Staff

Ginger Ward, MAEd, Chief Executive Officer
Ginger Ward is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Southwest Human Development, which she founded in 1981 with six employees serving 175 families. Today Southwest has over 700 employees serving 135,000 young children and families, and is the largest community-based organization of its kind in Arizona. Under Ginger’s direction Southwest has established a national reputation for leadership and high-quality services in the early childhood fields of education, mental health, family support, disabilities services and training. Ginger has made a significant contribution to the early childhood field in Arizona by ensuring that the latest best practices and research are used to create programs and to educate parents, professionals and policy makers about the importance of children’s earliest years to later development.

Ginger sits on a variety of boards and committees charged with forming policy on, and improving services for, children and families. Current positions include the national ZERO TO THREE board of directors, the Interagency Coordinating Council for Infants and Toddlers; the Arizona State Department of Economic Security Child Care Advisory Committee; the Health Advisory Committee of Children’s Action Alliance; the Healthy Families Steering Committee; the Reach Out and Read Advisory Committee; and community advisor to the Junior League. Past positions include the Governor's School Readiness Board and the City of Phoenix Human Services Commission.


Douglas Albrecht, PhD, Clinical Director, Good Fit Counseling Center
Doug Albrecht is a licensed clinical psychologist who serves as the clinical director for the Good Fit Counseling Center. He provides treatment, assessment, consultation, and supervision services for infants, toddlers and their families.  

Doug received his training at the Fuller Graduate School of Psychology in Pasadena, California. He has provided training to professionals and graduate students on the treatment of children who have experienced multiple forms of trauma, including physical and sexual abuse and domestic violence.

He has experience working with children in both California and Arizona who have been physically and sexually abused. Doug has additional expertise in infant/toddler mental health, parent-child relationships, play therapy, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and attachment and bonding.


Laura Chasko, MSW, Director of Marketing and Development
Laura Chasko has nearly 20 years of experience in marketing and advertising for the nonprofit and for-profit worlds as well as direct practice, program development and grant writing experience specifically in the field of early childhood development.

As director of development and marketing, Laura uses her unique marketing and direct service background in planning and overseeing Southwest Human Development’s fundraising, marketing and public relations efforts.

Laura holds a bachelor’s degree in advertising and a master’s degree in social work, both from Arizona State University, and an Infant-Family Practice Certificate from the Harris Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Training Institute.


Daniel B. Kessler, MD, Medical Director, Children’s Developmental Center
Daniel B. Kessler, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician with over 28 years of experience, serves as medical director of the Children's Development Center where he works with a multi-disciplinary team to provide comprehensive, integrated care for young children with developmental and behavioral problems and their families. Dr. Kessler served as the director of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the Children's Health Center of St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center for over 21 years. At the University of Arizona College of Medicine, he has an appointment as Clinical Professor of Pediatrics. Dr. Kessler has been recognized locally as a Best Doc by Phoenix Magazine and nationally in the Best Doctors in America list on multiple occasions, most recently in 2011.

He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from New York University School of Medicine and completed his residency training in Pediatrics and Fellowship training in Child Development and Family Violence/Child Abuse at New York University/Bellevue Hospital Center in New York and the Children's Hospital in Boston where he trained with noted "Baby Doctor" T. Berry Brazelton.

In addition to his abiding interest in babies and the earliest relationships, Dr. Kessler has expertise in autistic spectrum disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and related co-morbidities, problems of learning and emotional adjustment, feeding and self-regulation.

Dr. Kessler’s private practice, where he provides evaluation and treatment for children and adolescents, is located at Southwest Human Development. Dr. Kessler is assisted in his practice by long-term colleague, Lynn Aiken, RN, MS, PNP. To learn more about Daniel B. Kessler, MD and Associates, please click here.


Terrence Matteo, PhD, Director, Children's Developmental Center and Co-Director, Services for Children with Disabilities
Terry Matteo is a licensed psychologist providing early childhood mental health services, developmental evaluations, training, and consultation at Southwest Human Development. Prior to joining the agency four years ago, Terry served as a clinical director at Child Haven, Inc., a nonprofit children’s mental health clinic in Fairfield, California.

Terry has extensive experience in psychological and developmental assessment, including autism evaluations. He has training in autism assessment and treatment and infant mental health practice, and has provided training to professionals and graduate students on trauma treatment in young children, psychological and developmental assessment, and infant-family mental health practice. Terry also taught graduate courses in Arizona and California in doctoral psychology training programs.

Terry completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Oakland, and a pre-doctoral internship in child psychology at the Pasadena Child Guidance Clinic.  Prior to his training in psychology, Terry worked at a clinical dietitian in large teaching hospitals on the East and West Coasts.


