About WONDERbabies
Maximizing the level of support and education offered to professionals who care for babies who have medical or developmental concerns
WONDERbabies: Ways Of Nurturing Development through Enhancing Relationships
WONDERbabies was established in 2012 to provide Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Early Intervention Professionals (ranging from hospital to community-based providers and physicians) educational opportunities and resources through the development and provision of advanced curriculum, evidence-based trainings, and up-to-date resources and supportive services so families and fragile infants and young children may thrive.
OUR INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM:
Joy V. Browne, PhD, PCNS-BC, IMH-E®
Petora Manetto-Spratt, PT, DPT, PCS, IMH-E® Infant Family Specialist
Emily McNeil, LPC, BC-DMT, CIMI, IMH-E (IV)
Kristin Frank, OTR/L, CIMI
Jennifer Martin, M.S., CCC-SLP
Jennifer Harrison, MS, CLE, CIMI
Gail Trujillo, M.Sc., Ph.D (ABD), IMH-E®
Debra Paul, OTR/L
Jeffrey Alberts, PhD
Jean Powlesland, MS, RNC-NNIC, NIDCAP Trainer
Jennifer Hofherr, MS, OTR/L, C/NDT
Bonni Moyer, MSPT
Diane Ballweg, MSN, APRN, CNS
Dorothy Vittner, PhD, RN, CHPE
oUR FOUNDER
A visionary on a mission.
Joy V. Browne, PhD, PCNS-BC, IMH-E® holds dual licensure as a Pediatric Psychologist and a Board Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist. She is the founder and director of WONDERbabies, which encompasses several programs, including the BABIES and PreSTEPS program and Fragile Infant Feeding Institute.
Her area of expertise is in neurobehavioral assessment and intervention with high-risk infants and their families, as well as systems change toward developmentally supportive and family centered care in both hospital and community settings.
Dr. Browne also developed BEGINNINGS, an interim Individualized Family Service Plan for newborns with special needs. She is a Zero to Three graduate fellow, NIDCAP Master Trainer, and past President of the Colorado Association for Infant Mental Health and the New Mexico Association for Infant Mental Health. She is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine.
WONDERbabies — her “baby” as she calls it — provides evidence-based training, curriculum, and resources to a wide range of neonatal and pediatric practitioners, from NICU Physicians, Nurses and Therapists to Neonatal and Community-based Professionals. Each course is taught by experienced Interprofessional Teams. Please review their professional bios below. It is a privilege working with such incredible individuals.
MEET our INTERDISCIPLINARY FACULTY
FIRST Steps for BABIES© and PreSTEPS Model AND LEARNING COLLABORATIVE
Petora Manetto-Spratt, PT, DPT, PCS, IMH-E® Infant Family Specialist
Petora is a licensed physical therapist and board certified pediatric specialist. She also has her IMH-E (II). She is the owner of Precious Steps Pediatric Therapy in the Denver Metro area, and has been practicing for over 36 years. She has specialized in early intervention (EI) for the past 30 years, working on various transdisciplinary teams specializing in premature and medically fragile infants discharged from the NICU. Tora has worked in the NICU setting, pediatric acute care, out patient pediatrics, infant and preschool programs, and home health. She is trained in the BABIES/ PreSTEPS model, and has assisted with training other EI providers in this model. She has presented extensively on the subject over the past 7 years, including the APTA Section on Pediatrics Annual Conference (SoPAC) 2016, Colorado APTA Fall Symposium, 2017 and Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy Annual Conference (APPTAC), 2017/2020. She also co-authored Incorporating Infant Mental Health into Early Intervention for Infants and Families Discharged from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, NAINR Dec. 2016.
Petora earned her Doctor of Physical therapy in Pediatric Science from Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, and post-baccalaureate certificate in Physical Therapy from Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital.
