Meet the Presenters

Dr. Ascherman received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Case Western Reserve University and Masters of Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. His internship in Pediatrics and Psychiatry and residency in Psychiatry were completed at Georgetown. He joined the faculty of the Menninger Clinic upon completing his Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship there. In 1993 he came to Birmingham to develop a Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at UAB where he was Professor of Psychiatry, Vice Chair for Education, Director of the UAB Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Chief of Service for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Children's of Alabama. He retired from administrative roles at UAB at the end of 2019 with continued teaching and supervision appointments as Adjunct Professor of Medical Education at the UAB School of Medicine and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry. Since 2020 he has been in full time clinical practice.

Dr. Ascherman is a Training and Supervising Analyst and Child Supervising Analyst at the Cincinnati Psychoanalytic Institute. He is the former Chair of the Board on Professional Standards of the American Psychoanalytic Association, served on the Executive Committees of the Association of American Directors of Psychiatry Residency and the Association of American Directors of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and was elected to the Board of the International Psychoanalytic Association. He presently serves on the Board of the American Association for Psychoanalytic Education (AAPE). Since 2015, Dr. Ascherman has Chaired the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology’s (ABPN) Committee on Certification for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He is also is a member of the ABPN’s Committee on Professionalism.

Dr. Ascherman has presented, written and consulted on the ethics of psychotherapy and psychoanalytic training, learning disorders, childhood trauma related to displacement and loss from war, and challenges faced by African American youth. He is a former Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association and is an Honorary member of the Czech Psychoanalytic Society in appreciation for his support of their development and growth after the fall of the Iron Curtain and his encouragement of child treatment there. Dr. Ascherman was the recipient of the UAB School of Medicine Dean’s Excellence Award in Diversity Enhancement (2015), the UAB President’s Diversity Award (2011), the Birmingham Child Advocacy Award for the establishment and leadership of the Engel Therapeutic Preschool Program (2007), a program also recognized by the Association for Child Psychoanalysis as the 2011 Program of Excellence.


Denia Barrett is a child/adolescent supervising analyst on the faculty of the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. In addition, she teaches and supervises candidates at a number of other institutes. She was previously the editor of the journal Child Analysis: Clinical, Theoretical, and Applied and currently is co-editor-in-chief, with Jill M. Miller, of the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child. 

Thomas Barrett, Ph.D., is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Chicago where he is a child and adolescent supervising analyst on the faculty of The Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute.

Dr. Barrett is a geographic supervisor for the Psychoanalytic Program of the Carolinas, and the Denver Psychoanalytic Institute. Dr. Barrett undertook post-graduate training in Infant Mental Health with Prof. Selma Fraiberg at the Child Development Project at the University of Michigan. He completed child psychoanalytic training through the Hanna Perkins Center in Cleveland. Dr. Barrett is a member of the American Psychoanalytic Association (certified in Child/Adolescent Psychoanalysis), the Association for Child Psychoanalysis (where he currently serves as Treasurer and has held several board positions including a term as President from 2020-2022), and the International Psychoanalytic Association.

Lorrie Chopra is a child, adolescent and adult psychoanalyst in private practice in Livonia Michigan. She enjoys teaching in the various programs at MPI including fellowship, ACAPP, Early Admissions and Candidate Classes. For years she worked as a family consultant at the Walnut Lake Preschool- a special place for little people and their families that can change the outcome for a family with early intervention and psychodynamic principles. Lorrie is Currently the Co-Executive Director of the Mel Bornstein Clinic where she has worn many hats. Currently, Lorrie is on the Board of Directors at the MBC, she supervises several of the MBC therapist and residents and runs a monthly Child and Adolescent Case Conference for the MBC clinicians. Additionally, with the help of many, she has established The MBC Grant Fund where money is raised through the Detroit Free Press Marathon to provide scholarships to individuals who are unable to otherwise receive excellent mental health care.

Noya Dekel is a clinical psychologist licensed in New York and California States. She is an infant and early childhood mental health specialist where she managed and supervised the early childhood mental health program in Children’s Institute, a community mental health center in Southern California. She was the co-chair of the clinical committee of Project ABC2 aimed to increase integration of services for young children. As part of her responsibility, she managed “Project Stable Home” where services were provided in the community and in the homes of families with young children in need. Currently, she continues to dedicate time to the home visiting project of the Anni Bergman Parent Infant Program as a consultant. She has a private practice in New York City and is a candidate in the Contemporary Freudian Society in the child and adult tracks.


