National Center Staff

Prior to becoming Executive Director of The Parent-Child Home Program, Inc., Sarah Walzer was Counsel to the Assistant Secretary for Legislation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services where she worked on legislative initiatives and funding for early childhood and domestic violence programs, welfare reform, and dropout prevention programs for youth. From 1989 through 1993, she was legislative assistant/counsel to U.S. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman. During this time, she also was responsible for children and family issues for the Clinton/Gore Domestic Policy Transition Team. In that capacity, she evaluated early childhood initiatives, prepared policy memoranda, and worked on legislation on a range of issues, including, child care, Head Start and early childhood education, and family preservation. Sarah is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School.

Michele oversees training and certification of Parent-Child Home Program Site Coordinators and sites. She develops training materials and workshops to train both Site Coordinators and Home Visitors and provides technical assistance to both developing and existing Parent-Child Home Program sites on issues including hiring, training, and supervising staff, recruiting families, expanding services, and community relations. She also organizes The Parent-Child Home Program’s annual national conference. Michele was a Site Coordinator for six years at The Parent-Child Home Program replication site sponsored by the Freeport, N.Y. School District and the Nassau Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). She has also worked in the Nassau BOCES Teen Parenting Program, and taught child development courses to college students and professionals. Michele has also made national presentations on the value of early parent-child literacy experiences. Michele has a Master’s degree in Elementary Education.

Katie Zapata is the newly appointed Director of Development and Communications. In this role she works with foundations, corporations and individuals to raise funds to expand the Program nationally and to continue to support current PCHP sites. Prior to joining PCHP, Katie was the Manager of Board Recruitment at the Robin Hood foundation where she identified, recruited and trained executives to serve on the board of directors of nonprofits throughout New York City. Previously, she was the Director of Marketing at On Deck Capital, an innovative small business lender that uses electronic payment technology to deliver affordable capital to businesses underserved by traditional bank loans. In her earlier positions at Robin Hood, Experts Media, and Ettus Media Management, Katie developed and executed comprehensive marketing strategies for a variety of nonprofit, corporate and individual clients.

Katie holds an MS in Strategic Communications from Columbia University, an MA in Sociology and a BA in Journalism, both from Lehigh University.

Mary, a former teacher, brings over 20 years of experience in developing and growing non-profit programs that provide services to children andfamilies, both nationally and internationally. As Expansion Director, shereaches out to underserved or not yet served states and communities. Beforejoining the Program, Mary served as the Southern Region Coordinator forSouthern Christian Services for Children and Youth, Inc., and was theSouthern Region Deputy Director for the Child Welfare League of America(CWLA.). Mary has also worked for Family Services of Westchester inWhite Plains, NY as Director of Adoption and Children's Services, and servedas a caseworker and an adoption supervisor for Abbott House in Irvington, NY. Mary holds a Master's degree in Counseling from Tulane University. She is an expertwitness in child development and a member of Kappa Delta Pi.

César oversees data collection, quality assurance, and research projects. He coordinates the National Center’s efforts to build the capacity of replication sites capacities to plan and conduct research and evaluation projects on the short and long-term impacts of the Program on children and families. He is responsible for the implementation of The Parent-Child Home Program’s Management Information System (MIS), including designing, updating, and providing training to Site Coordinators and Home Visitors. Before coming to The Parent-Child Home Program, César worked as a project associate at the Equity Assistance Center (EAC) at, New York University. César also served as a Board Member of the Passaic Public Schools in New Jersey. He has a Master's degree in Educational Administration and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Developmental Psychology.

Andre coordinates program expansion, program support, staff development, and additional training for all New York Parent-Child Home Program sites. He also helps the sites coordinate with the New York City Department of Education to ensure that all Program children are connected with the appropriate next educational step. Andre also works on developing new public and private funding streams, fostering relationships with new local partner agencies and state and local policy makers, and enhancing partnerships with business and other literacy and early childhood programs. Before coming to The Parent-Child Home Program, he was the Southeastern Regional Director for Jumpstart for Young Children, Inc. and previously was Executive Director of Covenant House Georgia. Andre has a B.A. in Sociology from Brandeis University, a Masters Degree in Social Work from The University of Pennsylvania, and is a candidate for a Masters of Divinity from The Interdenominational Theological Center. He is a Certified Social Worker and holds a Student Supervisor Certificate. Andre currently serves on the Winning Beginning NY Steering Committee, and is also a part of the Amex Leadership program for 2012-2013.

Amy tracks site progress, provides technical assistance to local sites, and conducts site certification visits. Prior to joining The Parent-Child Home Program, Amy’s work experience included eight years at UNICEF, and work as a grants researcher at the Spunk Fund Inc., a New York City based children’s foundation. She received her B.A. in art history from Michigan State University.

Jennifer recently joined the PCHP team as the Development and Communications Associate. In this role, Jennifer will support Program expansion through fundraising, event management, and communications. Jennifer graduated from the University of Delaware with a BA in English Education. In addition to her undergraduate studies, she student taught in an urban school and reported for a Long Island newspaper. Jennifer was on the executive board of UDance Marathon, the largest student-run philanthropy in Delaware, which has raised over $900,000 for childhood cancer research in 3-years. As the Fundraising Coordinator, she helped expand fundraising from $25,000 to $475,000 by securing community sponsors, planning local fundraisers, and obtaining raffle donations.

Marijane Hope Dalayan Castillo is the Research Associate at the Parent-Child Home Program National Center. She has experience conducting both quantitative and qualitative research, and a background in issues involving English-language learners and immigrant status. While an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley, she was a McNair Scholar and her article Ability Grouping & English Learner Reclassification: A Case Study was published in the Berkeley McNair Research Journal. Her Master’s thesis at NYU, Filipinos and Achievement Gaps: Not a model minority, examined over 10 years of longitudinal data from the Children of Immigrants Study. As a former high school drop-out born and raised in Oakland, CA., a diverse community with struggling schools and high rates of violent crime, she identifies strongly with the families that PCHP serves. Marijane received an M.A. in Sociology of Education from New York University in 2012 and earned a B.A. in Chinese with a minor in Spanish from the University of California, Berkeley in 2010.

Dina manages the day-to-day operation of the National Center office and provides administrative support to National Center activities. She manages the office, maintains site and office records, and assists with the annual conference, trainings, and other events. She is fluent in German, Farsi, Hebrew, and English.

Dr. Levenstein was the founder and original Executive Director of The Parent-Child Home Program. She was a clinical psychologist, who first developed the Program for her Columbia University doctoral dissertation. Her background was in the interdisciplinary study of the family, social work, and education. She was an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Program at the State University of New York, Stony Brook. She conducted much of the early research on the effectiveness of the Program and published numerous articles and the acclaimed book, Messages from Home, about child development and The Parent-Child Home Program. She was the lead author of the article examining the results of the high school graduation rate study that earned The Parent-Child Home Program national attention.