whO
we
are
The purpose of the Brooklyn Psychological Association (BPA) is to facilitate Brooklyn psychologists networking, educating each other, promoting better services, and just relaxing together.
BPA is the regional association of psychology in the borough of Brooklyn and is affiliated with the New York State Psychological Association. Our mission is to unite psychologists in Brooklyn (Kings County) to further the development of psychology as a science and as a profession.
Brooklyn psychologists began organizing as a group around 1948 and this group was recognized as a sub-group of the New York State Joint Council of Psychologists in 1953. A Certificate of Incorporation was filed in July of 1954.
BPA continues to represent Brooklyn psychologists and to provide a vehicle for the profession of psychology to contribute to the welfare of the public and to promote professional practice.
board of directors
President
Treasurer
Secretary
NYSPA Council Representative
Alternate NYSPA Council Representative
Communication Liason
Members at Large
Past-Presidents
James Dean, Ph.D. has been a licensed psychologist in New York State since 1988. He maintained a position as a psychologist in the New York City Hospital System from 1988 until 2016. His last appointment with Kings County Hospital was Director of Child and Adolescent OPD Psychology.
At the present time, Dr. Dean maintains a solo private practice with offices in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Psychotherapy services are provided to all ages accessing a number of different modalities. Specialties include child therapy, adolescent therapy, LGBT concerns and marital therapy. Dr. Dean has always been active in professional psychology associations.
He continues his involvement now primarily in the Brooklyn Psychological Association (BPA) and the New York State Psychological Association (NYSPA). Dr. Dean is currently serving as President of the BPA and is a member of the NYSPA Awards Committee.
Psychology of men, gender roles, and social justice are current areas of interest.
Carolyn M. Springer, Ph.D. graduated from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Columbia University with a doctorate in Social Psychology in 1992. She completed a three year postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center funded by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Mental Health. She has received training in different approaches to cognitive, behavioral, and family therapy; diversity and multicultural issues; crisis intervention and emergency preparedness. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at the Gordon F. Derner School of Psychology at Adelphi University where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and a Teaching Supervisor in the Department of Medical Education at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center. She has over twenty-five years of experience evaluating educational and health programs and has worked as a consultant for academic, government and health institutions; policy institutes and community based organizations. She conducts research on issues impacting women, low income and minority populations with a specific focus on maternal and child health issues (pre-natal care, breast-feeding, post-partum depression, adolescent pregnancy); psycho-oncology; access to health care and health literacy; interpersonal violence and health communication and information seeking.
Linda Kudla, Psy.D. earned her B.A. at Stony Brook University in 2010. She went on to earn her M.A. (2012) and Psy.D. (2017) in Clinical Psychology at La Salle University in Philadelphia, PA. Her clinical internship took place in a community mental health setting in Worcester, MA, where she engaged in preschool consultation and applied clinical work. Once licensed, she also supervised doctoral interns’ psychological assessment in addition to continuing in the roles of preschool consultant and outpatient therapist for children, adolescents, and young adults. She returned to NYC in 2019 and maintains licensure in both NY and MA.
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Dr. Kudla’s specialties include children, adolescents, and young adults with a variety of clinical presentations, such as anxiety and mood disorders, OCD, and trauma. Her treatment approach is generally integrative with heavy elements of CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Exposure Therapy) and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).
As a firm believer that the individual seeking support (or their caregiver) is the expert on their needs and strengths, goals and progress are established and reviewed collaboratively throughout all stages of therapy.
Since her return to NYC, Dr. Kudla spent a year as the Assistant Director of The Child & Family Institute-Brooklyn and began teaching as an adjunct assistant professor at Brooklyn College during the spring 2020 semester. She joined BPA in September 2019 and assumed secretarial duties shortly thereafter. Most recently, Dr. Kudla founded the private practice Small Steps Psychology and intends to build the practice both locally and through remote collaborations across the US. She is also looking forward to providing training opportunities for psychology students in the future as Small Steps expands.
Danielle Waldron, Ph.D. is a post-doctoral clinical psychologist with four years of experience providing brief and long-term psychotherapy to adults and couples. She specializes in the treatment of interpersonal conflicts, depression, anxiety, and life changes and adjustments.
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Dr. Waldron works from a psychodynamic frame, integrating elements of cognitive-behavioral therapy. She believes that childhood experiences significantly impact our capacities for interpersonal relationships and our unique ways of being in adulthood, and that therapeutic growth occurs in the context of an authentic and supportive therapeutic alliance. To this end she strives to help her clients weave personal narratives in the presence of an attentive therapist, holding open a space in which to be curious, rather than judgmental, about their own experiences. Throughout, she is sensitive to how cultural narratives impact clients individually, and within the therapeutic relationship.
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Dr. Waldron earned her MA and Ph.D. from Adelphi University’s Derner School of Psychology in New York, where her dissertation research focused on the attitudes and beliefs people of Caribbean descent hold about mental illness. Her clinical training included experience working in settings as diverse as college counseling centers, inpatient units in public and private hospitals, and hospital and community outpatient clinics. She is also currently the Council Representative for the New York State Psychological Association (NYSPA) and the host of the YouTube channel “Conversation on the Couch with Dr. Danielle”.
