Sacramento & Foothills Consultants

Susana Razumovsky is a mother of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder and before her time working with EDAC, she participated in parent coaching/play group with her child. Susana has had years of experience with working with children with ASD. Susana has experience in classroom inclusion, in-home 1:1 support, and has received Group-ESDM training.  She is a Lead in the area of Instructional Assistant Training for EDAC and GESDM Trainer, Apprentice in the Sacramento sites and joined the company in the Fall of 2017.

Natasha Dickerson, represents the educational side of our team.  She has an AA in Interdisciplinary Behavior of Science, an Associate Teacher Certificate, and will obtain her Bachelors of Arts  in Early Childhood Education and  Administration in March 2023. Over the years she has worked in a variety of settings serving children  Her passion for children is what fuels her drive in wanting to have a positive impact not only on the children but the families and community. When we all feel welcomed and know we serve a purpose with the feeling of acceptance , this is what fills her cup. 

Leif Nielsen, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Nevada at Reno, and is pursuing a Masters degree in Behavior Analysis from the University of North Texas. Leif has been working in the field of applied behavior analysis since 2007, providing 1:1 in-home early intensive behavioral intervention to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Leif’s experiences include teaching social, self help, safety, imitative and play skills. Leif is skilled at implementing client programming using a variety of methods. Leif is incredibly passionate about teaching and learning. His goal is to create the best possible learning environments around those he works with. 

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Consultants
Melissa Mello, M.ED. BCBA has a Master’s Degree in Special Education from San Francisco State University and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Melissa is certified in the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) as a therapist, parent coach (P-ESDM), and a trainer both locally and internationally. She currently works for the MIND Institute. At the MIND she provides case supervision to children receiving Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) as their intervention approach, as well as parent coaching and general supervision to the lab. She has been working with children with autism for the past 10 years in a variety of settings, including as a special education teacher and early interventionist delivering one on one intervention in community based programs. For the past 7 years, Melissa has been supervising early intervention programs as a Clinical Manager; using behaviorally based, empirically validated methods to ensure children with autism are improving their behavior, language and social skills at home and in the classroom. Melissa is a consultant to EDAC.

Yamit Karabelnik, Master in Child Development is a Certified ESDM Trainer and a G-ESDM specialist. She earned her Master in Education and Child Development in Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Yamit has been working with children with ASD since 2012. She has been trained and mentored by Dr. Zierhut Ursu since she began utilizing the ESDM method in 2014. She was a fellow at the International Training Program for Neurodevelopmental Disorders at the Collaborative Start Lab at Mind Institute, UC Davis before returning home to Tel Aviv Israel.  Her work is  to help expand the use of ESDM in the middle East and disseminate the use of GESDM around the world. Helping children and their families to access services within community inclusive settings to help children to learn, grow and interact. She continues to develop GESDM training modules and dissemination efforts  with EDAC.

To contact us

In Italian
irene.russo@earlydays.center

In Hebrew
yamit.karabelnik@earlydays.center