Training Personnel

Other Dallas Independent School District Personnel Contributing to the Program

Other Departmental Staff Contributing to the Program

Training Personnel

The Executive Director of Psychological Services (PS) and Chief Psychologist is José Luis Torres, Ph.D.. Dr. Torres is a 1988 graduate of the APA approved School Psychology Training Program at Texas A&M University. He completed his internship at the Houston ISD and the Harris County Psychiatric Department. He assumed his current position in July, 1996. He is a licensed psychologist and a licensed specialist in school psychology. Dr. Torres is primarily responsible for departmental planning and management. He also conducts staff developments and assists with supervision. Dr. Torres' theoretical background is cognitive behavioral with a specific interest in assessment, social competence, and conduct disorders. He has worked as a school psychologist in large urban school settings, which have specialized in addressing the needs of culturally and ethnically diverse children and adolescents. Additionally, Dr. Torres has extensive experience in supervision, crisis intervention and management, individual assessment, and consultation. Other interests include family and systems consultation, clinical supervision, training, recruitment, and systems change. As executive director, Dr. Torres oversees the management and supervision of psychological services for the Dallas Independent School District and serves as a mental health consultant to the district school-based clinics. Dr. Torres is a member of the Dallas County Juvenile Probation Department's Youth Advisory Board and also a member of the Dallas Children's Mental Health Committee. Dr. Torres is currently the President of the School Psychology Division of the Texas Psychological Association (TPA) and a member of the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists. He is also a member of the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). He and Dr. Rakowitz presented at TPA in 1998 and at NASP in 1999 on School Violence Risk Assessment. See Appendix K for all Abbreviated Internship Training Staff Curriculum Vitae.

The Director of Internship Training is Connie S. Wilson, Ph.D., a 1977 graduate of the Child and Educational Psychology Department of Texas Woman's University. She completed internships in the practice of Dr. Joseph Seifert, M.D. and The Fairhill School, Dallas, Texas. She is a licensed psychologist and a licensed specialist in school psychology. She is part of the leadership in the department and director of the internship program. She is the primary intern supervisor, manages the internship application process, coordinates the self-study process, and facilitates the Professional Issues Forum. She is also primary supervisor for one pre-doctoral intern and two post-doctoral interns. Her primary orientation is behavioral cognitive with a very strong emphasis in systems and organizational culture and program design. Her particular interests include large systems program design, the integration of public and private sector service delivery systems, strategic planning and incorporation of the schools into the community based systems and the integration of the community into the schools. She has served as the Director of the District's Office of Interagency Collaboration that oversaw the Youth and Family Centers, the After-School Programs and the Homeless Education Program. The Youth and Family Centers are nine school-based clinics providing physical and mental health services and are a collaboration of the Parkland Health and Hospital System, Dallas County Metrocare Services and the District. The After-School Programs were located at 180 sites and combined the efforts of 52 community agencies and District staff. The Homeless program worked with 25 shelters and the schools serving them. Dr. Wilson also served as the Director of the Salesmanship ClubYouth and Family Education Center, a day treatment program for emotionally disturbed adolescents and their families and coordinated the original design and implementation of that program. She is a frequent instructor at area universities in their graduate programs in Psychology and Special Education. She has consulted with many area school districts and youth serving agencies. Dr. Wilson is very active in local and statewide community organizations, currently serving on the state board for the Mental Health Association of Texas and on several statewide legislative committees.

Dr. Jane Blair, a field staff LSSP and also a licensed psychologist, provides primary supervision and group supervision.. She is a 1989 doctoral graduate of the school psychology program of the University of South Carolina. She did her internship through the University of South Carolina at Richland School District #1. She did an externship with the Dallas Child Guidance Clinic and obtained additional training with the Southwest Family Institute. She is a member of NASP, TASP, DFWRASP, and ADSP. Dr. Blair's interests include behavior management and promotion of home-school collaboration.

