The WRTC for FASDs seeks to reduce the incidence of alcohol-exposed pregnancies and to increase the availability and quality of services for individuals affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and their families through improved education and training of medical and other health students and professionals.
Western Regional Training Center for FASDs
Semel Institute
760 Westwood Plaza
Los Angeles CA 90095
Support for the WRTC for FASDs has been provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
WRTC FASD Center at UCLA
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities has funded four FASD Regional Training Centers (RTCs) across the United States. The RTCs, in collaboration with CDC and the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, are developing, implementing, and evaluation educational curricula for medical and allied health students and practitioners and seeking to have the curricula incorporated into training programs at each of the grantees' university of college, other colleges and universitites thorought the region, and into the credentialing requirements of professional boards.
Objectives of the center:
- To provide current knowledge to medical students, residents, and faculty regarding prevention, detection, and treatment of the consequences of FASDs and other prenatal alcohol-related disorders.
- To provide competency-based instructional modules.
- To disseminate curricula to medical providers and medical schools, allied health professionals and allied health training programs, and community hospitals and clinics, through continuing education programs and web-based materials.
FASD Center Personnel at UCLA
Margaret Stuber is a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist with extensive experience in curricular design, the Nathanson Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, the Director of medical student education for the Department of Psychiatry and one of the two co-chairs of the Medical Education Committee for the David Geffen School of Medicine. She is the Principal Investigator on a five year grant from NIH designed to strengthen behavioral and social science teaching in medical schools in the United States. Dr. Stuber is the co-author of a leading textbook in behavioral medicine for medical students.
Mary J. O’Connor is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA and a board-certified Specialist in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. Dr. O’Connor has been conducting research on the impact of prenatal alcohol exposure for over 20 years with particular emphasis on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment. Dr. O’Connor has directed several federally funded projects, including those on the prevention of alcohol use during pregnancy with low income minority women, the social skills treatment of children with prenatal alcohol exposure, and medical and allied health education on FASDs.
Susan Baillie is an Adjunct Associate Professor, and Director of Graduate Medical Education at UCLA. She is responsible for overseeing all 65 graduate medical education programs at UCLA and has worked extensively with faculty development programs for on-campus and community-based faculty, and with the integration of new curriculum components. She is the educational representative to the UCLA National Center for Excellence in Women’s Health, and is co-editor of the Women’s Primary Care Guide.
Blair Paley is an Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA. Dr. Paley has been an Investigator on federally funded projects to develop educational curricula and has developed web-based continuing education courses for medical and allied health professionals and students in the area of FASDs. Dr. Paley works with community agencies to improve the knowledge and skills of professional staff and trainees in the evaluation and treatment of children with FASD, and conducts research on parental stress in families of children with FASDs.
Ian Cook is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA and a Research Scientist at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the UCLA Brain Research Institute. Dr. Cook has extensive expertise in continuing medical education and the use of technology in teaching, and is the Chair of the Continuing Education Committee in the Department of Psychiatry.
Marleen Castaneda - the Project Manager for the WRTC, maintains the WRTC website, and handles all requests for educational and training materials, live presentations, and technical assistance. She oversees the management of data collection and the translation of measures and instructional materials.
Center Co-ordinator; (310) 206-3932 mcastaneda@mednet.ucla.edu
