Meet the Board

Brijan Fellows is a clinical social worker with expertise in perinatal and infant and early childhood mental health.  She is the clinical program director for the Taghi Modarressi Center for Infant Study’s Secure Starts Clinic at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She oversees various grant-funded initiatives, including state and federal projects funded by SAMHSA and the Department of Justice, and supervises staff and trainees from various disciplines. 

Brijan has presented early childhood research and clinical findings at numerous local and statewide conferences.  Her work focuses primarily on addressing the unique needs of vulnerable infant populations, including refugees and those affected by trauma and substance use.  When not in the clinic, Brijan can be found at one of many sports arenas with her husband and two sons.

Jessica Lertora, MSW, LCSW-C, IMH-E®, is a licensed clinical social worker employed with ZERO TO THREE in Frederick County, Maryland, as the Community Coordinator for Frederick County Safe Babies, a program that focuses on transforming child welfare into the practice of child well-being for infants and toddlers ages birth to three, under the court’s jurisdiction.  She also works with the North Carolina Child Treatment Program at Duke University as an Endorsed National Trainer for Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) in efforts to disseminate CPP across the state of North Carolina.  Previously, she held positions as a reunification social worker with the Frederick County Department of Social Services and as an early childhood mental health clinician at the University of Maryland, Baltimore Taghi Modarressi Center for Infant Study:  Secure Starts program.

Ms. Lertora has dedicated her career to providing a multitude of evidence-based therapeutic interventions to families with young children who have experienced trauma and consultation to various early childhood providers.  Many of these efforts also included leading training efforts across the state and nationally.  Her passion and expertise lie in cross-collaborative systems-level work and implementation science. 

Ms. Lertora graduated from the University of Maryland School of Social Work with an MSW focused on a dual concentration in Clinical (Mental Health) and MACRO.  She is a Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical (LCSW-C) in the state of Maryland, a registered social work supervisor, holds an Infant Mental Health Mentor – Clinical endorsement, and is a member of the Maryland/DC Infant Mental Health Association.  At the national level, Ms. Lertora is endorsed as a trainer for Child Parent Psychotherapy and is a member of the World Association for Infant Mental Health.

After Dr. Amanda Holliday-Bembridge’s years in the ECE world as a teacher, curriculum writer, trainer, and reflective coach, she combined this knowledge and lived experiences with a focus on holistically strengthening young children’s families. Her mission is to share the incredible bonding power of music to create connections between caregiver/child that significantly impact both human’s ongoing development.

She brings a unique viewpoint stemming from her understanding of the incredible complexity that lies at the intersection of multiple interconnected fields of study. With her ECE background, she deeply understands child development, DAP teaching practices, and the challenges educators face to meet each child’s specific developmental needs. However, as she expanded her understanding of the ECE world by using an Infant Mental Health lens, she began to better understand the intricate systems, both visible and invisible, which have profound implications for the environment in which the child develops and the caregivers who care for them. 

coming soon

Ms. Julia Wessel, MSW, LCSW-C, is the Assistant Director of the Parent-Child Clinical Services Program at the Lourie Center for Children’s Social-Emotional Wellness in Rockville, Maryland. Ms. Wessel has been at the Lourie Center, a member of the Adventist Health Care System, since 2014. In addition to administrative roles, she provides clinical services to children birth through age twelve and families with an attachment-based, trauma-informed orientation.

Ms. Wessel provides reflective supervision for clinical interns and staff. She is the Director of the Child Placement Consultation Team, a forensic evaluation team providing parent capacity and placement evaluations for Child Welfare Services and local courts. The Lourie Center strives to provide high-quality early childhood mental health care and educational services to the most vulnerable children and families and believes the first years last a lifetime. The Center is one of a kind in its region, with a mission to work with infants, toddlers, and younger children. These families often face intergenerational trauma, racism, and poverty, adding to their complex mental health and emotional needs.

After receiving her undergraduate degree in psychology from Kenyon College, Ms. Wessel worked as a research assistant on the Early Childhood team at Child Trends, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, DC. Ms. Wessel went on to pursue her Master of Social Work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was then selected for a clinical fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center, where she honed skills in early childhood mental health. Ms. Wessel is a registered Circle of Security Parenting facilitator and is a rostered Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) provider.

Ms. Kaya Swann is a licensed master-level social worker with extensive IECMH experience. She is the first Endorsement Coordinator for the Infant Mental Association of MD/DC. In this contractual role, Ms. Swann champions the Infant Mental Health Endorsement®, coordinates the endorsement process and applications, provides resources, guidance, and assistance, and promotes endorsement through community advocacy.

In addition to her role as Endorsement Coordinator, Ms. Swann serves as the Co-Director of the Parent, Infant & Early Childhood (PIEC) Program at the Institute for Innovation & Implementation within the University of Maryland School of Social Work. She oversees program and policy work for all PIEC activities. In this leadership role, she manages IECMH and Pyramid Model program development, project oversight, statewide implementation, workforce training, coaching, and the provision of technical assistance and support for the state’s IECMH Consultation workforce. 

Ms. Swann is deeply invested in her work and has over 20 years of experience working with child service systems, managing, and implementing programs designed to improve outcomes for children, youth, and families. She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Syracuse University and a Master of Social Work from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Social Work, where she focused on management, administration, and community organizing.