Delrita Hunter Abercrombie, Ph.D. was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from a family with a long history of providing leadership in the field of education (Tougaloo College and the Piney Woods School in Mississippi, NY and Pennsylvania).
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Dr. Abercrombie is a clinical neuropsychologist and a faculty member in the residency training program at the Brookdale Hospital Campus of One Brooklyn. At Brookdale, she administered and developed the first afterschool program in NYC. Along with the Child Psychiatry program, she has conducted research on depression and suicide in children with behavioral disorders. She is an officer in the NYSPA Clinical and Neuropsychology Divisions of NYSPA, APA member, expert in the Academy of Forensic Examiners, and Member of the NY Academy of Science.
Dr. Abercrombie received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology at Middlebury College in Vermont (1970) and Master's (1972) and Doctoral (1975) degrees in School Community Psychology at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY, where she conducted research on state-dependent learning and behavior modification. She received internship training in Glen Cove Public Schools, Queens Children's Hospital, and Central Islip State Hospital. She has worked as a School Psychologist in the Roosevelt Public Schools, Sr. Learning Disabilities therapist at Coney Island Hospital, and Supervising Psychologist at the Education Assistance Center for Nassau County Drug and Alcohol Commission. During that period, she represented the Nassau County Psychological Association and Roosevelt Schools in the development of guidelines for Public Law 94-142 in Albany to provide educational opportunities for the disabled. She has consulted with the Social Security Administration, NY Methodist Hospital, and Linden Psychological Services in her private practice as well as received a certificate in clinical pharmacology at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Her interest in human welfare has continued into her community service with Brooklyn Links Inc. She is honored to have the opportunity to share her experiences with colleagues and to advocate for psychological services in Brooklyn.
Fanny Ng, Ph.D. received her Bachelor of Arts from Stony Brook University and her Master of Arts and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Massachusetts Boston. She completed her internship at the Wright Institute’s Integrated Health Psychology Training Program in Berkeley, CA, and a post-doctoral fellowship in the Behavioral Medicine / Primary Care Mental Health Integration emphasis area at the Veteran Affairs Health Care System of Northern California in Martinez, CA. Her academic and research interests focus broadly on issues of diversity including minority women's leadership, race-related discrimination, and racial empowerment.
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Her clinical passions are to serve underserved, minority communities and medical populations using collaborative interdisciplinary integrated care approaches in medical settings that increases accessibility to mental health services for vulnerable populations while reducing mental health stigma.
Dr. Ng is currently a licensed psychologist at the Cancer Center at Bellevue Hospital of the NYC Health and Hospitals system, and a faculty member of in the School of Medicine at NYU Langone. She was a recipient of a Minority Fellowship from the American Psychological Association and is a current member of APA's Division 12 (Society of Clinical Psychology) Diversity Committee. She is also currently serving as the secretary/treasurer for the Early Career Professionals Division of the New York State Psychological Association.
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Makeda Williams, LMHC is a Trinidadian, who came to the U.S. to pursue her career in the field of Psychology. She is currently a Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) in the State of New York. Makeda graduated from Adelphi University with both a BA in Psychology in 2009 and a Master's degree in Mental Health Counseling in 2011. Presently, she is a Clinical Coordinator for an Adult Outpatient clinic with NYC Health and Hospitals.
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With years of experience as a Mental Health Counselor, Makeda has been serving as a private practitioner in Brooklyn since 2013, working with a broad spectrum of clients, from individuals to groups. Her areas of expertise include working with severely mentally ill persons, clients with adjustment issues such as relational problems, anxiety, depression that may contribute to mild to moderate impairment in functioning, as well as adolescents and diverse community-based populations. She also works with clients diagnosed with PTSD and Mood disorders.
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Makeda’s approach is towards interactive solution-focused therapy, to provide support and practical feedback in helping clients to effectively address personal life challenges, and integrating complementary methodologies and techniques to offer a highly personalized therapeutic approach.
Makeda’s ongoing support for working with individuals from diverse backgrounds in her community, and her belief in embracing compassion in her practice have fueled her enthusiasm to become an active member of the Brooklyn Psychological Association. Makeda has a deep commitment to the field of Mental Health, and looks forward to contributing her experience, background, and strengths towards the continued growth of the Brooklyn Psychological Association.
Max Heinrich, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist who earned his Ph.D. from Cornell University in 1968.
He has worked primarily with the seriously and persistently mentally ill in hospital settings. For most of that time he directed various inpatient and outpatient services. He has won local, state, and national awards for public advocacy on behalf of his profession.
Currently, his week is divided between treating patients and teaching students on a psychiatric inpatient unit in a public hospital, as well as maintaining a private practice. His recently published book is entitled: Reflections of a Cynical Clinical Psychologist.
Howard Eisman, Ph.D. was born in Brooklyn, New York— went to Stuyvesant High School, got a Bachelor of Science degree from City College of New York and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Boston University.
He managed psychology departments in clinics and a hospital for many years, and taught Developmental and Clinical Psychology at New York University and other New York City universities.