STAFF
Kelly's Bio
(she/her/hers)
Kelly O’Connor, Executive Director, oversees the programmatic, fundraising and marketing operations of Maternal Mental Health NOW. Her goal is to ensure that all of Los Angeles County’s new families have the resources they need to address maternal mental health disorders so that they can grow and thrive. Kelly previously served as Maternal Mental Health NOW’s Development Director for 7 years. Before joining Maternal Mental Health NOW’s team (which coincidentally corresponded with her own transition to motherhood), Kelly worked for several nonprofit organizations in the human services and environmental fields in the US and the UK as a freelance fundraising consultant and staff member. Kelly is a graduate of Northwestern University, having received a BS in Communication Studies & Sociology. She also holds a MS in Elementary Education from Brooklyn College, part of the City University of New York.
Zari's Bio
(she/her/hers)
Zari Hedayat, PhD, LMFT has a doctorate in psychology and is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist with a passion for working with pregnant and postpartum women. She is a certified infant mental health specialist from the Early Childhood Foundation of Cedar Sinai Medical Center. She has also trained in EMDR and Neurofeedback, short term interventions to treat trauma, which has led her to pro bono work with Veterans and to volunteer as a translator, on four pediatric surgical missions to Haiti with CHLA. Zari is also an adjunct faculty at Antioch University Los Angeles. One of her favorite classes to teach is Cross Cultural Infant Observation, as she is deeply interested in the intersection of culture and motherhood.
Kimberly's Bio
(she/her/hers)
Kimberly Gray currently serves as Director of Perinatal Mental Health Equity for Maternal Mental Health NOW. In this capacity, she leads community building, strategic partnerships, and policy efforts that strengthen support for Los Angeles County’s most vulnerable birthing populations and the perinatal workforce that serves them, with a particular focus on Black birthing people and Black birthworkers. Rooted in her own journey through pregnancy loss and motherhood, she brings two decades of experience in advocacy, nonprofit leadership, and systems change. Kimberly also serves as Chair of MMHN’s Black Birthworkers Advisory Council, Chair of the Funder’s Circle Workgroup for the South Los Angeles/South Bay African American Infant and Maternal Mortality Community Action Team and is a member of the CA Perinatal Wellness Alliance.
Prior to joining the Maternal Mental Health NOW team Kimberly worked as an advocate of change and improvement in the nonprofit education sector. Kimberly has a B.S. in Business Administration from UNC Greensboro, a M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and was a former Juris Doctorate Candidate at NCCU School of Law.
Alex's Bio
(they/them)
Alex Villalba, Senior Manager of Community Programs, is a bilingual Two-Spirit community organizer with ten years of grassroots organizing experience in the Borderlands. They hold a Master’s degree in Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies from Oregon State University and continue to advocate for decolonial practices as pathways to individual and community healing. Alex is currently training to become a full spectrum birthworker and gender transition doula with the intention of providing culturally appropriate support for the queer and trans community.
Ivana's Bio
(she/her/hers)
Ivana Arteaga-Rivas, Training Coordinator, is responsible for supporting the administrative, technical, and communication functions of the Training Department. Prior to joining Maternal Mental Health NOW, Ivana immersed herself in the public service sector as a community volunteer, Housing Navigator for a domestic violence agency and a program coordinator for a youth-based organization. Her passion for the perinatal mental health field stems from her personal commitment to building healthy communities and ending the stigma on mental illness by supporting parents and families. Ivana earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology with a minor in Political Science from California State University Long Beach and is eager to further her educational journey into perinatal care.
Sabrina's Bio
(she/her/hers)
Sabrina Tom, Development Manager, draws on her experience as a writer, mother, educator, fundraiser, and full spectrum doula to advance the mission of Maternity Mental Health NOW. Her belief in storytelling as healing and framework for social change also informs her approach to fund development as an opportunity to galvanize, connect and collaborate. She is a graduate of Brown University and also holds degrees in English & Creative Writing and Narrative Medicine.
Durga's Bio
(she/her)
Durga Abbas, Wellness Coordinator, is a Two Spirit/Queer person of Lebanese, Choctaw, and Irish ancestry. Taking her lived experience and passion for social justice, Durga became a certified Trauma Conscious Yoga teacher, completing her RYT200 Yoga Teacher Training and going on to take additional courses, supporting students and community members in their unique journeys of recovery and self-discovery.
