Board of Directors
The CHDI Board of Directors includes representatives from academia, state government, the business and finance community and parent advocates. Board members provide perspectives from a range of professions including pediatrics, psychiatry, nursing, education, law, and business.
The CHDI Board of Directors is chaired by Margaret Grey, DrPH, RN, FAAN, Annie Goodrich Professor of Nursing, Yale School of Nursing.
Jennifer Carroll
— Community Leader
CHDI Board Secretary
Jennifer Carroll is a parent of a child with special health care needs. She is a member of the Connecticut Family Support Network (CTFSN) Board of Directors, a statewide advocacy organization providing direct support and broad advocacy to families raising children with disabilities and special health care needs.
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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.
Maryellen Doyle
— Vice President, Landmark Partners
CHDI Board Treasurer
Maryellen Doyle is an experienced investment professional who will serve as Treasurer for CHDI's Board of Directors. She is a vice president in the investor relations group at Landmark Partners, a private equity firm in Simsbury Connecticut.
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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.
Jeffrey Geoghegan
— Chief Financial Officer, UConn Health
Jeffrey Geoghegan is the Chief Financial Officer for UConn Health, which includes the UConn School of Medicine, UConn School of Dental Medicine, John Dempsey Hospital, and the University physician practice. He has over two decades of leadership and not-for-profit healthcare and education experience. As CFO, he has responsibility for all of UConn Health’s financial operations including a $1.4 billion operating budget, financial planning and reporting, strategic planning, and all revenue cycle operations.
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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.
Margaret Grey, DrPH, RN, FAAN
— Annie Goodrich Professor of Nursing, Yale School of Nursing
CHDI Board Chair
Margaret Grey was the ninth dean of the Yale School of Nursing and is the School's Annie Goodrich Professor of Nursing. She has been at Yale since January of 1993. Prior to assuming the Deanship from 2005-2015, she served as Associate Dean for Scholarly Affairs.
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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.
Larke Nahme Huang, PhD
— Former Director of the Office of Behavioral Health Equity & Senior Policy Advisor at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Larke Nahme Huang, PhD, is a licensed clinical-community psychologist who has worked at the interface of policy, research and practice in behavioral health. Most recently she was the Director of the Office of Behavioral Health Equity and a Senior Policy Advisor at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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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.
Linda Mayes, MD
— Director of Yale Child Study Center
Linda Mayes, MD is the Arnold Gesell Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology and Director of the Yale Child Study Center. She is also Special Advisor to the Dean in the Yale School of Medicine.
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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.
Wizdom Powell, Ph.D.
— Director, University of Connecticut Health Disparities Institute
Dr. Wizdom Powell is the Director of the University of Connecticut Health Disparities Institute and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UConn Health. She serves as the President-Elect of the American Psychological Association, Division 51 Men and Masculinities, and is an honorary professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban South Africa.
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Her global health research investigates the interplay between stress, social constructions of masculinity, and Black male health disparities. Dr. Powell's community-based research focuses on of the role of modern racism and gender norms on African American male health outcomes and healthcare inequities.
She has published a number of peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Behavioral Medicine, and Child Development. Dr. Powell is a White House Fellow, an American Psychological Association (APA) Minority, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kaiser Permanente Burch, Institute of African American Research, and Ford Foundation Fellow who received a Ph.D. and M.S. in Clinical Psychology and M.P.H. from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Galo Rodriguez, MPH
— President and CEO, The Village for Families & Children
Galo Rodriguez, MPH is President and CEO of The Village for Families & Children. In his leadership role, Galo provides the vision for the agency; he is often its face and its voice, speaking on behalf of its leadership team and over 400 dedicated professional staff.
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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.
Melissa Santos, PhD
— Interim Division Chief, Pediatric Psychology, Connecticut Children's Specialty Group
Clinical Director, Obesity Center, Connecticut Children's Specialty Group
Melissa Santos, PhD is a licensed psychologist and the Interim Division Chief of Pediatric Psychology at Connecticut Children's Medical Center, where she specializes in the family treatment of pediatric obesity. She works with adolescents and their families preparing for bariatric surgery and families participating in non-surgical weight management programming. Dr. Santos also supervises psychology and medical students in clinical and research activities within the obesity program.
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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.
Kenneth Spiegelman, MD
— Private Practice Pediatrician
Ken Spiegleman is a private practice community pediatrician in Manchester, Connecticut with over 40 years of medical experience. He was awarded the 2020 Community Physician of the Year for his dedication to patients and families at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. In addition to helping countless children and families, he works to improve children’s health policy, systems and practice.
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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.
Jeffrey Vanderploeg, Ph.D.
— President & CEO
Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut
Jeff Vanderploeg is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut and its parent organization the Children's Fund of Connecticut. He joined CHDI in 2009 and was appointed President and CEO of CHDI on October 1, 2017 and President and CEO of the Children's Fund on October 1, 2018. Jeff serves on the CHDI Board of Directors.
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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.