The Power of Parenting

Thursday, 11 February 2021


Our Experts

Our Experts

Dr. Carol Crill Russell, B.A., M.S., M.S.W., Ph.D.
Senior Research Advisor

Dr. Carol Crill Russell is a respected Parenting and Child Development Expert. She served for over a decade as the Senior Research and Policy Advisor for Children’s Services in Ontario’s Ministry of Community and Social Services. She has served as a member of a number of Canada’s leading applied research and policy framework initiatives, including Ontario’s Better Beginnings, Better Futures Policy Research Project. She has authored numerous studies on parenting for Invest in Kids.

 
Dr. Chaya Kulkarni, B.A.A. M.Ed., Ed.D.
Parenting and Child Development Expert

Dr. Chaya Kulkarni is a Parenting and Child Development Expert with more than a decade of experience in the field of children’s services and early childhood education. Dr. Kulkarni has served as the Senior Policy Analyst and Researcher for the Office of the Official Opposition at Queen’s Park where she was able to influence and inform practices surrounding early childhood care and education.  She has also worked directly with children and families in the childcare sector. She currently heads the Infant Mental Health portfolio at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto.

 
Dr. Palmina Ioannone, B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
Director, Research & Evaluation

Dr. Palmina Ioannone has spent more than 15 years working with young children, families, and early childhood professionals in various settings including schools, childcare centres and family support programs.  In addition, she has taught at Ryerson University in the Early Childhood Education Department.  She has been involved in a variety of research projects in Canada and the U.S. and recently worked on the Toronto First Duty project - a pilot project integrating kindergarten, childcare, and family support through schools.

 
Greg Lubimiv, B.S.W., M.S.W., C.A.C.P.T.S

Greg Lubimiv has more than 30 years of experience as an administrator, clinician and trainer in children’s mental health and child welfare. He is renowned nationally as an expert on the unique needs of both parents and children in military families. Greg has authored books and articles on the topic including, Wings for Our Children: The Essentials of Becoming a Play Therapist, and has also penned, My Sister is an Angeline, to help children cope with the death of a sibling. He is a certified play therapist and supervisor with the Canadian Association of Child and Play Therapy.

 
Karon Foster, R.N., BScN, M.Ed.
Director of The Parenting Partnership

Karon Foster has over 30 years of combined nursing and teaching experience. As a nursing instructor, she has designed courses and taught nursing students in baccalaureate programs at the University of Toronto, York University and Ryerson Polytechnic University. She has contributed as an author to several community nursing textbooks. She is intimately familiar with the needs of expectant and new parents through her work conducting prenatal and parenting classes and working with parents as a public health nurse. She is one of the key authors of The Parenting Partnership, a parent education program developed by Invest in Kids for first-time parents.

 
Krisanne Langille, R.N., B.ScN.

Krisanne Langille provides expertise in prenatal education, early infant and maternal postnatal assessment and intervention and adult education. She has more than 30 years of nursing experience, ranging from intensive care and operating room to public health (Toronto), where she worked as both a Prenatal Educator and as a Public Health Nurse in the Healthy Babies/Healthy Children Program. Her teaching experience, in addition to prenatal education, includes city-wide seminars for Public Health Nurses in Toronto (pre- and postnatal topics) and as a fitness instructor.

For our full expert biographies, please click here.