The Multicultural Family Institute

Our Members

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Members of the Institute

Monica McGoldrick, LCSW, PhD (h.c.)

Director, Multicultural Family Institute

Nationally known teacher, author and family therapist. Books include: Re-Visioning Family Therapy, The Expanded Family Life Cycle (3rd Ed., 1999), Ethnicity and Family Therapy (3rd Ed., 2005), Genograms in Family Assessment, Women in Families, Living Beyond Loss, (2nd Ed, 2004) and You Can Go Home Again (1995). Faculty, Psychiatry Dept., RWJ Medical School, For 10 years was Visiting Professor Fordham University School of Social Service. Honorary Doctorate, Smith College School for Social Work, 1991. American Family Therapy Academy Award (1988): Distinguished Contribution to Family Therapy Theory and Practice.

Nydia Garcia Preto*, LCSW, ACSW

Clinical Director, Multicultural Family Institute

Noted author and teacher of family therapy. Publications on Hispanic families, ethnic intermarriage, women's issues, and adolescence. Former Director of the Adolescent Day Hospital, CMHC of UMDNJ. She has served on the Board of Directors of American Family Therapy Academy, American Orthopsychiatric Association, Supervision Committee of AAMFT. Private practice, Metuchen, NJ.

Barbara Petkov, Eds.

Core Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

Barbara Petkov Ed.S, Marriage and Family Therapist, Alumni and Core faculty at the Multicultural Family Institute. SHe has a private practice in Highland Park with extensive experience in working with young children, adolescents and families. Certified therapist in EMDR. Coordinator and trainer for Cultural Diversity and issues of social justice.

Eliana Gil*, Ph.D.

Visiting Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

National expert on child abuse and neglect, and leading family therapist. Director, Starbright Child and Family Play Therapy Institute. Author of numerous acclaimed works on child abuse including: The Healing Power of Play: Working with Abused Children and Play in Family Therapy. Registered Play Therapy Supervisor and a licensed marriage, family and child counselor.

Sueli Petry, PhD

Core Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

Works for the UMDNJ Child and Family Services and has a private practice in Highland Park. She is an Alumna and Associate Faculty at MFI. She has experience with Latino families and with survivors of sexual abuse. She has published on Genograms and on Brazilian families and is co-author of Genograms: Assessment and Intervention, 3rd edition, to be published in 2007.

Charlesetta T. Sutton*, LCSW.

Founding Member, Multicultural Family Institute

National trainer, program developer, consultant, and author, this family therapist applies her expertise to the treatment of families and/or to larger scale interventions that focus on prevention, spiritual well-being, and health promotion. (Train the Trainer work pertaining to families in crisis, loss, trauma, life transitions, violence and suicide intervention with families and adolescents) She is Director, CTS Group: Sutton and Associates, Faculty, TurtleIslandProject and Former Training Director, UMDNJ-UBHC, OPSR.

Kenneth Hardy., PhD

Guest Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

Kenneth V. Hardy is a professor of family therapy at Syracuse University and is Director of the Eikenberg Institute for Relationships in New York. He is the former Director of the Center for Children, Families, and Trauma at the Ackerman Institute for the Family in New York. Dr. Hardy has provided training and consultation for working with troubled children and youth throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. His work has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, 20/20, Dateline NBC, PBS, and the Discovery Health Channel. Dr. Hardy maintains a private practice in New York.

Associate Faculty & Alumni

Laura Benton

Associate Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and private practice clinician in Highland Park, NJ. Pastoral therapist at Princeton Theological Seminary in Princeton, NJ. Formerly, Laura has served as a family therapist and clinical supervisor in community mental health and child guidance clinics. Her special interests include work with families, couples, children and adolescents, and survivors of trauma.

Debra Chatman-Finley MA, DVS, LPC

Alumna and Associate Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Domestic Violence Specialist. Private practice in Somerville, NJ, special interest in families of color. A trainer in cultural diversity and concerns of African-American women.

Corinthia Cohen, MSN, APRN, BC, LMFT

Associate Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

Works at UMDNJ-UBHC, Child & Family Services, on a state grant which provides interium in-home services to prevent recidivism of youth who are discharged from psychiatric hospitalization. She also has a private practice in Philadelphia. Corinthia is an Alumna of The Family Institute of Philadelphia. She has taught on Bowen Theory, Family-of-Origin work and African American Families for many years. She received the AAMFT Minority Fellowship Award and was interviewed for an article "The Other Cheek" about Forgiveness, in Essence Magazine (August 2001).

Joanne Guarino Klages, LCSW.

Associate Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

A social worker and graduate of the institute she has worked in a variety of settings including the New York City school system for over 25 years. She is a speaker and trainer on topics such as bridging cultural differences bullying in the context of bias, discrimination and power, developing an anti- bias peer education program for adolescents and systemic assessment for school guidance personnel. In private practice in Highland Park New Jersey and Staten Island New York, she has a special interest in working with families dealing with the challenges of heterosexism and traditional gender scripts.

Robbin Loonan, MA, DVS, LPC

Alumna and Associate Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Domestic Violence Specialist. In addition to her private practice in Somerville, NJ, Robbin is the Director of Clinical Services for Dierdre’s House in Morris County, a Child Advocacy Center in Morristown, NJ. She is co-author of a chapter on Sexuality and Culture, to be published this year.

Josiane Menos, PsyD

Alumna and Associate Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

School Psychologist in Brooklyn NY, Josiane works for the Office of Child and Family Services (OCFS), a culturally based intervention program for traumatized and violent teenage girls in a residential facility. She is an author of a chapter on Haitian families in Ethnicity and Family Therapy, and of a chapter on loss in Living Beyond Loss, 2nd ed.

Tazuko Shibusawa, MSW, PhD.

Associate Faculty, Multicultural Family Institute

is on the faculty of New York University School of Social Work. She conducts research in the area of aging among vulnerable populations including older immigrants. She has practiced in Japan and Los Angeles and now in the New York area. She is interested in cross-cultural practice including intermarriage.

Institute Fellows

Karen Herrera

Institute Fellow, Multicultural Family Institute

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