KATALIYA CAIAZZO, PT, MPT, MBA
Chief Compliance and Quality Improvement Officer

Kataliya (Liya) Caiazzo, PT, MPT, MBA was appointed the Chief Compliance & Quality Improvement Officer in 2020 and was previously the Regulatory Compliance & Quality Improvement Officer at WIHD since August 2012. Her primary responsibilities include oversight of Compliance, Quality Improvement, Regulatory, Health Information Management, and HIPAA. Mrs. Caiazzo has over 20 years of experience in health care beginning her career as a Physical Therapist. As a clinician she has real life insight into clinical aspect of health care while combining her business knowledge through her MBA to help support and collaborate with all programs at WIHD. She has a wide range of clinical, quality, compliance, and leadership experience in specialty hospital care, trauma centers, hospital networks, and outpatient clinics. Mrs. Caiazzo is an author, educator, mentor, and non-profit advisory council member. She obtained her bachelors in Health Care and Masters in Physical Therapy at Quinnipiac University and MBA in Health Care Administration at Baruch College.

JENNIFER CANTER MD, MPH, FAAP, CLCP, CRC
Chief of Pediatric Forensic Services
Program Director

Dr. Jennifer Canter is a board-certified pediatrician and sub-specialist in Child Abuse Pediatrics. She’s led the Child Abuse Pediatrics programs at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at WMCHealth, Westchester Institute for Human Development, and New York Medical College since 2002. She is a Professor of Pediatrics at the New York Medical College School of Medicine and a Professor of Disability and Health at the New York Medical College School of Health Sciences and Practice. Given her interest in long-term outcomes for adults and children with physical and developmental disabilities, after catastrophic injury, Dr. Canter achieved certification as a life care planner (CLCP) and vocational evaluator (CRC) in 2016. Dr. Canter is chief of the Section of Child Abuse Pediatrics at Westchester Medical Center (WMCHealth) and is widely published in the field (click here to see Dr. Canter’s research profile). She’s testified as an expert in civil and criminal proceedings across the country in the areas of sexual/physical abuse, adult/child long-term care needs (life care planning and vocational rehabilitation), and child fatalities.

JENEAN CASTILLO, PHD
Chief Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Officer
LEND Program Director
Associate UCEDD Director for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Dr. Castillo is the director of the LEND (Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities) Program. She is Assistant Professor of Practice in the Center on Disability and Health in the School of Health Sciences and Practice at New York Medical College (NYMC) and is the Chief Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Officer at WIHD. Until recently, she was Assistant Director of WIHD’s Child Welfare Program. Dr. Castillo has been a LEND faculty member and child psychologist at WIHD since completing her post-doctoral fellowship and LEND traineeship in psychology at WIHD in 2003.

Throughout her career, Dr. Castillo has collaborated at the national level on activities and projects related to leadership development, diversity, inclusion and cultural competence.  As a post-doctoral LEND fellow she served as a national trainee representative on the Diversity Workgroup of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities. In 2016, she was selected as a member of the national cohort for the Cultural and Linguistic Competency Leadership Academy of the National Center for Cultural Competency of Georgetown University.  She was named WIHD’s first Diversity and Inclusion Coordinator in 2016.  In 2018, NYMC chose her as the first recipient of its Diversity and Inclusion Award.

IZEL OBERMEYER, OTR/L, ATP, BCTS, FAOTA
Chief Clinical Officer

Izel Obermeyer was appointed Chief Clinical Officer at the Westchester Institute for Human Development (WIHD), in 2020. She previously served WIHD as the director of the assistive technology program since 2006. She is an occupational therapist (OT) who graduated from the University of Pretoria, Vona duToit OT school in 1987.  She was a LEND fellow at WIHD in 2006/2007.  She completed her post professional Master’s degree in 2008, and started working on her PhD in 2017.  She has worked in South Africa, Namibia, Brazil, Kenya and the USA.  In her current role, she oversees and manages the adult health services, the behavioral health program, the dental program,  the speech and hearing center, the early intervention program  and assistive technology and occupational therapy services for WIHD. She coordinates all graduate level assistive technology courses, which are being taught for masters programs in special education, for a number of colleges in the area.  She is involved in the development of smart technology initiatives within WIHD and is an active advocate for assistive technology inclusion in schools. Izel is the project leader for the Multimedia Technology Center at WIHD and has been working on developing and using multimedia for person-centered work as well as instruction for the past number of years.  She often presents papers at conferences, colleges and schools.  She recently co-authored a chapter on cognition and executive function in children, for the 3^rd edition of the book “Cognition across the life span”.  She was always actively involved in the professional associations for OT in all the countries she worked and lived in. She is the Past-President of the Namibian OT Association as well as the New York State Occupational Therapy Association (NYSOTA), and the 2006 NYSOTA conference at the United Nations was her brain-child. She is also a past Chairperson of state association presidents at the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). Izel was awarded her Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association in 2017.  She is currently involved in three research projects:  Executive Function for middle school students, fine motor enrichment in Kindergarten and First Grade as well as the development and evaluation of multimedia technology for individuals with cognitive impairment to promote person centered practice.

TRUPTI RAO, PSY.D.
Director of Child Welfare Services & Psychology Training

Dr. Rao is the Director of Child Welfare Services and Psychology Training at WIHD.  Dr.  Rao received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Hartford and her undergraduate degree at Boston University. Dr. Rao first came to WIHD in 2003 to complete her post-doctoral fellowship.  Since then, she has served as a Clinical Psychologist in the Child Welfare Program and as a LEND Faculty Member.

Dr. Rao has over 20 years of experience working with the child welfare population.  She has experience with providing both clinical and psychological assessment services to children involved in the child welfare system, as well as children with developmental disabilities and co-occurring trauma backgrounds.  In 2006, she co-developed a specialized curriculum for use by Project IMPACT, an intensive in-home parenting program for parents with intellectual disabilities. Dr. Rao has presented findings about the efficacy of the model at both local presentations and national conferences, as well as in peer-reviewed journals.  Dr. Rao also frequently provides workshops and presentations on topics including trauma, understanding psychological evaluations, and child development.

As Training Director, Dr. Rao is responsible for coordinating and supervising training activities at the externship, internship, and fellowship levels.  For the LEND program, Dr. Rao is the Vulnerable Populations Course Module Director and a Team Leader for a Seminar in Evidence Based Methods team, with a particular research interest in the intersection between developmental disability and trauma.  Dr. Rao also serves as a Faculty Member at the School of Public Health at NY Medical College and an Adjunct Professor in the Psychology Department at Iona College.