Washburn Center's Leadership

Tom has worked at Washburn Center for Children since 1996, initially as a therapist, program manager and trainer, providing therapeutic services for children with severe emotional and behavioral problems, and doing training and consultation with schools, families and community agencies. He became Program Director in 2001, then Chief Operating Officer in 2010 and moved into the role of Chief Executive Officer in 2017. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a Masters in Counseling and Student Personnel Psychology, Tom has presented nationally and locally on treating child trauma and aggression, developing and sustaining school-based mental health services and performance-based compensation. He has given presentations to the National Council on Community Behavioral Health, the Minnesota Association for Children’s Mental Health, the University of Minnesota’s Lessons from the Field Series and the National School-based Mental Health conferences.

Jenny has worked in a variety of roles since joining Washburn Center in 2003. Jenny’s past experience includes elementary day treatment, in-home individual and family therapy, school-based individual and group therapy, children’s mental health case management, outpatient therapy and providing therapeutic services at a homeless shelter. She received her Bachelors degree in Social Work and Family Studies from St. Olaf College and her Masters in Social Work from the University of St. Thomas/College of St. Catherine. She began supervising the Case Management team in 2008 and the Intensive In-Home team in 2013. Her areas of expertise include helping children who are severely emotionally disturbed, providing wrap around services for children and families who have been exposed to trauma and providing in-home family therapy. Jenny’s trained in EMDR (eye movement desensitization reprocessing) and has a passion for treating the family as a whole in order to assist with long term and holistic healing.

Beth joined Washburn Center for Children in 2008 as a school based therapist, became the co-supervisor of Washburn Center’s School-based program in 2013 and moved into the role of Director of Program Administration in 2016. In addition to her school based work at Washburn, Beth previously worked in a school based program in Lincoln, Nebraska.  Beth’s other experiences include day treatment therapist (individual, family, group work), treatment manager at a residential facility, completing court ordered assessments with adolescents involved in the juvenile justice system, and providing individual and family work at part of a voluntary county program. Beth is trained in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and PracticeWise. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from the College of St. Scholastica. Her Master’s degree was completed at the joint University of St. Thomas/College of St. Catherine’s Social Work program.

Amy Pfarr Walker, BA, has more than 20 years of nonprofit fundraising and communications experience. She has helped shape the agency’s philanthropic efforts and communications since 2010, and moved into the role of Chief Advancement Officer in Winter 2019. Amy earned her Bachelors degree from Gustavus Adolphus College and completed the Masters of Business Communications certificate program at the University of St. Thomas.

Amber began her career as a school counselor at Best Academy in Minneapolis. After a brief stint at the Northside Achievement Zone, she transitioned to higher education where she worked to advance equity, manage conflict, and build strong teams.

Amber has a background in speech and theatre and has used those strengths to present on various topics over the years. Grounded in trickle up social justice, she has spent her professional career continuing to learn and unlearn while encouraging others to do the same.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in Management Communication from North Dakota State University, a masters in School Counseling from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MBA from the University of Oregon. She loves reading anything and everything, trying new foods, and spending time with her two children.

Dr. Gozy (she/her) started her career at Washburn Center for Children in 2008 for her post-doctoral fellowship.  Dr. Gozy completed her BA in psychology at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee and her PsyD from the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology in 2008. She completed her APA-Accredited internship at the Allendale Association in Lake Villa, IL. After a brief hiatus she was hired as a full-time outpatient therapist in late 2009. The following year Dr. Gozy started supervising doctoral trainees. Dr. Gozy was the Quality Assurance Supervisor before moving to her current position as Associate Director of Compliance and Quality Improvement. Dr. Gozy oversees all aspects of Medical Records, Data Privacy, and the Electronic Health Record (Current: Credible, Legacy: Cerner/Anasazi) and supervises staff in those areas. She manages and oversees all clinical training materials, clinical policies and procedures, and internal and external audits for all clinical programs at Washburn Center for Children. Dr. Gozy oversees/manages clinical compliance with Rule 29, Rule 47, CTSS, Case Management, Hennepin County contracts and a few others. She is also the Incident/Grievance Coordinator for the agency. She provides clinical services to a small caseload of about six clients and is a certified PCIT and MAP (Practice Wise) therapist.  Her professional interests include: compliance, quality assurance, electronic health records, ethics, data privacy, early childhood, child development, behavioral issues, and anxiety/depression.