Dr. Lillie Nelson-Haynes is a field staff licensed specialist in school psychology and also a licensed psychologist who provides primary supervision for one intern and secondary supervision for another. She facilitates the weekly Professional Issues Form with Dr. Wilson. Dr. Nelson-Haynes is a 1995 doctoral graduate of the school psychology program at Texas Woman's University in Denton, Texas. Dr. Haynes has 24 years of experience as a school psychologist with the Dallas Independent School District. Dr. Haynes has had clinical experience with the Mental Health Mental Retardation/Authority, the Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas County Juvenile Probation, the Family Courts and the Youth & Family Centers. Dr. Haynes' primary interests are anger management, conflict resolution, violence prevention, behavior management, rational emotive therapy, crisis intervention, negotiation skills and family systems. Her theoretical background, perspective and skills are in the areas of cognitive-behavioral and developmental psychology. Dr. Haynes has served as past chair of the cultural diversity committee for the Dallas Psychological Association and also served on the Family Courts Intervention Project with the Dallas Association of Marriage & Family Therapists. Dr. Haynes is a nationally certified school psychologist and is an adjunct instructor at a local university. Dr. Haynes is a mediator, licensed professional counselor, licensed marriage and family therapist, sports psychologist and a published author. Dr. Haynes is a member of NASP, TPA, Dallas Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, TASP, the North Texas Society for Personality Assessment and a clinical member of American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.

Dr. Vickie E. Neal is a field staff licensed specialist in school psychology who is secondary supervisor for one intern. Dr. Neal received a Ph.D. in psychology (counseling concentration) from Mississippi State University in 1989. Dr. Neal also completed a postdoctoral internship at Southwest Family Institute in 1992. Her theoretical background, perspective, and skills are in the areas of developmental, behavioral, and cognitive behavioral psychology. Her interests are intervention, family therapy and family systems, consultation, assessment, supervision, research, and psychopharmacological treatment. Dr. Neal has served as a Chief Psychometrist, Special Education Administrator, and a Specialist for mental health teams for several school districts. Dr. Neal has also served as President of the Dallas Association of School Psychologists for three terms. Her professional associations/affiliations are Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Society, Phi Delta Kappa, ADSP, State Bar of Texas-ADR, Society of Professionals in Dispute Mediation, and NASP.

Dr. Paul Tathiah is a field staff licensed specialist in school psychology and also a licensed psychologist who provides secondary supervision for one pre-doctoral intern and co-leads group supervision for the four pre-doctoral interns. Dr. Tathiah completed his masters degree in counseling psychology at the University of Dubran-Westville in Dubran, South Africa and his doctoral degree in clinical psychology through the Federation of Texas Universities program. For the master's degree, Dr. Tathiah completed a one-year internship at the Fort Napier Psychiatric Hosital and the psychiatric unit at Addington Hospital. While in South Africa Dr. Tathiah served as Consultant Psychologist at several orphanages, most notably the Aryan Benevolent Home and St. Theresa's Home. Dr. Tathiah's expertise is in the area of child abuse. He currently serves on the board of the Sexual Abuse Group Treatment Program of the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. He also conducts group therapy sessions with mothers of victims of sexual abuse. While his therapeutic approach is eclectic, he tends to be predisposed towards the use of cognitive-behavioral approaches and the use of transactional analysis.

Dr. Sylvia G. Garza has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (UT at Austin), a Masters in Business Administration (UT-San Antonio), and a Ph.D. in School Psychology (LSSP). Her areas of interest include system-wide interventions; community-school collaboration; student civil rights protection; crisis interventions; and multicultural issues in assessment, consultation, and therapy.

Other Dallas Independent School District Personnel Contributing to the Program

Dr. David Tacher and Al Mayo, Coordinators - Individual Assessment, are LSSPs and licensed psychologists. They provide interns with training and supervision in comprehensive individual assessment and the special education process.

Dr. Susan Dorsaneo, Licensed Psychologist - Youth and Family Centers.

Ms. Josephine Hill, Specialist III - Child Abuse Office, is assigned to the district from Child Protective Services to handle training and questions about child abuse and neglect.

Other Departmental Staff Contributing to the Program

Chris Velasco, Coordinator - Student Support Teams, §504, and Medicaid, provides training and consultation on bilingual assessment and assists in the selection of interns. She is a member of the Regional Bilingual Assessment Leadership Team and the Texas Educational Diagnosticians Association.

In total, the department has twenty licensed specialists in school psychology. Eight of the LSSPs are doctoral psychologists and five of the nine are also licensed psychologists. Of the five licensed psychologists, two are in leadership positions. Interns have the availability of a highly skilled and knowledgeable staff from whom to seek consultation and supervision in specific areas of expertise. The ratio of supervisors to supervisees is at least 1/10 for LSSPs and 1/6 for interns, which is consistent with the staffing ratio recommended by standard 3.2.3 and standard 3.2.4 of the National Association of School Psychologists Standards for the Provision of School Psychological Services.