Durga studied communications and art in college before taking numerous trainings with Hala Khouri, Off the Mat Into the World, Zabie Yamasaki (Transcending Trauma with Yoga), Nervous System Reset with Jessica Schaffer, Black Lives Matters, Indigenous Circle of Wellness, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, Rising Hearts, The LGBTQ Center of Long Beach, Muslims for Progressive Values, Slow Factory EDU, Lumos Transforms, and more.
Durga has one child and experienced the need for perinatal support, leading her to transition from her former career into a role that would allow the utilization of her dynamic skill set and deep desire to support birthing folks in a holistic, culturally respectful way.
Ashley's Bio
(she/her)
Ashley Lara is a neurodivergent mother and Peer Supporter with Indigenous Californian, Mexican American, and European ancestry. With over six years of experience in the mental health field, she provides neuroaffirming care informed by her lived experience, including a late diagnosis of ADHD and Level 1 Autism in 2021.
She studied Sociology in college before stepping away to young motherhood, an experience that continues to inform her work. Her professional background includes residential treatment centers, a nonprofit women’s shelter, and organizations serving Autistic and Disabled individuals and their families. She has supported children, teens, LGBTQIA+ individuals, unhoused communities, neurodivergent families, and women navigating mental health challenges in the greater Los Angeles area.
Ashley is especially passionate about empowering neurodivergent women and mothers. Drawing from both personal and professional experience—including pregnancy loss and postpartum challenges—she offers compassionate, culturally responsive support to those navigating identity, motherhood, and mental health.
EMERITUS BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Carol's Bio
Carol Berkowitz, M.D. FAAP, FACEP, is currently Division Chief of General Pediatrics in the Department of Pediatrics at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She graduated from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and did her pediatric residency at the Roosevelt Hospital in New York. She is a Past President of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In 2006, she was the recipient of the Joseph W. St. Geme Jr. Leadership Award, and in 2007, she received the Abraham Jacobi Memorial Award, an acknowledgement by both the AAP and the AMA of her numerous contributions to the health and well-being of children and to the pediatric community. She is the author of several hundred articles and book chapters and is the editor of Berkowitz’s Pediatrics: A Primary Care Approach, a textbook now in its 5th edition.
Ellie's Bio
Ellie Berkowitz-Handler, PhD, is currently the Executive Director at Congregation Ner Tamid of South Bay. In her former life before children, Ellie was a Professor of Art History, specializing in Chicano and Latin American Art. After suffering two bouts of severe postpartum anxiety with her first two children, Ellie decided to dedicate her life’s work to destigmatizing the issue of Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders and helping all women suffering from this disorder. In addition to rearing her three children, Ellie both sits on and chairs several other non-profit boards.
Elyse's Bio
(she/her/hers)
Elyse Springer is a Marriage and Family Therapist, licensed in California and Oregon and is currently a board member for Postpartum Support International’s newly formed California chapter and serves as the Established Organizations Chair. She is an emeritus Governing Council member for Maternal Mental Health NOW (formerly The Los Angeles County Perinatal Mental Health Task Force) after serving an eight year term, in addition to her ongoing role as training faculty for the organization. Elyse served as a Board Member of national maternal mental health policy and advocacy group 2020 Mom Project from 2014-2019, and currently sits on the organization’s Clinical Advisory panel. In addition, Elyse is a current Clinical Advisory Board Member for national perinatal loss organization Return to Zero: H.O.P.E. Elyse is a past co-chair of the Los Angeles County HIV Mental Health Task Force and is affiliated with CAMFT, Postpartum Support International, certified in Interpersonal Therapy by the the IPT Institute, certified in EMDR Therapy by EMDRIA, is an EMDRIA-approved Consultant-In-Training (CIT) with Deany Laliotis and was among the first clinicians with the national PMH-C (Perinatal Mental Health Certification) designation.
Penny's Bio
Penny White has an MSW degree in clinical social work, with a concentration in health care, from USC. She was a maternal/child health social worker, specializing in NICU, at Northridge Hospital Medical Center for ten years. She teaches psychosocial issues/skills to second-year medical students at UCLA. She co-created and co-directed an embedded maternal mental health assessment and treatment program at the USC/Eisner Family Practice Clinic.