Irma Gomez, LCSW is the Director of Quality Improvement & Training for the Mental Health Program. Irma joined Children’s Bureau in 1994 and facilitated the launching of mental health services in 1998. This program had a start-up budget of just under $1 million and has grown to $24 million currently. Irma has taken great pride in supporting the foundation for this growth and developing infrastructure supports to manage the quality assurance/improvement/training aspects for programming across our now eight mental health sites. Irma received her BSW from San Jose State University and her MSW from University of Southern California.
Leslie comes to Children’s Bureau with experience in the social services field that spans foster care, adoptions, community services and strategic planning. She has a passion for working with under-tapped populations. Leslie began her career at Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles overseeing the emergency shelter and coordinating community services. At the time, Leslie was the only Spanish-speaking case worker so she also provided all in-services for that population. Her work in foster care began in 2003 as a social worker and then supervisor. In 2007, Leslie explored a career shift as a Wrap Around facilitator but ultimately returned to foster care and adoptions with Wayfinder where she was the executive director. Leslie holds a B.A. in Psychology and a Master of Counseling from California State, Los Angeles.
Dr. Reimer oversees the design and implementation of internal and external evaluation and research projects. She specializes in early childhood education and social service program consulting, evaluation, research, policy, and advocacy. She has worked in the early childhood field for over 30 years. Dr. Reimer first began working with Children’s Bureau in 2002 as a Research Associate with WestEd, where she directed evaluation projects for prevention and early intervention programs. In 2006, Dr. Reimer joined Children’s Bureau full-time. Kathy facilitates the development of Children’s Bureau’s organizational capacity to learn through evaluation and to use evaluation for continuous quality improvement and the provision of accountability to stakeholders. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with a specialization in Human Development from Arizona State University.
Joseph is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who came to Children’s Bureau with 13 years of experience in the mental health field. In his previous role as Director of Intake and Referrals and Outreach at Hillsides, Joseph created and centralized an intake department for a 50-bed residential facility's census, 90-seat student census, and multiple family resource center clinics. He also has experience working with Foster Care and Adoption programs to conduct home studies for kinship care families and has worked with children and adults who suffer with ADHD, OCD, major depression, anxiety, and trichotillomania through group and individual private practices. Joseph earned a B.A. in Psychology from Cal State Northridge and a Masters Degree from Azusa Pacific.