Shunzyu Haigler joined the Washburn Center for Children in 2021, after an extensive career in the visual arts. She is an experienced non-profit professional with a passion for innovation, creativity and achieving results. Most recently Shunzyu was Director of Membership, Visitor Experience and Volunteers at New Jersey’s largest art museum, the Newark Museum of Art. While there, she helped increase membership revenue by 50 percent. Prior to that, Shunzyu worked at leading arts and cultural institutions such as Jazz House Kids, the Stickley Museum at Craftsman Farms, the Harlem School of the Arts, and the Montclair Art Museum.

From raising millions of dollars for educational programs and operations to building memberships and long-term relationships with constituents, Shunzyu is most comfortable working with a team that shares a singular vision. She also has extensive experience in developing partnerships and cultivating alliances within the community to leverage an institution’s goals.

Shunzyu holds a bachelor of science degree in finance from Long Island University. She recently relocated to Minnesota to spend more time with her daughter and son-in-law. Among Shunzyu’s many interests are hiking with her dog Wilma, traveling, and collecting contemporary art by such artists as Janet Taylor-Pickett, Theda Sandiford, and Anderson Mukomberanwa.

Before joining Washburn Center’s leadership team in 2009, Kate worked in a variety of roles for Hearthstone of Minnesota, including the Quality Assurance Coordinator, Director of Human Resources and Director of Program Operations. Kate graduated from St. Mary’s College of Notre Dame with a B.A.. After several years as a youth counselor in a residential treatment center, she earned a Masters of Social Work from the University of St. Thomas/College of St. Catherine in 2007.

Maria has over 25 years of experience working in a variety of financial roles for private sector companies. Before joining Washburn Center, she served as the Director of Finance at Neighborhood House a non-profit organization in Saint Paul, MN.

Maria became Controller and Finance Director in 2021. She holds a Bachelors degree in Public Accounting and Business Administration from the University of Coahuila, Mexico.

María proactively partners with other peers to shift mindsets, behaviors, and practices towards more equitable, diverse, and inclusive teams. She builds her credibility by working with those whose background and perspective is vastly different to break down silos, communication barriers, improves the ability to identify and mitigate bias, fosters allyship, develops a culture of respect for differences, and understanding — which fuel better collaboration, innovation, and impactful change.

Natalie joined Washburn Center in 2005 and worked as a therapist in Washburn Center’s Day Treatment program for two years before becoming the Family Focused supervisor in 2007. Natalie’s experience includes providing therapeutic services to children in crisis, preschool day treatment, in-home family and individual therapy, play therapy, providing ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis) therapy to children with autism, school based therapy with children from grades K-8 and outpatient therapy. Natalie has also completed training in EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and DC: 0-3 (a diagnostic model for identifying mental health challenges and developmental disorders in infants and toddlers). In 2013, Natalie completed the University of Minnesota’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Certificate Program. She also completed training and certification in Trauma-Informed Child Parent Psychotherapy in the Fall of 2014, which resulted in the opportunity for her to lead the Family Focused team through Trauma-Informed Child Parent Psychotherapy training. In 2018, Natalie moved into the role of Associate Director of Early Childhood Group and Mobile Services.

Dr. Krahn has worked at Washburn Center since 2000 and greatly enjoys the training and supervisory components as well as direct client care in her work as the Associate Clinical Director of Outpatient and School Based Mental Health Programming. Dr. Krahn received her BA in Psychology from Hamline University and her PsyD from the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology in 2000. She completed her American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited predoctoral internship at Crestwood Children’s Center in Rochester, New York. Dr. Krahn has committed her career to the assessment and treatment of children, adolescents and families within a community mental health setting. For over a decade, she supervised Washburn Center’s Psychology Training Program and completed the self-study that granted APA accreditation to the Pre-doctoral Internship Program in December 2012. She has been trained in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and PracticeWise, and her areas of interest include supervision, trauma, play therapy, attachment and development, family systems, and program development and training.