Teresa Greco, MSW, LCSW is a psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of children, adolescents, young adults, parents, and families. She is a candidate for child psychoanalysis with the Psychoanalytic Center of the Carolinas and practices at the Lucy Daniels Center in Cary, North Carolina, a private nonprofit and therapeutic psychoanalytic day school. A former graduate of Smith College School for Clinical Social Work, Ms. Greco has twenty-five years of experience treating children in a variety of settings including, inpatient, outpatient, partial day treatment, and extensive work with children experiencing trauma and loss, including foster care, adoption, and temporary placement. She provides clinical supervision to social workers in training and lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Jill M. Miller, Ph.D. is a child, adolescent, and adult psychoanalyst in private practice in Washington DC, Past President of the Association for Child Psychoanalysis, and Co-Editor-In-Chief of The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child. She is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Medical School, a Faculty Member and Training and Supervising Analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute, and a Supervising Analyst for child and adolescent candidates at a several institutes across the country. Dr. Miller has presented and published papers on the work of Anna Freud, children’s development of insight, the mind of the child analyst, and other issues related to child analytic technique, as well as a book with Dr. Carla Neely entitled The Psychoanalytic Work of Hansi Kennedy: From War Nurseries to the Anna Freud Centre.

Monisha Nayar-Akhtar, Ph. D. obtained her Masters and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. Later, she trained at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute in adult and child/adolescent analysis. After practicing for over twenty years in Southfield, Michigan, she relocated to suburban Philadelphia. Currently, she is affiliated with the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia where she is a Training and Supervising Analyst. She is an active member of the American Psychoanalytic Association where she served as a member of the Program committee till 2020 and as chair of the Clinical Workshop on Child and Adolescent Psychoanalysis till 2018. She has a keen interest in Applied Psychoanalysis and in promoting psychoanalytic thinking in India, her country of origin. In 2011, she began working with Udayan, an orphanage based in New Delhi and continues to do so to date. Her current projects include providing ongoing clinical training workshops in trauma and attachment to psychotherapists, social workers and others, working with children and adolescents. In 2018, she established the Indian American Psychoanalytic Alliance in Philadelphia, a non-profit organization that provided a two-year distance learning program in psychodynamic psychotherapy. Her current project includes training therapists in early intervention and establishing a Therapeutic Play Center to provide therapies for disturbed children between the ages of 2 and 6.

Kathleen O’Connor, M.S.W. is a child, adolescent, and adult psychoanalyst practicing in Chicago and Oak Park, Illinois. I trained at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute and presently am on the faculty, supervising students in the Psychotherapy training program, Treatment Center fellows and second year psychiatry residents at Rush University. I am an active member of the Child and Adolescent Committee at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute. While a nine-year member of ACP, I served on the nominations committee. I also am a member of ApsaA and an active member of their Confidentiality Committee.

Evelina Pereira-Webber, M.A., A.T.R., L.C.P.C., is a child and adolescent psychotherapist in private practice in Chicago. She serves on the faculty of the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute, and is a candidate in the Child and Adult Psychoanalytic Education Program there. 

Daniel W. Prezant, Ph.D. is a Training and Supervising Psychoanalyst and a Child and Adolescent Supervising Psychoanalyst at the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute (NYPSI) and an adjunct faculty member at the International Psychotherapy Institute (IPI). He is the President of the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsA) and a past Secretary at the Association for Child Psychoanalysis (ACP). He is in private practice with children, adolescents, adults, parents, and couples in Manhattan, NY.


Justine Kalas Reeves, MSW is a psychoanalyst in Washington, DC. She works with people across the life cycle from parents who are pregnant to elders preparing to say goodbye, and everything in between. She works with psychiatry residents at Howard University, and teaches psychoanalytic candidates at Contemporary Freudian Society. She was fortunate to be amongst the last to train at the Anna Freud Centre in London, where she also worked in the Tavistock's Adolescent Department. Outside of psychoanalysis, she loves spending time with my family and friends, reading, writing and music. 

Laura June Whitman, M.D. has a private practice in which she sees patients of all ages for psychoanalytic psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, couples and family therapy. She is especially interested in seeing mothers and fathers of infants and toddlers; she was director of the Mt. Sinai Therapeutic Nursery for several years. Her office is on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

At the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Dr. Whitman is a training and supervising analyst and Co-Director of the Writing Program. In 2023, Laura received the Howard Klar Award from the Columbia Center and in 2020, the Edith Sabshin award from ApsAa, both for excellence in teaching. She has recently written about relationships across time (JAPA, 2021), teaching racial identity from a psychoanalytic point of view (AACAP News, June 2022) and child psychoanalysis today (JAPA, 2024). 


Judith A. Yanof, M.D. is a Training and Supervising Analyst and a Child Supervisor at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute. She has written articles on several different aspects of child analysis, including gender, development, transference, termination, and play. In 1996 she won the JAPA Journal Essay Award for her article “Is Child Analysis Really Analysis.” She currently serves on the Board of Directors and Editorial Board of The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, and the Editorial Boards of the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, and JAPA. She was chosen by the American Psychoanalytic Association to be the 2010-2011 Helen Meyers Travelling Scholar. For over 25 years Judy has worked pro bono in community programs for children in the Boston area. In 2012, BPSI awarded her the Arthur Kravis Award for Community Action and Humanitarian Contributions. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of CAPS and the Anna Freud Foundation. 


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