Emily McNeil, LPC, BC-DMT, CIMI, IMH-E (IV)
Emily McNeil is a Licensed Professional Counselor and is endorsed as an Infant Mental Health Clinical Mentor, whose clinical expertise is in infant mental health, particularly with infants and families who have been discharged from the NICU; maternal pre- and peri-natal mental health; trauma, including secondary trauma; adoption/foster care; and developmental delay. She co-developed a form of trauma-informed creative arts therapy known as Neuro-Relational Creative Arts Therapy. Emily owns The Mariposa Center for Infant, Child, and Family Enrichment, a pediatric mental health clinic in Denver, Colorado. In addition to her clinical practice, Emily guest teaches frequently at the university-level and provides local and national trainings on the topics of secondary trauma, early childhood and family trauma, reflective practice, and creative arts therapy. She provides reflective consultation and supervision to individuals and organizations, and is a Master Trainer for Colorado’s Infant Mental Health Association Foundations for Infant Mental Health training. Emily co-founded the Adams County NICU Task Force and Team and is a member of the leadership council for Newborn Hope’s NICU Consortium. Emily completed extensive training in Drs. Joy Browne and Ayelet Talmi’s BABIES and Pre-STEPS Models and is currently a WonderBabies faculty member, working with Dr. Browne to bring the BABIES and PreSTEPS Models to more organizations across the country.
Kristin Frank, OTR/L, CIMI
Kristin is an Occupational Therapist who has specialized in pediatrics for 21 years. She has primarily been working with fragile infants for the past 10 years. She also regularly provides mentoring and training to other professionals. Kristin has done extensive training and is a faculty member for the BABIES and PreSTEPS Models. She is also an infant feeding specialist, a certified infant massage instructor, is certified in the PCI Infant Feeding Scales and is currently working toward her infant mental health endorsement. She specializes in treating a variety of disorders including but not limited to premature birth, high-risk infants, feeding disorders, sensory processing disorders and motor delays. She provides developmentally supportive and family centered intervention with a strong emphasis in parent coaching primarily through early intervention in the Denver metro area.
Jennifer Martin, M.S., CCC-SLP
Jennifer Martin is a bilingual speech and language pathologist with 18-years of experience. During that time she has worked with children of all ages, but specifically with infants and their families for the last 10-years. Jennifer specializes in infant feeding, but loves working as part of a trandisciplinary team where she gets to look at the babies holistically. Caregiver education and empowerment is an area that she prioritizes at each visit.
Jennifer Harrison, MS, CLE, CIMI
Jennifer Harrison is a program manager for Southwest Human Development’s Smooth Way Home program. Jennie has wide-ranging expertise in the areas of early intervention for young children in a variety of settings including hospitals, homes, and childcare centers. She is a certified lactation educator, specializing in fragile infants as well as a certified infant massage instructor. She has B.S. degrees in Early Childhood Development and Education as well as Psychology and an M.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences.
Gail Trujillo, M.Sc., Ph.D (ABD), IMH-E®
Gail Trujillo, M.Sc., PhD (ABD), IMH-E® ® is the Chair of the Alaska Association for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (AK-AIMH). She is Endorsed as an Infant Mental Health Specialist® and provides Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation for several Head Start programs in Southeast Alaska. In addition, Gail is the program coordinator for the Early Learning Program (Part C) for Sitka, Kake and Angoon. Gail is also a trained facilitator for Zero to Three The Growing Brain, Neurorelational Framework, and Circle of Security.
Debra Paul, OTR/L | NIDCAP Professional
Debra Paul, OTR/L, is a Program Coordinator for Quality and Quality and Patient Safety/Clinical Effectiveness for the Division of Occupational and Physical Therapy at Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO) in Aurora, Colorado. Clinically, Debra works as a developmental specialist in the Level IV neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital, and has met the requirements to be designated as a NIDCAP Professional (Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program) and FINE (Family Infant Neurodevelopmental Education) US Trainer.
