Gerard Costa, Ph.D
(September 2009)
Brief Curriculum Vitae
Dr. Gerard Costa is the founding director of the YCS Institute for Infant and Preschool Mental Health, a training and consultation, clinical service and research program concerned with the optimal development of infants and children, birth to six years, within the context of their relationships. The training division offers a Post-Graduate Certificate Program in Infant Mental Health, and in the Fall, 2010, the YCS Institute will launch, in collaboration with Seton Hall University’s School of Health and Medical Sciences, A Post-Professional Certificate in Infant Mental Health for Early Intervention, targeted for OTs, PTs, and S-LPs. The YCS Institute also offers an APPIC (Association of Pre-doctoral Psychology Internship Centers) registered internship program and offers graduate externships to students from nine affiliated university. The YCS Institute operates New Jersey’s only licensed, Medicaid-approved mental health clinic specializing in infants and young children, birth to six years of age, and their families.
He is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) – New Jersey Medical School. He served as the first project director of the Child Development-Community Policing Project of Newark, a mental health-police partnership affiliated with Yale University, aimed at reducing the impact of violence in child victims and witnesses. He served as a Clinical Instructor at Yale University’s Child Study Center where he worked with the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence. He served as a consultant to the Violence Institute of New Jersey at UMDNJ, developing the training curriculum for the Safe Start Program – one of 11 federally funded programs working on establishing multi-agency collaborative responses to children exposed to violence. He is a trainer of Safe Havens – a training program for early childhood program staff to work with children and families exposed to violence. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the ICDL (Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disorders) and serves on the DIR Institute Faculty headed by Drs. Stanley Greenspan and Serena Wieder. He also serves on the faculty of the ICDL Graduate School.. He was among the first 16 faculty members issued a Certificate in the DIR Approach by ICDL and he serves as the Chair of the NJ Chapter of ICDL. He has served as a consultant to ZERO TO THREE and the Early Head Start –National Resource Center, serving as one of 22 national consultants for the Pathways to Prevention project, an infant mental health initiative for selected Early Head Start programs, and was a trainer in the ZTT response to child care consultants serving children and families affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He currently serves as a national consultant and trainer for a ZTT initiative, Coming Together Around Military Families (CTAMF) where he works with staff providing services to children and families of deployed military personnel from military installations throughout America. He is a certified faculty member of the Brazelton Touchpoints Center (BTC) at the YCS Institute and serves on the adjunct faculties of Fairleigh Dickinson, Rutgers and Seton Hall Universities. He is also a supervising faculty member for the Institute for Children and Families of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services in New York.
Dr. Costa currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Gateway-Northwest Maternal Child Health Consortium (Past President), the Advisory Board of the New Jersey Child Assault Prevention (NJCAP) Program, the Board of Directors of the Margaret Anna Cusack Care Center (Nursing Home) and is a Member and Past President of the New Jersey Association for Infant Mental Health (NJAIMH). He serves on the BUILD NJ Committee, addressing public-private initiatives for early learning, birth to five years of age, the NJDHSS Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems (ECCS) Committee, and the New Jersey Strengthening Families Initiative (SFI) Task Force.
Dr. Costa received his Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Temple University. He received specialized training in Infant Mental Health and has conducted trainings and workshops in Infant Mental Health throughout the United States. He has presented his work on an Infant Mental Health consultation model for early intervention programs, and on the development of training programs at the Zero to Three National Training Institutes. He is a former Head Start Director and has worked in early intervention programs since 1984. He chaired the New Jersey School Boards Association's Early Childhood Education Ad Hoc Study Committee (1989-1990), which resulted in publication of the NJSBA book, Early Childhood Education: An Agenda for Young Children. (By Patricia Patracco). In April, 1994, he was awarded the biennial Distinguished Service Award by the New Jersey Early Intervention Coalition in recognition of his work as a consultant to programs throughout the state. He has a special interest in relationship-based approaches to autistic-spectrum disorders. He has practiced as a psychotherapist for over 28 years, and is a licensed psychologist residing in Bergen County, New Jersey where he has a small private practice specializing in program trainings and consultations.
His recent publications include:
- Better treatment for Candace: How trained psychotherapists would have approached this case (Chapter 6), in Attachment Therapy on Trial: The Torture and Death of Candace Newmaker (2003), by Mercer, J. Sarner, L and Rosa, L. (Praeger Publishing: Connecticut)
- A Model for Integrating Infant Mental Health Principles and Practices in Early Intervention Services (Chapter 22), in B. Williams (Ed.), Direction in Early Intervention and Assessment (2004), Spokane, Washington: The Guild’s School
- Mental Health Principles, Practices, Strategies and Dynamics Pertinent to Early Intervention Practitioners (Chapter 5), In G.M. Foley and J.D. Hochman, (Eds.), Mental Health in Early Intervention: Achieving Unity in Principles and Practice.(2006), Paul T. Brookes Publishers
- The wizard of echolalia. In R. Naseef and C.N. Ariel, (Eds.) Voices from the Spectrum.(2006) New York: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
- Pervasive developmentaldisorders (Chapter 4)(2009) , co-written with Molly Romer Witten. In B. Mowder, F. Robinson and A. Yasik (Eds.), Evidence Based Practice in Infant and Early Childhood Psychology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Son, Publishers.
- What Structured Activities Can Be Used to Build Reflective Capacity? (Chapter 9) (2009), co-written with Lorri Sullivan. In L. Gilkerson and S. Heller (Eds.), Practical Guide to Reflective Supervision. Washington, D.C: ZERO TO THREE Press.
He has appeared as an expert in several professional training videotapes, including serving as a content and script consultant, and appearing in a 2005, 2-part videotape series, Identifying Signs of Stress in Young Children, developed by New Jersey based organization, Programs for Parents, Inc., to assist infant and early child care providers understand socio-emotional development in infants, toddlers and preschool aged children, and early signs of emotional delays and maltreatment. In April, 2003, the New Jersey Child Assault Prevention (CAP) Program selected him as a recipient of their 2003 Annual Award as a Mental Health professional for outstanding work in the prevention of child abuse. In October 2007, Dr. Costa was awarded the Christian Kjeldsen Champion for Children Award by the Child Care Advisory Council of the Department of Human Services of the State of New Jersey.
Gerard Costa, Ph.D.
Director, YCS Institute for Infant and Preschool Mental Health
60 Evergreen Place – 10th Floor
East Orange, New Jersey 07018
Phone: 973-395-5500 Ext. 301
Cell: 973-865-5247
Email: gcosta@ycs.org