Staff at Connected Beginnings

Libby Zimmerman, Ph.D., LICSW

Libby Zimmerman is founding Executive Director of Connected Beginnings Training Institute. Her specialty is integrating research-based infant mental health training into a range of settings including Early Intervention, childcare, and Early Head Start. Dr. Zimmerman’s published research explores how infants develop relationships with their parents and childcare teachers. She has presented nationally and internationally on how the dynamic interactions between practitioners, babies, caregivers, and culture influence infant-toddler social and emotional well being. Prior to founding Connected Beginnings, she was a Senior Early Childhood Associate with the Early Head Start Resource Center at Zero To Three, consulting to staff in the Federal Administration for Children and Families on enhancing Early Head Start and childcare programs in the New England Region. In that position she was the lead writer for Pathways to Prevention, a guide for integrating infant mental health principles into agency practice http://www.headstartinfo.org/pdf/Pathwaysto.pdf

Dr. Zimmerman was on the faculty of the Boston University School of Social Work from 1987-2000 where she chaired the Human Behavior Sequence, directed several federal Child Welfare training grants, and developed an interdisciplinary graduate course in infant mental health with faculty from other graduate programs under the umbrella of the University Partnership for Infant Toddler Professionals. She is a founding member and has been on the staff of Focus, Counseling and Consultation, Inc. in Cambridge since 1973 where she is a psychotherapist and supervisor for other infant mental health professionals. She serves on the board of the Boston Institute for the Development of Infants and Parents. Dr. Zimmerman is a graduate of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University , Ph.D., University of Michigan, MSW, and University of California, B.A. She has a training certificate in Video Interaction Guidance and incorporates video feedback into her work. She is Visiting Scholar in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, September 2005-December 2008.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Leutz, M.S.Ed.

Betsy Leutz is Senior Program Director at Connected Beginnings. Her special areas of expertise are in Infant and Early Childhood Development and in bringing infant and early childhood theory to professional practice in Early Intervention and Early Education and Care settings. From 1995 – 2007 she served first as Director of Program Services and then as Director of Development at Thom Child & Family Services, a statewide non-profit agency serving over 7,000 young children and their families in Massachusetts. While at Thom, Betsy had responsibility for content areas that included developing, overseeing and supervising Thom’s Early Intervention, Consultation and Training Programs; fundraising and grant-writing; and curriculum development. She collaborated on the creation of Thom’s Jump, Jiggle and Jive™ music and movement curriculum for infants, toddlers and their caregivers. With Libby Zimmerman, Betsy helped to create the IN-TIME Training in Infant Mental Health.

Betsy was the director of Thom’s Anne Sullivan Center Early Intervention and Preschool program in Lowell, MA from 1980-95 and before that worked as a childcare consultant in Brookline, MA and a preschool-kindergarten teacher in Cambridge, MA and New York City. She holds a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from The City University of New York, a Bachelor’s degree from Boston University, and is certified as an Early Intervention Specialist and Early Intervention Director in Massachusetts. She is the co-author of: “Hand in Hand: Integrating Young Children In Need of Substantial Special Education Supports,” Massachusetts Department of Education, Bureau of Early Childhood Programs, 1991 and "Entitlements for persons with disabilities: Perspectives on the US from the UK," a paper presented to the annual meeting of the American Society on Aging, 1997. Betsy is currently a member of Massachusetts Interagency Coordinating Committee - Program Planning Committee and has served on the Advisory Committee to the Early Intervention Training Center.

Mallary I. Swartz, M.S.

Mallary Swartz is a doctoral fellow at Connected Beginnings and a Ph.D. candidate in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. Her primary areas of interest are early care and education and young children’s social and emotional development with a focus on teacher-child and parent-teacher relationships. Mallary’s work at Connected Beginnings focuses on designing, conducting, and coordinating evaluation studies of training and professional development initiatives. Other recent work includes collaborating with organizations in New Orleans to help rebuild and enhance the quality of child care, and developing a family child care curriculum for the state of Louisiana. Mallary also worked on the Evaluation of the Touchpoints Early Care and Education Initiative at Tufts University. Prior to coming to Tufts, Mallary served as Director of Special Projects at the University of Pittsburgh Child Development Center where, among other projects, she directed a consulting program designed to enhance the quality of care in community child care centers. Mallary also worked on several research and evaluation projects related to young children’s development and learning at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina, at the University of Pittsburgh, and at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. She was also a teacher of one, two, and three-year-olds. Mallary completed a M.S. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, and a B.A. in Psychology from Duke University. She joined Connected Beginnings in September, 2007.

Laura Beals, M.A.

Laura Beals is a doctoral intern at Connected Beginnings and a third-year Ph.D. student from Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. Her primary areas of interest are in research methodology and evaluation, innovative technology-based research methods for use with children and adolescents, and nonprofit management and organization. Prior to joining Connected Beginnings in 2008, Laura worked at the Center for Engineering Educational Outreach (CEEO) and currently is a member of the Developmental Technologies Research Group at Tufts University. She has published and presented at national conferences on topics including robotics, online peer networks, and interactive technology programs for children and adults. Laura completed a MA in Child Development from the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, with her thesis focusing on a new technology and methodology for observing early childhood classrooms. She graduated summa cum laude in an innovative multidisciplinary program combining Child Development with a BS from the College of Engineering at Tufts University.