A message from our Executive Director

Dear Friends, Colleagues, and Community Stakeholders,

Happy New Year wishes to all!

I am writing to bring you up to date on two very exciting new appointments in leadership at the Center at 353 and highlight a few important strategic initiatives.

Over the next several years, our primary goal organizationally is to amplify efforts to meet the increasing need for accessible, comprehensive mental health care. Consistent with our strategic plan (2022-27) to increase outreach and services provided to the community, strengthen training and systems internally at Center at 353, as well as encourage professional growth and development among staff, I am thrilled to announce a change in roles and responsibility for two Center at 353 staff clinicians committed to moving the organization forward.

Kattya Coral-Bianculli, LCSW, and Brianne Meade, LCSW, have accepted positions as the new Directors of Clinical Programs and Clinical Services respectively. Kat and Brie will continue to carry a small caseload in addition to focusing on specific areas of organizational operations including, but not limited to the following:

Kattya Coral-Bianculli, LCSW, Director of Clinical Programs
As Director of Clinical Programs, Kat will have direct oversite of all clinical staff, social work interns, and continue to coordinate program and clinical support for Princeton Nursery School (PNS).  As Director of Clinical Programs, Kat is the point of contact for all signature programs including the Childhood Intervention Initiative (CII), Bereavement and Caregiver’s Program (BCP), and General Counseling. Kat will work in collaboration with Brie, the Board of Trustees and me sharing leadership responsibilities for Center at 353. Kat has over a decade of experience and training in case management, advocacy, and clinical care, working with children and families in a variety of clinical settings. Kat is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and play therapy trained. Kat received her master’s degree in social work from Rutgers University.

Brie Meade, LCSW, Director of Clinical Services
As Director of Clinical Services, Brie will focus on the administrative aspects of clinical services – medical records and data collection, and day-to-day operations including sharing oversite of personnel and building and grounds. Her work includes collaboration with development focused on organizational outreach. Brie will work in collaboration with Kat, the Board of Trustees and me sharing leadership responsibilities for Center at 353. Like Kat, Brie has a wealth of experience working with a wide variety of populations across the lifespan in a variety of treatment settings including community mental health, intensive outpatient and outpatient treatment settings. Brie is trained in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) and EMDR. Brie is also being certified in Perinatal Mental Health. Brie received her master’s degree in social work from Fordham University.

This year marks my tenth as Executive Director. As many of you know, last spring, consistent with our strategic plan, after a structured and methodical, twenty-two-month process, we officially changed our name. Trinity Counseling Service is now: Center at 353.  

Over the past ten years, with the support of wonderful trustees and stellar colleagues, we purchased and renovated our beautiful building, located at 353 Nassau Street, continue to make exciting changes to operations including moving to electronic medical records, and becoming a trauma informed agency. We now have 14 clinicians trained in EMDR thanks to trustee Andrew Chooljian and the ACA Family Foundation’s ongoing support. In addition, we offer training and supervision to the next generation of clinicians – colleagues under supervision working toward independent practice.

Many of these organizational changes were achieved with the expertise and support of Dr. Peggy Grauwiler, Center at 353 Director of Clinical Operations, who joined us in July, 2021. Sadly for us, Peggy and her family recently relocated to upstate New York. Peggy has agreed to remain in touch and work with us on special projects (we will hold her to her promise!), but daily access to her training, expertise, and good humor will be missed.

In preparation for Peggy’s transition, she and I spent months discussing ways to capitalize on our strong foundation and plan for future growth of Center at 353. The hiring of Kat and Brie into their new roles was a thoughtful and strategic outgrowth of our planning; onward!

As we move into the New Year, many of us are talking about feeling affected by angst, and fragility – of all sorts and for many reasons. Hopefully most of us are also finding humor, hope, and relief with some regularity that imbue us with strength and help us remain centered and flexible.

At Center at 353 we have a practice to pause and reset as often as we can – to remind ourselves and others of the tools and resources we have been trained to use- the power of breath to calm the nervous system; how, with a roll of the shoulders, we often stand taller and feel more confident; and how, a quick walk around the block can shift our mood…these resets often work – and when they don’t, well…we pause and reset again. Pause. Reset. Happy. New. Year! Please know that we are here if you need us.

Warmly,

Whitney B. Ross PhD, EdM
Executive Director
Center at 353