Leadership and Administration
Deborah Haber, Center Director (dhaber@edc.org - 617-618-2226) has extensive experience in managing national technical assistance centers, designing training programs for practitioners to implement evidence-based programs, and developing creative training seminars and materials on issues of health, mental health, and violence prevention for youth. Ms. Haber brings 10 years of experience leading a major national training and technical assistance center, The National Training Partnership (NTP), for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As NTP director, she designed and delivered technical assistance (TA) services to every state department of education in the country and 18 of the largest urban districts. Services aimed to strengthen the capacity of school and community-based agencies to implement CDC’s “Programs that Work”, one of the first initiatives to translate research into practice. As director of curriculum development and training and TA for the Reach for Health project, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Ms. Haber worked with multiple stakeholders to adapt and implement a research-based health risk behavior curriculum to meet the needs of 3,600 students in three Brooklyn middle schools. Ms. Haber has provided training and TA to local school communities, state agencies, and national organizations. Ms. Haber worked with Dr. Ron Slaby to train school, community, and law enforcement practitioners to adapt Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders, EDC’s nationally recognized violence prevention curriculum, for use in their communities. Ms. Haber holds a masters of education in health from Boston University.
Cheryl Vince Whitman, Technical Monitor (cvincewhitman@edc.org - 617-618-2300) is senior vice president of Education Development Center, Inc.(EDC), and director of EDC’s Health and Human Development Programs (HHD). With EDC since 1974, she has led and built many facets of the organization's work in health and education. She designed and launched HHD’s national and international technical assistance centers, including the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, CSAP’s Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies, and the National Training Center for Middle School Drug Prevention and School Safety Coordinators. These resource centers enable state and local agencies, policymakers, and practitioners to draw from the extensive science and research base to improve the programs they implement daily. Ms. Vince Whitman founded EDC’s work in violence prevention, collaborating with Dr. Deborah Prothrow-Stith to gain funding for her earliest school-based violence prevention program with African American youth. Ms. Vince Whitman also became deeply involved in EDC's school health work, leading the development of the Teenage Health Teaching Modules curriculum. As director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center to Promote Health Through Schools and Communities at HHD, she has authored many publications on effective strategies to promote health through schools and is developing capacity-building tools for ministries of education and health to advance their efforts. She has launched and led large curriculum development and training efforts, created and managed research projects, written extensive syntheses of the research on violence and the social and emotional development of young people, and designed programs with WHO, UNICEF, and other United Nations agencies to address issues of children’s health and safety. She received an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an AB from Boston University, and an Education Diploma from McGill University.
David Osher, Technical Monitor (dosher@air.org - 202-403-5373) is managing research scientist at the American Institutes for Research, where his work focuses on knowledge use, prevention, and school/community-wide interventions for individuals with mental health problems and disorders and their families. His particular interests include collaboration, organizational change, family-driven services, and diversity. Dr. Osher has nearly three decades of experience in examining and crafting effective prevention and treatment approaches. He directs the Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice, which facilitates Federal, state, and local collaboration and undertakes research, synthesis, and communication activities to improve practices for children with emotional and behavioral problems. He has consulted with state and local agencies across the nation and with many agencies within the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice. Dr. Osher has authored or co-authored more than 225 books, monographs, chapters, articles, and reports and serves on many national advisory boards. His recent publications include Schools as Part of Systems of Care: Promising Practices in Children's Mental Health; Early Warning, Timely Responses: A Guide to Safe Schools; Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide; Working with and Teaching Students Who Have Emotional and Behavioral Challenges; and Wraparound: Stories From the Field. With his colleagues, Osher is currently completing A Resource Kit to Safe Schools; a study of individualized and coordinated services within systems of care, and briefs for family members on research-based interventions. Dr. Osher, who was dean of a liberal arts college and of two professional schools of human services, has taught at the City University of New York, Franconia College, New Hampshire College, Springfield College, and the University of Maryland. Dr. Osher received a PhD, M.Phil., AM, and AB from Columbia University.
Chris Blaber, Mental Health Product Lead (cblaber@edc.org - 617-618-2364) is the Associate Director of the Center for School and Community Health Programs in EDC/HHD. A senior staff member at EDC for over two decades, Ms. Blaber has led a wide array of projects focusing on child and adolescent health and mental health issues. Since 1992, Ms. Blaber has served as Project Director of Teenage Health Teaching Modules, a comprehensive health curriculum for adolescents that addresses substance abuse, mental health, violence prevention, and a host of other health topics. Ms. Blaber also serves as Mental Health Products Lead for the SAMHSA-funded National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention, where she develops materials on issues such as child and adolescent mental health and identifying and implementing evidence-based interventions. Ms. Blaber holds a Master of Education degree with a concentration in health education from Boston University. She is fluent in French and has a working knowledge of Spanish.
