Staff
Elizabeth (Betsy) Leutz, M.S.Ed. | Director
Betsy Leutz is the Director of Connected Beginnings Training Institute at Wheelock College. A long-time colleague of Libby Zimmerman, Connected Beginning’s founding Executive Director, Dr. Zimmerman tapped Betsy in 2007 to help her launch and build Connected Beginnings Training Institute. Betsy was appointed Connected Beginnings’ Executive Director in March, 2010. She has over 30 years experience in infant and early childhood development and services and has held a number of organizational leadership roles in the field. With a career in infant and early childhood health and development, Betsy has focused on bringing an interdisciplinary understanding of infant and early childhood theory to professional practice. At Connected Beginnings she has worked to enlarge the scope of interdisciplinary professional development and training and to advance research-based interdisciplinary practices.
Betsy holds an MS in Early Childhood Education from the City University of New York and a BS from Boston University. She is a co-author of the curriculum The Foundations of the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) Pyramid Model (2010, Avery, Anthony, Leutz, McCracken, O’Neill & Robey). Prior to her work at Connected Beginnings, Betsy served from 1995-2007 as Director of Program Services and then as Director of Development at Thom Child & Family Services, in Natick, MA. During her years at Thom she developed, oversaw and supervised Thom’s Early Intervention, Consultation and Training Programs. As Director of Development, Betsy wrote and managed grants and oversaw fundraising activities. She also helped create and co-authored Thom’s Jump, Jiggle and Jive™ music and movement curriculum for infants, toddlers and their caregivers, and, in 2004, she collaborated with Libby Zimmerman to create the IN-TIME Training in Infant Mental Health. Betsy’s experience also includes directing Early Intervention and Preschool programs in Lowell, MA and work as a preschool and kindergarten teacher and as a consultant to early childhood programs in the Boston area and New York City.
Among her professional activities, Betsy has served as a member of the Massachusetts Interagency Coordinating Council (ICC), a federally mandated statewide inter-agency group that advises and assists the Department of Public Health on Early Intervention and the Early Intervention Training Center Advisory Committee. She also served on the board of The Massachusetts Early Intervention Consortium. Betsy is a founding and current board member of the Massachusetts Association for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health and serves on the Massachusetts CSEFEL Pyramid Model Statewide Leadership and Planning Team. She holds a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education from The City University of New York, a Bachelor’s degree from Boston University, and is a certified Early Intervention Specialist, Early Intervention Director, IN-TIME, CSEFEL and Mind in the Making Facilitator. Betsy can be reached via phone at 617-879-1464 or our contact form.
Mary Watson Avery, M.S. | Manager for Training and Professional Development
Mary Watson Avery, M.S, coordinates professional development and training activities at Connected Beginnings Training Institute. Her career has focused on infants, toddlers, preschoolers and their families. Her special interests include the professional development of individuals working with families; the play of typical and traumatized children; therapeutic parent education; and the mentoring of early childhood trainers. She has been a teacher, administrator and consultant in several urban early childhood programs in New York City and the greater Boston area. Mary has also served on the faculty at Harvard Graduate School of Education and was the Director of Family Connections, a community mental health outreach program based at Children’s Hospital Boston.
Since joining the Connected Beginnings team Mary has focused her efforts on planning trainings and mentoring groups across the state. Mary co-authored the curriculum The Foundations of the Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) Pyramid Model (2010, Avery, Anthony, Leutz, McCracken, O’Neill & Robey) and has coordinated the roll-out of this course in all six regions of Massachusetts. As a member of the Massachusetts Master Cadre of Pyramid Model Trainers and Coaches, Mary has been trained in all aspects of CSEFEL implementation: Train-the-Trainer, Train-the-Coach, Program-Wide Implementation and the CSEFEL Family Modules.
In addition to The Foundations of the CSEFEL Pyramid Model curriculum, Mary is an author of The Family Connections Materials (Avery, Beardslee, Ayoub & Watts), the Tell Me A Story Materials (Avery, Beardslee, Ayoub, Callejas & Watts), as well as several articles for Zero to Three and other early childhood and mental health publications. Mary earned an MS in Infant and Toddler Studies from Wheelock College and a BFA from Manhattanville College in Studio Art. She also co-authored and illustrated the children’s book, What Is Beautiful? (1995, Tricycle Press) with her husband David M. Avery. Mary can be reached via phone at 617-879-1462 or our contact form.
Laura Beals, Ph.D. | Manager for Research, Evaluation and Instructional Technology
Laura Beals is the Manager for Research, Evaluation and Instructional Technology at Connected Beginnings Training Institute. Since April of 2011, she has overseen research and evaluation activities at Connected Beginnings, examining the implementation, impact and effectiveness of CBTI's professional development and training on individuals, programs and practices. In addition, her primary areas of expertise are in the design and evaluation of technology, particularly virtual worlds, to support youth development, integration of technology into classrooms and innovative technology-based research and evaluation methods for use with children and adolescents.
Prior to joining Connected Beginnings, Laura was a senior member of the Developmental Technologies Research Group at Tufts University and worked at the Center for Engineering Educational Outreach (CEEO). She has published several articles focusing on virtual worlds technology for youth and has presented at national conferences on topics including robotics, online peer networks, and interactive technology programs for children and adults. Laura completed her Ph.D. (2011) and MA (2006) at the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University, with her doctoral dissertation focusing on the design and evaluation of virtual world programs for preadolescent youth and her master's thesis focusing on a new technology and methodology for observing early childhood classrooms. She graduated summa cum laude in an innovative multidisciplinary program combining Child Development with a BS from the College of Engineering at Tufts University. For more information about Laura, visit Laura's LinkedIn Profile. Laura can be reached via phone at 617-879-1463 or our contact form.
Cathy Abbott, B.A. | Program Administrator
Cathy Abbott is the Progam Administrator at Connected Beginnings, where she joined the staff in 2008. She has worked as office manager at the Unitarian Universalist Urban Ministry, Boston, and was legislative aide with Representative Jay Kaufman at the Massachusetts State House. As a community volunteer, she served on the Board of Selectmen in Lexington, MA and as a trustee of the Lexington METCO Scholarship Fund. She has also assisted a public school library partnership in New York City
Cathy’s experience in early education includes teaching nursery school and providing home daycare. She has organized State House lobby days for the Massachusetts League of Women Voters and the Massachusetts Early Intervention Consortium, and has led training workshops for public policy advocacy for state and community groups. Cathy can be reached via phone at 617-879-1425 or our contact form.
Catherine Wakely, B.S. | Assistant for Data Management and Instructional Technology
Catherine Wakely is the Assistant for Data Management and Instructional Technology at Connected Beginnings, where she joined the staff in 2011. She got her B.S. in Animal Science from The University of Maine where she also worked for several years as an IT support consultant. She has also worked as an operations coordinator at Sun Life Financial. Catherine can be reached via phone at 617-879-1465 or our contact form.