Bill McClung, Director of Finance and Chief Financial Officer
Bill McClung is a 35-year veteran of the financial services industry. He began his career as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) working for one of the big four national CPA firms. He then worked as vice president and controller for a subsidiary of an international finance company. He subsequently served as vice president, senior vice president and subsidiary president for several financial institutions, including a position where he was responsible for a staff of approximately 700. Bill joined Southwest Human Development in 2008.

Bill is responsible for Southwest Human Development’s financial management functions including overseeing agency and program budgets, general accounting, accounts receivable/payable, financial reporting, tax management, asset-liability management, and IT functions.  He is also responsible for providing strategic leadership for the agency by working with the Executive Management Team and Finance Committee.

Bill holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Quantitative Methods from the University of Oregon.


Trudi Murch, PhD, CCC-SLP, Co-Director of Services for Children with Disabilities
Trudi Murch is the co-director of services for children with disabilities. In this capacity she supervises a staff of 85 professionals including speech/language pathologists, early childhood special educators, early interventionists, occupational therapists, and assistive technology specialists.

Department programs include disability services to more than 50 Southwest Human Development Head Start classrooms, Early Intervention services to 450 families in Maricopa County, and the Assistive Technology Training and Resource Center which provides training and technical assistance to school districts across Arizona. Each of these programs includes a screening, assessment, intervention planning, direct service delivery, consultation, and transition planning component.

Trudi has had extensive experience in designing and delivering training programs to Head Start personnel, school district teams, early intervention programs, and state and national speech/language pathology associations in the areas of inclusion, early intervention program design, reflective supervision, and the Integrated Therapy Model.


Janet Otte, Director of Human Resources
Janet Otte brings over 30 years of corporate and nonprofit leadership experience in human resources to Southwest Human Development. Her areas of expertise include management training, employee relations, employee benefits, policy and procedures and reorganization. Janet is a member of the Society of Human Resources Management.

Janet has been an integral part of the Southwest Human Development senior management team as the organization has grown from 200 to over 700 employees since her arrival in 1997. She is responsible for all employment-related activities, benefits administration, employee-management relations, licensure and accreditation compliance, records management, legal compliance issues and facilities.


Suzanne M. Schunk, MSW, LCSW, Director of Family Support Services
Suzanne M. Schunk has been the director of family support services at Southwest Human Development for more than a decade. Her department includes Healthy Families, Child Protective Services—contracted programs (e.g. Parent Aide, Family Preservation, and Family Reunification), Magellan Direct Support Services, and several Kinship Care and Adoptions programs. A licensed therapist, Suzanne has 25 years of experience providing mental health services to children and families and she was an expert witness for courts in three states as well as a clinical consultant for several programs in Maryland. Her areas of expertise include child abuse/neglect, adoption, domestic violence, and critical incident stress debriefing. She has provided professional training for over 25 years.

Suzanne earned her bachelor’s degree from Fordham University in Bronx, NY and has a master’s degree in Social Work from Catholic University in Washington, DC. She earned the “Infant Family Specialist Certificate” from the Harris Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Training Institute in 2006. She has been a field instructor with seven different colleges and is currently affiliated with Arizona State University and the University of Southern California Schools of Social Work.

Suzanne is actively involved in the National Association of Social Workers—Arizona Chapter. In 2005, she was honored as the Arizona Chapter's Social Worker of the Year. She also represents Southwest Human Development on the Child Welfare Committee of Children’s Action Alliance and on the Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition, where she is the Secretary-Treasurer for the PAFCO Education Board. She is active in advocacy on legislative issues affecting programs for children and families.


Alan Taylor, Director of Training
Alan Taylor has been the director of training at Southwest Human Development for the past 20 years. His areas of experience and expertise include design, delivery and evaluation of training programs for adult learners, early childhood special education, administration and supervision.

Alan has been responsible for contracts with numerous multi-state and regional training programs designed to deliver training and technical assistance to Head Start, child, and other early education programs throughout the western United States.

Current areas of interest include promoting father involvement and early literacy in child care programs. A member of the National Association of the Education of Young Children, Alan was actively involved in a systems change project, assisting in the redesign of early childhood education programs in 20 countries in eastern and central Europe.


Mindy Zapata, MEd, Head Start Director
Mindy Zapata has worked for Head Start and in the early childhood education field for 23 years. From holding leadership positions to providing direct services to children and families, Mindy’s vast range of experiences have provided her with valuable insight into translating regulations and applying them to real-life applications.

Mindy has directed both preschool Head Start and Early Head Start programs. As director of Early Head Start, Mindy’s vision led to the opening of the first Early Head Start program located in a juvenile detention facility. This program received national recognition and has been the model for similar programs in the United States.

Mindy has been a recipient of the Department of Corrections Good Neighbor Award. She is a member of the State Head Start Associations Board of Directors and is an adjunct faculty for Maricopa County Community College District in the areas of early childhood development and family studies. Mindy is a certified Head Start program monitoring reviewer and regional Head Start grant application reviewer.