Dr. Whitney Griffin, PhD
Dr. Whitney Griffin, PhD. is a graduate of the North Carolina State University School Psychology program. She additionally obtained an M.Ed in Special Education with emphasis on low incidence disabilities from East Carolina University. Dr. Griffin also focused her undergraduate education at UNC-Greensboro on Deaf Education. Dr. Griffin has extensive experience as both an educator and clinician in the NC Public Schools. Dr. Griffin completed a LEND training fellowship at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD) and she is now a faculty member in the NC LEND program where she serves as the program’s discipline lead in education. Dr. Griffin additionally is a Clinical Assistant Professor at The Psychoeducational Clinic at North Carolina State University.
Dr. Jean Mankowski
Dr. Mankowski, a psychologist and Clinical Assistant Professor at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD), is also the director of training for the North Carolina LEND grant. Clinical duties include psychological or interdisciplinary evaluations of individuals with or at risk for developmental disabilities. She is the psychologist for interdisciplinary Hearing and Development Team, specializing in children who are deaf and hard of hearing and for the Behavior Medicine Clinic, specializing in individuals with severe behavioral or psychiatric difficulties in the context of neurodevelopmental disability. Dr. Mankowski also provides neuropsychological consultation and diagnostic evaluations for The Whitaker Psychiatric Residential Treatment Facility in Butner, North Carolina and psychological consultation to the Wright School in Durham, NC. Her teaching responsibilities include clinical training of psychology graduate students, interns, and postdoctoral fellows, facilitating an interdisciplinary graduate level course Developmental Disabilities Across the Lifespan: A Problem Based Learning Approach, and curriculum development and implementation for North Carolina’s Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) Grant.
Dr. Robert Christian
Dr. Robert Christian is a graduate of the UNC School of Medicine. He did his combined residency training in general pediatrics, adult psychiatry, and child and adolescent psychiatry at the Brown University Triple Board Program in Providence, RI. Dr. Christian joined the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at The University of North Carolina School of Medicine in 2009. His clinical work focuses on the treatment of individual with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and complex behavioral/emotional presentations. Dr. Christian is also associate director of the North Carolina Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disorders (LEND) Program at CIDD. His research interests involve health services in the IDD realm. Dr. Christian serves on several state and regional advisory boards related to the IDD realm.
Dr. Diana Cejas
Dr. Cejas completed her medical training at Howard University in Washington, D.C. She also holds a Master of Public Health from The George Washington University. Dr. Cejas did her combined residency training in general pediatrics and pediatric neurology at Tulane University and The University of Chicago Child Neurology Program where Dr. Cejas served as Chief Resident. While in Chicago, Dr. Cejas completed a Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) Fellowship. She is now an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at UNC Chapel Hill and a Faculty Member at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (CIDD) at UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Cejas has long a held and a clinical and research interest on transitions in care. She has studied, written about, and given numerous talks on this subject as it relates to Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD).
Morgan Parlier
Morgan Parlier, MSW, LCSW joined the CIDD faculty in 2014. She completed her graduate degree through the Joint Master of Social Work program through UNCG and NCA&TSU in 2003. Morgan has more than a decade of experience as a research coordinator for several NIH funded projects exploring the genetic underpinnings of ASD under the supervision of Joe Piven, MD. She has since amassed a decade of experience providing clinical services to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families through individual and group counseling, parent support and resource navigation, psychoeducational groups, and interdisciplinary clinics at CIDD. Her clinical interests include adolescents, adults and older adults with I/DD and their families/caregivers, sexual health equity, and self-advocacy.