Board of Directors

Jennifer is also a member of the Connecticut Council on Developmental Services and the North Region Advisory Council for the Department of Developmental Services, a member of the Connecticut Family Support Council, and the Board of Directors for the Cherish the Children Foundation of Connecticut. She enjoys working with Connecticut leaders to bring the voice of families into the decision-making process and to improve policy to meet the needs and challenges that people with disabilities and their families contend with.

Prior to joining Landmark in 2019, she spent 14 years with Morgan Stanley Investment Management where she served as an executive director of U.S. consultant relations, a portfolio specialist for Alternative Investment Partners, and as a member of the firm’s Strategic Client Group. Maryellen is a founding member of the Providence College “PC to Wall Street” Council. She earned an M.S. in Public Relations and Corporate Communications from New York University and a B.A. in Humanities from Providence College.

Before joining UConn Health, Jeff worked for Price Waterhouse Coopers in Hartford. During this time, he specialized in not-for-profit advisory services. Born and raised in Connecticut Jeff is a graduate of Southern Connecticut State University and lives in Cheshire with his family.

Jeff joined CHDI's Board of Directors in December 2021. He serves on the board's Finance and Investment and Audit committees.

She holds a bachelors degree in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh, an MSN in pediatric nursing from Yale University, and a Doctorate in public health and social psychology from Columbia University. Margaret's career has focused on children and youth who are vulnerable due to chronic conditions. Her primary research has been in youth with type 1 diabetes and the prevention of type 2 diabetes in high risk youth. Margaret has been principal investigator for grants totaling over $30 million. In addition, she is the author of over 270 journal articles, chapters, and abstracts, and has received numerous regional and national honors for her research. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.

At SAMHSA, she led a broad portfolio of work, including reducing disparities in behavioral health care for underserved populations, working with States and counties to improve systems of care for children and youth with serious mental and substance use disorders, advancing trauma-informed approaches to treatment and recovery, and reducing the criminal/juvenile justice involvement of people with mental and substance use disorders.

Prior to her federal work, she was on faculty at the University of California, Berkeley and Georgetown University, a managing director at the American Institutes for Research, and a clinical practitioner in community mental health. She has co-founded national organizations, served on the President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, and the Carter Center Mental Health Task Force, and published widely. She received her doctorate from Yale University. 

Trained as a pediatrician, Linda’s research focuses on stress-response and regulatory mechanisms in young children at both biological and psychosocial risk. She has especially focused on the impact of prenatal substance use on children’s long-term outcome. She has made contributions to understanding the mechanisms of effect of prenatal stimulant exposure on the ontogeny of arousal regulatory systems and the relation between dysfunctional emotional regulation and impaired prefrontal cortical function in young children. She has published widely in the developmental psychology, pediatrics, and child psychiatry literature. Given the nature of her work with children at significantly high-risk for developmental impairments from both biological and psychosocial etiologies, Linda also focuses on the impact of parenting on the development of arousal and attention regulatory mechanisms in their children and specifically on how substance abuse impacts reward and stress regulatory systems in new parents. With other colleagues in the Center, she studies how adults transition to parenthood especially when substance abuse is involved and the basic neural circuitry of early parent-infant attachment using both neuroimaging and electroencephalographic techniques. She and her colleagues have developed a series of interventions for parents including an intensive home-based program called Minding the Baby. Her research programs are multidisciplinary not only in their blending basic science with clinical interventions but also in the disciplines required including adult and child psychiatry, behavioral neuroscience, obstetrics, pediatrics, and neuropsychology. She is also a Distinguished Visiting Professor in psychology at Sewanee: The University of the South where she is working on intervention programs to enhance child and family resilience.

He has committed himself to building an organization of talented, skilled, dedicated employees, one that embraces and honors diversity, openness and innovation. He has high standards of excellence for himself and all employees – with the goal of providing the highest level of treatment, service and advocacy for our clients. Prior to The Village, Galo was the chief operating officer of Catholic Charities, overseeing programs in Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties. His career at Catholic Charities spanned 16 years, where he rose to serve as executive director of the Hartford region and director of the Institute for the Hispanic Family. He serves on the Connecticut Behavioral Health Partnership Oversight Council, and the board of directors of the Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, CT Council of Family Services Agencies, Connecticut Association of Human Services, and Hartford Federal Credit Union. He also participates with the Alliance for Children and Families and National Council for Behavioral Health. He was a recipient of a 2015 Polaris Award from Leadership Greater Hartford. Galo earned a master's in public health from UConn and received his training and licensure as a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Cartagena in his native Colombia, South America. His medical career included serving as a family physician with the Colombia Red Cross, in a city hospital and in private practice, as well as a physician in a psychiatry and substance abuse program in San Pablo Hospital in Cartegena.

Prior to her current role at Connecticut Children's, Dr. Santos received a Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Texas Tech University and completed Postdoctoral Fellowships in Medical Psychology at the Medical College of Georgia, and in Child & Adolescent Clinical Psychology the Institute of Living/CCMC. Melissa will be serving on the Program, Equity, & Communications Committee, and the Audit Committee for the CHDI Board of Directors.

He is Medical Director of Post Graduate Medical Education at Connecticut Children's and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He serves on the boards of CHDI, the Children's Fund of Connecticut, and the Connecticut Family Support Network and is an advisory board member for ACCESS Mental Health CT. Through CHDI’s Educating Practices program, Ken trains other pediatric health providers to implement best practice changes related to integrating behavioral health and primary care and delivering trauma-informed care. Before working in a private practice, he worked with Kaiser Permanente for 17 years.

Vanderploeg received a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Bowling Green State University, completed Predoctoral and Postdoctoral training at Yale University School of Medicine, and was a research faculty member at Yale before joining CHDI in 2009. He initially began as a Program Associate before being promoted to Associate Director of Mental Health in 2011, and Vice President for Mental Health Initiatives in 2014.  

During his career at CHDI, he played a central role in developing effective policies, systems, and practices for the prevention and treatment of mental health conditions among children and adolescents and their families. He was the lead author of the Connecticut Children’s Behavioral Health Plan, a comprehensive blueprint for addressing the behavioral health needs of youth, which has remained a significant guiding framework for state-wide reform. He was also the co-developer of the Connecticut School-Based Diversion Initiative (SBDI) model and was instrumental in creating a quality improvement system for the state’s mobile crisis system.

In addition to his role as CHDI President and CEO, Vanderploeg serves on the Behavioral Health Plan Implementation Advisory Board, co-chairs the Quality, Access and Policy Subcommittee of the CT Behavioral Health Partnership Oversight Council, and is a member of several other committees and councils in children’s behavioral health policy development. He holds faculty appointments in Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine and the University of Connecticut Health Center School of Medicine.