Tim Dunn, SS/HS Team Leader (tdunn@edc.org - 617-618-2358) is the associate director of the Center for School and Community Health Programs at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC). Mr. Dunn has been responsible for the oversight and management of a number of Federal projects, involving 20 staff who implement $2.265 million dollars of Federal funding. He has been interim project director and part of the core training team of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program's National Training and Technical Assistance Center for Middle School Substance Prevention and School Safety Coordinators, which has trained 900 coordinators and provided them with online continuing education and technical assistance in the area of evidence-based substance abuse and violence prevention intervention and leadership skills. With a background in school-based mental health services as the director of student service for the Massachusetts Department of Education and a certified school psychologist, Mr. Dunn has also managed the Making Health Academic project, which disseminated a coordinated school health program to states and local school districts.
Celestino (Tino) Garcia, Administrative Manager (cgarcia@edc.org - 617-618-2307) works closely with the Center Director and Managing Director to plan and oversee operations for the National Center project. He is responsible for recruitment, training, and supervision of staff, monitoring Center budgets, and ensuring that all Center administrative functions run smoothly and efficiently. He has considerable experience with administrative and project work for both non-profit and for-profit organizations. In a previous position as a Customer Service Supervisor, Mr. Garcia managed frontline customer service and internal support teams. In that capacity, he led the successful effort to overhaul the Customer Service function for a Fortune 1000 company. Mr. Garcia earned his BA in English and Theater from Amherst College in Amherst, MA.
Sandra Keenan, Deputy Director (skeenan@air.org - 202-403-5324) is a Senior Research Analyst for the American Institutes for Research. She is the Education Resource Specialist for the Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health, which supports systems of care grant sites for SAMHSA. She also leads AIR’s Behavioral Health Promotion Technical Assistance to the National Center which provides support to Safe Schools/Health Students Grant recipients. She has published numerous articles, monographs, and chapters on school-based support programs for children with emotional and behavioral needs. Sandy is currently finishing her doctorate in Education Leadership.
Kim Netter, Products Lead (knetter@edc.org - 617-618-2305) brings extensive health communications and strategic marketing skills to the TA Center. Ms. Netter's previous professional experience included working with local and national advocacy groups to promote women's health care concerns, educating patient and medical audiences about new medical procedures and treatments, and conducting needs assessments in a variety of settings. She is the TA Center’s Communications Specialist, with responsibility for new product development and writing. She has a B.S., Economics, University of Illinois; MPH, Epidemiology/Social-Behavioral Science, Boston University.
Ron Slaby, Senior Scientist (rslaby@edc.org - 617-618-2315) is both a senior scientist at Education Development Center and a lecturer on education and pediatrics at Harvard University. A developmental psychologist, Dr. Slaby has more than 30 years of experience in investigating and applying innovative strategies to prevent youth violence and to enhance children's social and cognitive development through the influences of parents, peers, schools, communities, and media. Dr. Slaby has helped to shape a U.S. national agenda on violence prevention and educational uses of media. He co-authored a national plan for the prevention of violence in America for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, co-authored two national reports on violence and youth for the American Psychological Association, and helped initiate several national programs to disseminate effective violence prevention strategies to educators, health professionals, and criminal justice agents.
Laura Towvim, Managing Director (ltowvim@edc.org– 617-618-2289) has extensive experience in project development, direction, and administration. From 1999-2005, she directed the Social Norms Marketing Research Project, a 32-site study of social norms marketing. As director, she trained grantees in program planning, development, and implementation; developed guidebooks and toolkits; managed technical assistance and monitoring; and developed systems for collecting, analyzing, and reporting on program implementation. Ms. Towvim also currently directs EDC’s College Tobacco Prevention Initiative (CTPI), which assists IHEs in planning, implementing, and evaluating efforts to reduce tobacco use among college students and conducts research to guide these efforts. Ms. Towvim joined EDC in 1998 after completing a Master's Degree in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Health and Social Behavior where she focused on youth risk-behaviors and program design and evaluation. Prior to attending graduate school, Laura worked as a counselor and educator in several settings, including a woman's health clinic and a smoking cessation program.
Sue Vargo, Events Lead (svargo@edc.org - 617-618-2397) is an Associate Director of the National Center and a licensed clinical psychologist. Dr. Vargo brings extensive experience in providing training and consultation to community-based mental health and social service agencies and has clinical expertise from working with individuals, couples, and families for more than 20 years. Some of the settings Dr. Vargo has worked in include community mental health and health centers, HIV prevention agencies, early childhood settings, substance abuse treatment programs, and correctional facilities; and she has special interests in treating trauma at the community level, implementing evidence-based practices in community settings, and providing skills-based training to adults. Dr. Vargo holds a B.A. from Michigan State University, a M.Ed. from Boston University, and a Psy.D. from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology.
