Currently, Dr. Cantor and Turnaround for Children are directing several initiatives in the New York City Public Schools. In all instances these activities include developing comprehensive support structures intended to meet the diverse learning and behavioral needs of children growing up in highly stressed, under-resourced schools and communities. This framework insures that each child in a Turnaround school experiences an engaging curriculum, a connection to caring adults, positive behavioral supports, and the development of important social and emotional skills.The Turnaround Model for Children and Schools emerged directly from work conducted by Dr. Cantor following the September 11th terrorist attacks. In collaboration with the New York City Board of Education, this initiative, called the Partnership for the Recovery of New York City Schools, joined with many public agencies and private organizations to assess the impact of 9/11 on the city’s public school children and create a system through which they (and their families) could receive the necessary help. She and her colleagues recognized that many of the mental health problems identified among the children were in fact long-standing and that an enduring and sustainable service model was called for.Prior to her work in New York City, Dr. Cantor participated in several initiatives focused on the tremendous escalation of community and school violence. In collaboration with the United States Department of Justice, she organized the Children Exposed to Violence Initiative which developed an action plan for statewide implementation of prevention programs throughout the country. Dr. Cantor was also Co-Director of the Eastern European Child Abuse and Child Mental Health Project, a venture initiated and funded by George Soros and the Open Society Institute. Through this initiative, cadres of child-serving professionals from 12 Eastern European countries were trained in best mental health practices. In addition, self-sustained non-governmental organizations were created to continue the work.Dr. Cantor has been a practicing child psychiatrist for seventeen years. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center and a member of the faculty of the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence.

Senior Vice President, Educational Initiatives
Greg Greicius

Greg Greicius is a 35 – year veteran of the NYC Board of Education. He spent 18 years as a teacher, staff developer, and clinician both in general and special education settings. For the remaining 17 years, Mr. Greicius held a number of senior positions as a supervisor, and ultimately as District Director of Instructional Support Teams for one of the largest districts in NYC. His work focused primarily on children with social, emotional, and academic risk factors, both in and out of special education.

During his last five years at the Board of Education, Mr. Greicius worked with district and school leadership promoting the development of comprehensive school–based student support systems and interdisciplinary staff development activities. Along with leaders from the Bronx mental health service community and the Department of Mental Health he developed effective inter–agency collaborations in support of the area’s children, families, and schools. These collaborations improved the capacity of many schools to identify and properly support high need children, reduce the number of inappropriate calls to 911, foster the development of positive discipline practices and create safe, orderly and effective learning environments.

Since joining Turnaround for Children in 2002, Greg has led the development of numerous successful partnerships with high need schools in NYC. He is a frequent presenter on organizational development aimed at creating positive conditions for teaching and learning.

Senior Vice President, Mental Health Programs
Owen Lewis, M.D.

Dr. Owen Lewis is the Senior Vice President of Mental Health Programs at Turnaround for Children. In a variety of settings he has sought to teach and influence the practice of child psychiatry and child psychotherapy. Beyond the office or clinic settings, he has sought to expand the reach of mental health providers to children for whom services are not easily available and to influence systems of care.His current projects with Turnaround for Children include directing the Kluge internship in School-Based Mental Health for minority scholars at Columbia College (in collaboration with Columbia College and the Columbia Department of Psychiatry) and the development of projects to support the professional education of social workers in a number of New York City Public Schools.Dr. Lewis' prior work includes Co-Directing the Eastern European Child Abuse and Child Mental Health Project, a multi-national endeavor funded by George Soros and the Open Society Institute. Multi-disciplinary teams from 12 Eastern European countries were trained both in best mental health practices related to child abuse and in organizational development and public awareness. New self-sustaining non-government organizations were created in these countries to continue the work of the Children’s Mental Health Alliance (the predecessor of Turnaround for Children).Dr. Lewis has been a practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychoanalyst for over twenty years. He is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and serves as Director of Residency Training in Child Psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

Administration

Lawson Shadburn, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer
Karen Lavine, Legal and Administrative Consultant
Vanessa Matibag, Office Manager
Stefanie Lindeman, Development Officer
Joselin Pichardo, Office Assistant

Program Staff

Gary Holbert, Senior Vice President, Program Implementation
Donna Jones, PhD, Director, Professional Development Institute
Liz Geisewite, Administrator, Professional Development Institute
Fran Salter, Project Director, Safe Schools, Successful Students
Edi Vogel, Education Coach, Safe Schools, Successful Students
Patricia Kobetts, Education Coach, Safe Schools, Successful Students
Robert Weinstein, Expansion Director/Education Coach, Safe Schools, Successful Students and Bronx Collaborative
Gin Gee Moy, Education Coach, Bronx Collaborative
Richard Schachter, Education Coach, Washington Heights Collaborative and Bronx Collaborative
John Jangl, Education Coach
Sallejane Seif, Project Manager
Michael Strauss, Education Coach
Emma Pendleton, Project Manager
Barry Katz, Education Coach
Guy Rosiello, Education Coach
Ronni Gambardella, Education Coach
G. Ben Dachs, Education Coach
Edith Bly Jenkins, Education Coach
Gail Meskill, Education Coach
Wiley Owens, Jr., Director of Social Work
Mery Diaz, Social Work Manager
Amy Greenbaum-Strauss, Social Work Manager
Fanteema Barnes, Social Work Manager
Jennifer Charlot, Social Work Internship Coordinator
Elesia Johnson, Family Engagement Specialist
Sean Glasco, Family Engagement Specialist
Marsha Hutchinson, Family Engagement Specialist
Gwendolyn Primus, Family Engagement Specialist

Continuous Quality and Program Improvement (CQPI)

Katje-Lilah King, Research Associate
Shefali Trivedi, PhD, Research Associate