Debra is also a member of the Cleft Lip and Palate Program at Children’s Hospital where she is involved in both clinical and outreach training for outside neonatal intensive care nurseries, early interventionists, and community providers. Her interests are in educating health care professionals on developmentally supportive care as a faculty member for the FINE-US program, for the Fragile Infant Feeding Institute (FIFI), and the FIRST Steps for BABIES© training. Debra is a mother of twins who were born late preterm and were hospitalized in the NICU and experienced some of the challenges parents face with an early arrival.
FINE 1 and FINE 2 (Family and Infant Neurobehavioral Education)
Jeffrey Alberts, PhD
Jeffrey R. Alberts is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University – Bloomington. His research addresses sensory and physiological bases of behavioral development in rodents, starting during late gestation, through the birth process, and then their huddling, suckling, weaning, and the mother-offspring interactions that coordinate it all.. Current research in his lab includes the mother-offspring microbiome (M-OM) and the development of sociality. With these interests, Jeff was smitten by the challenges and magic of the NICU that he discovered during a year of mentoring by neonatologists and simultaneous training for NIDCAP certification. He now straddles lab and NICU, gaining and sharing insights from each.
Jean Powlesland, MS, RNC-NNIC
Jean Powlesland, MS, RNC-NNIC is a Senior NIDCAP Trainer working at Children’s Hospital University of Illinois (CHUI) as a Clinical Nurse Consultant and Developmental Specialist in the NICU. She holds an adjunct clinical faculty position at UIC’s College of Nursing and an infant specialist certificate from the Erikson Institute. She has worked in the NICU for 33 years and has been a NIDCAP Trainer for 15 years.
Jennifer Hofherr, MS, OTR/L, C/NDT
Jennifer Hofherr, MS, OTR/L, C/NDT is the program manager for the Neonatal Therapy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. She has been a NIDCAP Trainer for the last 14 years.
Bonni Moyer, MSPT
Bonni Moyer, MSPT is a Developmental Coordinator at St Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix Arizona. Bonni is also the owner and lead Physical therapist of Rainbow Therapy Services and adjunct professor at Franklin Pierce University She has been a NIDCAP Trainer for 8 years.
Diane Ballweg, MSN, APRN, CNS
Diane is a Neonatal Clinical Nurse Specialist and Infant Development Specialist with over 40 years of NICU, healthy newborn, Labor and Delivery, and Obstetrics nursing experience. She first became certified as a NIDCAP Professional in 1993. Diane has experience leading developmental care programs in 4 healthcare systems, including use of mentoring and quality improvement strategies, curriculum development, classroom education, and bedside guidance for new and experienced staff.
Dorothy Vittner, PhD, RN, CHPE
Dr. Dorothy Vittner’s background of 30 years in Neonatal/Perinatal nursing includes more than 20 years research experience focusing on the care of high-risk infants and their families. Dr Vittner is a process-oriented thinker, who is dedicated to innovative solutions to enhance learning and growth that upholds the personhood of the individual engaged in the learning process. Dorothy’s professional responsibilities have focused on infant neurobehavioral functioning as well as training multidisciplinary health care professionals on infant behavior and development to improve outcomes for infants in hospital settings.
Dr. Vittner is a member of the NIDCAP Federation International (NFI), Board of Directors currently serving as Vice-President of the NFI. She is a Senior NIDCAP Trainer and holds many certifications in various infant/early childhood neurobehavioral assessments. Dorothy also has a longstanding interest in reflective process implementation to support health care professionals’ emotional well-being and functioning with repeated and prolonged stress exposure.
Vittner received a Master’s Degree in Nursing Education from the University of Hartford and a PhD from the University of Connecticut. Dorothy has published many book chapters and manuscripts in peer-review journals and has lectured around the world. Dorothy currently holds a position as an Assistant Professor at Fairfield University, Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies and at Connecticut Children’s in the NICU. Her research focuses on examining bio-behavioral mechanisms, specifically the role oxytocin and cortisol in modulating premature infants’ behavioral, autonomic and stress responses utilizing individualized developmental care strategies to enhance parent engagement.
