I spent a decade in special education — as a classroom teacher, curriculum designer, and administrator — before I ever sat in a meeting as a parent. I'd written IEPs, trained teachers, led school-wide inclusion initiatives, taught graduate courses on supporting students with disabilities, and presented at national conferences on equity and access. I knew how the system worked from the inside.
Then I became a parent to a child whose brain experiences the world differently. And I found myself doing something I hadn't expected: struggling. Not because I didn't know the process — I knew it better than most people in the room. But knowing the system and navigating it for your own child are two different things. The professional knowledge didn't dissolve the emotional weight of it.
The research I used to translate for others, I was now reading to understand both of us.
That experience and the recognition that came with it, that some of what I was observing in my son I could also trace in myself — changed how I understand this work. The brain-and-body lens I bring to consultation isn't just a framework I've studied. It's one I've lived inside, professionally and personally. That's not something you can replicate from one vantage point alone.
My academic training spans inclusive instructional design, learner diversity, and cognition — grounded in urban education contexts and the real conditions schools operate in. I've taught graduate-level special education coursework at Hunter College and Brooklyn College (CUNY), supervised teacher candidates at NYU Steinhardt, and spent years translating learning science into curriculum and professional development at scale across networks of New York City public schools.
My clinical training includes Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) and neurodiversity specialist certification, both of which directly inform how we understand what might be happening in a child's brain and body, and how I support families and educators in responding.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you're looking to build your own understanding of your child's brain and body outside of school meetings, in the daily life of it, that's what Little Brains & Bodies is for.
Little Brains & Bodies is a parent platform built around the same brain-and-body framework that runs through this practice. It's where the between-sessions understanding gets built.
visit littlebrainsandbodies.com