Staff Biographies

Ginger Ward, M.A.Ed., Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Douglas Albrecht, Ph.D., Clinical Director, Good Fit Counseling Center
Kim Carkhuff, Director of Development
Daniel B. Kessler, M.D., Medical Director, Children’s Developmental Center
Terrence Matteo, Ph.D., Director, Children's Developmental Center and Co-Director, Services for Children with Disabilities
Bill McClung, Chief Financial Officer and Director of Finance
Trudi Murch, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Co-Director of Services for Children with Disabilities
Janet Otte, Director of Human Resources
Suzanne M. Schunk, MSW, LCSW, Director of Family Support Services
Alison Steier, Ph.D., Co-Director, Mental Health Services; Director, Harris Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Training Institute
Alan Taylor, Director of Training
Mindy Zapata, M.Ed., Head Start Director

Ginger Ward, M.A.Ed., Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Ginger Ward is the Chief Executive Officer of Southwest Human Development, which she founded in 1981 with six employees serving 175 families. Today, Southwest Human Development is the largest, community-based organization of its kind in Arizona, with over 700 employees serving 135,000 young children and families each year. Under Ginger’s direction, Southwest Human Development has established a national reputation for leadership and high-quality programs and 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 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, Ph.D., Clinical Director, Good Fit Counseling Center
Doug Albrecht is a licensed clinical psychologist who serves as the clinical director for Southwest Human Development's 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, Calif. 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.


Kim Carkhuff, Director of Development
Kim Carkhuff brings over 10 years of nonprofit experience – both volunteer and professional – to Southwest Human Development as director of development. In this role, she supervises all aspects of philanthropic giving to the organization including individual, corporate and foundation giving, special events, annual giving initiatives and major gifts. In addition, Kim oversees community outreach, volunteer recruitment and public relations/marketing for the agency. Her expertise also includes public speaking, writing and editing, and she is a DDI-certified facilitator specializing in leadership development. 

Originally from Kansas, Kim graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor of fine arts. Her early career was spent as an actress and singer in New York City where she traveled the country performing in regional theatres and touring productions. Since moving to Phoenix in 2001, Kim has worked in both the sales and fundraising arenas. Her professional sales experience includes time as an account executive at Haas Publishing, The Arizona Republic and Reliant Pharmaceuticals. Most recently, Kim was a part of the team at Banner Health Foundation where she gained experience in all aspects of philanthropic giving through roles as a Major Gift Officer and Annual Giving Manager.

Kim has been involved in a number of volunteer boards/committees across the Valley, including Junior League of Phoenix, Valley of the Sun Active 20-30 Club, University of Arizona Alumni Association Board – Phoenix Chapter, Phoenix Children’s Hospital Beach Ball, Arizona Humane Society, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation AZ’s Finest, Phoenix Art Museum and Child Abuse Prevention Arizona.


Daniel B. Kessler, M.D., Medical Director, Children’s Developmental Center
Daniel B. Kessler, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician with over 30 years of experience, serves as medical director of Southwest Human Development's Children's Development Center where he works with a transdisciplinary 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 "Top Doc" by Phoenix Magazine and nationally in the Best Doctors in America list on multiple occasions.

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, Daniel B. Kessler, M.D. and Associates, 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.


Terrence Matteo, Ph.D., Director, Children's Developmental Center and Co-Director, Services for Children with Disabilities
Terry Matteo has been a licensed psychologist for over 14 years and has provided early childhood mental health services, developmental evaluations, training and consultation at Southwest Human Development for over six years. Prior to joining the agency, Terry served as a clinical director at Child Haven, a nonprofit children’s mental health clinic in Fairfield, Calif. He is currently licensed as a psychologist in Arizona and 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. He 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 as a clinical dietitian in large teaching hospitals on the East and West coasts.


Bill McClung, Chief Financial Officer and Director of Finance
Bill McClung is a seasoned veteran of the financial services industry. He began his career as a Certified Public Accountant 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, subsequently serving as vice president, senior vice president and subsidiary president for several financial institutions, including a position where he was responsible for a staff of 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, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Co-Director of Services for Children with Disabilities
Dr. Trudi Murch is co-director of Services for Children with Disabilities at Easter Seals Southwest Human Development, a community-based human service agency in the Greater Phoenix area. Department programs include disability services to Head Start classrooms, the Children’s Developmental Center (Early Intervention), the Early Care and Education Inclusion Program, Nurse-Family Partnership, the NICP community nursing follow-up program and the Assistive Technology Training and Resource Center.

Trudi has had extensive experience in designing and delivering training programs to Head Start personnel, school district teams and early intervention programs in the areas of inclusion, early intervention program design, and reflective supervision. She recently co-authored a text: Reflective Supervision and Leadership in Infant and Early Childhood Programs, published by the ZERO TO THREE Press. She and her colleague, Mary Claire Heffron have produced a set of video vignettes, along with a training manual, entitled: Finding the Words, Finding the Ways: Exploring Reflective Supervision and Facilitation.

Trudi has been at Southwest Human Development for over 25 years. Prior to joining the agency, she was a practicing speech-language pathologist at Good Samaritan Hospital/Phoenix Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Boston. She received her Ph.D. in speech-language pathology from the University of Pittsburgh.


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 dozen years. Her department includes Healthy Families home visitation, South Phoenix Home Visitation Coordination, Child Protective Services—contracted programs (e.g. Parent Aide, Family Preservation and Family Reunification), Magellan Direct Support Services, several Kinship Care and Adoptions programs, Central Phoenix Family Support Coordination, the New Beginning Program for divorcing parents and Common Sense Parenting groups for parents of children ages birth to five.

Prior to coming to Southwest Human Development, Suzanne was the CEO of Family Services Agency in Elkton, Md. An Arizona-licensed clinical social worker, Suzanne has 30 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, N.Y. and her master’s degree in Social Work from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. 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 where she is the current president of the Board of Directors. 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 serves as the secretary-treasurer for the Protecting Arizona’s Family Coalition Education Board. She is active in advocacy on legislative issues affecting programs for children and families.


Alison Steier, Ph.D., Co-Director, Mental Health Services; Director, Harris Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Training Institute
Alison Steier is a licensed psychologist who serves as director of the Harris Institute at Southwest Human Development, the Birth to Five Helpline and its Fussy Baby service, and Arizona’s system of early childhood mental health consultation, known as Smart Support.

Alison earned her doctoral degree from George Mason University. She received advanced training in psychotherapy from Georgetown University, completed a pre-doctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital and was a visiting fellow at Boston’s Children’s Hospital. She holds a fellowship in infant mental health from Louisiana State University Medical Center and a postdoctorate in infant mental health from Tulane University Medical Center. She has been the lucky beneficiary of training with some of the country’s most prominent experts in mental health and early childhood, including T. Berry Brazelton, Charles Zeanah, and Joy Osofsky.

Alison is a frequent presenter on topics related to infant mental health and has published in the areas of mental health consultation and young children’s attachments to special inanimate objects (“transitional objects”).


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 for 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 throughout eastern and central Europe.


Mindy Zapata, M.Ed., 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 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 Head Start Association 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.