Debra Paul, OTR/L
Debra Paul, OTR/L, is the Program Coordinator for Quality and Patient Safety/Clinical Effectiveness for the Division of Occupational and Physical Therapy at the Children’s Hospital Colorado (CHCO) in Aurora, Colorado. Clinically, Debra works as a developmental specialist in the Level IV neonatal intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital as a NIDCAP (Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program) Professional. Debra is also a member of the Cleft Lip and Palate Program where she is involved in both clinical and outreach training for outside neonatal intensive care nurseries, early interventionists, and community providers.
Debra’s interests are in educating health care professionals on developmentally supportive care as a faculty member for the Family and Infant Neurodevelopmental Education (FINE)-US program, for the Fragile Infant Feeding Institute (FIFI), and the FIRST Steps for BABIES© training. Debra is a mother of twins who were born preterm and were hospitalized in the NICU and experienced some of the challenges parents face with an early arrival.
NIDCAP (Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and assessment program led by Joy V. Browne, PhD, PCNS-BC, IMH-E®
Joy V. Browne, PhD, PCNS-BC, IMH-E®
Dr. Browne holds dual licensure as a Pediatric Psychologist and a Board Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist. She is the founder and director of WONDERbabies, which encompasses several programs including the BABIES and PreSTEPS program and Fragile Infant Feeding Institute. Her area of expertise is in neurobehavioral assessment and intervention with high-risk infants and their families, as well as systems change toward developmentally supportive and family centered care in both hospital and community settings.
Dr. Browne also developed BEGINNINGS, an interim Individualized Family Service Plan for newborns with special needs. She is a Zero to Three graduate fellow, and past President of the Colorado Association for Infant Mental Health and the New Mexico Association for Infant Mental Health. She is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine.
M(OTHERS)
Emily McNeil, LPC, BC-DMT, CIMI, IMH-E (IV)
Emily McNeil is a Licensed Professional Counselor and is endorsed as an Infant Mental Health Clinical Mentor, whose clinical expertise is in infant mental health, particularly with infants and families who have been discharged from the NICU; maternal pre- and peri-natal mental health; trauma, including secondary trauma; adoption/foster care; and developmental delay. She co-developed a form of trauma-informed creative arts therapy known as Neuro-Relational Creative Arts Therapy. Emily owns The Mariposa Center for Infant, Child, and Family Enrichment, a pediatric mental health clinic in Denver, Colorado. In addition to her clinical practice,
Emily guest teaches frequently at the university-level and provides local and national trainings on the topics of secondary trauma, early childhood and family trauma, reflective practice, and creative arts therapy. She provides reflective consultation and supervision to individuals and organizations, and is a Master Trainer for Colorado’s Infant Mental Health Association Foundations for Infant Mental Health training. Emily co-founded the Adams County NICU Task Force and Team and is a member of the leadership council for Newborn Hope’s NICU Consortium. Emily completed extensive training in Drs. Joy Browne and Ayelet Talmi’s BABIES and Pre-STEPS Models and is currently a WONDERbabies faculty member, working with Dr. Browne to bring the BABIES and PreSTEPS Models to more organizations across the country.
DC 0-5, APIB, BABI and FIFI
Joy V. Browne, PhD, PCNS-BC, IMH-E® holds dual licensure as a Pediatric Psychologist and a Board Certified Clinical Nurse Specialist. She is the founder and director of WONDERbabies, which encompasses several programs including the BABIES and PreSTEPS program and Fragile Infant Feeding Institute. Her area of expertise is in neurobehavioral assessment and intervention with high-risk infants and their families, as well as systems change toward developmentally supportive and family centered care in both hospital and community settings.
Dr. Browne also developed BEGINNINGS, an interim Individualized Family Service Plan for newborns with special needs. She is a Zero to Three graduate fellow, and past President of the Colorado Association for Infant Mental Health and the New Mexico Association for Infant Mental Health. She is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine.
WONDERbabies:
The educational framework to help babies and children THRIVE.
- wonderbabies@yahoo.com
- Worldwide Availability