Lauren joined Washburn Center in 2002 and served as supervisor of the Day Treatment Program from 2006 – 2013 before focusing on her new role as Clinical Trainer and Outpatient Therapist. Lauren has more than a decade of experience providing therapy to adults, children, groups and families who are struggling with the effects of trauma as an in-home family therapist and day treatment therapist. She utilizes Developmental Repair, a treatment model that was developed at Washburn Center for Children, and trains other clinicians in the model. Lauren is also trained in Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and DC: 0-3 (a diagnostic model for identifying mental health challenges and developmental disorders in infants and toddlers). She obtained her Masters of Social Work and earned her Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Certificate from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Cohen joined Washburn Center in 2000 and has worked as an Outpatient Therapist, Day Treatment Supervisor and currently as the Outpatient Supervisor. Dr. Cohen obtained her PhD from Adelphi University and completed her predoctoral internship and fellowship at Hennepin County Medical Center. She then worked for over three years at the Eisemenger Learning Center/Wilder Foundation, where she provided therapy, case management and school consultation services for children identified as severely emotionally disturbed. Her areas of clinical interest include: DC: 0-3 (a diagnostic model for identifying mental health challenges and developmental disorders in infants and toddlers), therapy with young children, EMDR (eye movement desensitization reprocessing), adult psychotherapy, trauma and attachment dynamics.

Dr. Kuster is a licensed clinical psychologist of over 20 years. Formerly a supervisor of Early Childhood programming at Washburn Center, she has been with the Outreach Program since 2014 providing consultation and support for early childhood centers and childcare providers. Dr. Kuster has a Ph.D. in Clinical/Community Psychology from the University of Maryland – College Park. She is a former Public Policy Fellow for the American Psychological Association in Washington DC and is the former Assistant Director of CASEL (Collaborative for the Advancement of Social and Emotional Learning) in Chicago.

Laura joined Washburn Center for Children in 2008 as a Day Treatment therapist. Laura utilizes Developmental Repair, a treatment model that was developed at Washburn Center for Children, for working with children and their families struggling with the effects of trauma. In 2013, Laura transitioned to Washburn Center’s School-based program where she provided mental health services in two north Minneapolis public schools. Laura returned to the Day Treatment program as an Assistant Supervisor in 2015. Laura received her Masters of Social Work at the University of Minnesota. Her professional interests include early childhood trauma and the impact of trauma on family systems.

Kara joined Washburn Center in 2007 as a clinician in both the Outpatient program and the Child Development Policing program, a collaborative program with the Minneapolis Police Department, University of Minnesota, DAP and Tubman providing psycho-education and support to families whose children had recently witnessed violence. Kara received her Masters of Social Work from the University of Michigan and worked in treatment foster care, residential treatment for parenting adolescents and the St Paul Public School system prior to joining Washburn Center. Kara is trained in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and professional interests include anxiety disorders, attachment work, cognitive behavioral therapy, adolescent development and emancipation issues and trauma. Kara is currently a co-supervisor of Washburn’s School-based program.

Dr. Sinko started her career at Washburn Center for Children in 2011 as a post-doctoral fellow in the Outpatient program. She briefly left the agency following completion of her fellowship, but returned to the School-Based Mental Health Program in early 2013. Dr. Sinko provided school-based individual and family therapy services, as well as school consultations and training until 2016, at which time she transitioned into the role of Assistant Supervisor for the School-based Mental Health Program and in 2018 became Supervisor for School-based services. She has also collaborated with the Psychology Training Program to facilitate psychoeducation and social skills groups in the school setting and currently participates in psychological testing consultation. Dr. Sinko received her BA in Child Psychology and Sociology from the University of Minnesota and her MA and PsyD in Clinical Psychology from the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology in 2011. She completed her American Psychological Association accredited internship at The Guidance Center in Long Beach, California. Dr. Sinko has specialized training in DC: 0-3 assessment and therapy and is a certified Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavioral and PracticeWise therapist. Her professional interests include: psychological testing, play therapy, trauma, anxiety, depression, behavioral struggles, clinical supervision, and program development.