Angela Sedeño, Ph.D. — Executive Director

Dr. Sedeño is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who earned her doctorate at Loyola University Chicago with a specialty in child and family psychology. She is a native Chicagoan who has worked in community mental health since 1999. Prior to joining The Kedzie Center as Executive Director, she served as Family Services Program Director at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. Her clinical specialties include adolescent psychology, conduct disorders, trauma informed care, acculturation, cultural identity and immigration-related stress and resilience. Other interests include social and restorative justice and the roots and impact of community violence on youth and families. A first generation Mexican-American, she is bilingual/bicultural.

Michelle McMartin, LCSW - Clinical Training Director

Michelle oversees the clinical training program, clinical supervision of the staff and clinical operations in collaboration with the Executive Director.  She brings over 19 years of experience working with youth and families in the Chicago area in residential treatment, foster care and community based clinical services.  She has experience working with families across the lifespan, working with couples and families who are just forming their created family, to helping families launch young adults. She has specialized training and experience with kids 0-8 years of age, youth and families who have experienced abuse and trauma, chronic mental health issues, adoption and families experiencing chronic health issues. Michelle's clinical interests integrate psychodynamic therapies with family systems work, with a strong emphasis on using the client-therapist relationship to build the relational capacities of each family member through an attachment framework. She also works with individual clients to express and make meaning of their feelings, beliefs and past experiences.  

Cassandra Firkins, LCSW - Site Director

Cassandra is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who brings over 20 years of experience as a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, program administrator and crisis worker in a variety of settings including community mental health centers, foster care agencies, group private practices and hospitals. She has extensive experience with training and supervising student interns and clinical staff. Most recently, Cassandra oversaw operations of a number of programs including outpatient psychotherapy, community service team (CST), Living Room (walk in mental health crisis support) and domestic violence support and prevention. Cassandra works with children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families using an integrative perspective grounded in contemporary self-psychology, family systems and attachment theory. Her clinical interests include working with couples, parent-child relationships, attachment and adoption, postpartum depression and adjustment to motherhood, trauma recovery and managing severe mental illness.

Veronica Perez - Operations and Finance Manager

Veronica was born in Argentina and raised in Logan Square. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Chicago State University. She has 20+ years of operations/management experience in non-profit organizations and charter schools. As part of her work in schools, she mentored youth to help them achieve their goals. In her spare time, she enjoys teaching dance and fitness and donating her time to community organizations that serve low-income families.

David L. Goldberg, MD — Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

David L. Goldberg MD is a board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and consultant to the Kedzie Center.  He has worked in Chicago in community mental health since 1995 and practices in the Ravenswood neighborhood and at other locations in Chicago.  Born and raised in the city, he speaks Spanish and has worked with people of diverse cultures and languages from around the world.  He also enjoys bicycling, gardening, music and time with family.

Maya Jimenez, MA - Bilingual (Spanish) Staff Therapist , Intake Clinician

Maya earned her Master of Arts in Social Work, Social Policy, and Social Administration from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School. Maya has experience helping people cope with life changes and transitions as well as working with families who have immigrated to the United States. Maya’s approach to therapy is empathic and person-centered with a relational cultural theory perspective.

Eva Ledoux, MA, LCPC— Bilingual (German) Staff Therapist , Clinical Supervisor

Eva earned a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology in addition to a Master’s Degree in Pedagogy with a concentration in psychoanalysis, person-centered psychotherapy and philosophy from the University of Vienna. Eva has experience in foster care, residential treatment and in the field of applied behavior analysis. She approaches her clients with a humanistic perspective, drawing from psychodynamic and existential theories.  

Carol Perez, MSW - Bilingual (Spanish) Staff Therapist & Case Manager

Carol was born and raised in Chicago. She earned her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Jane Addams School of Social Work with a concentration in Children and Families.  She has experience working with underrepresented groups and providing care coordination for older adults. She provides case management from a trauma-informed and strength-based perspective. She is bilingual (Spanish)/bicultural. 

Elizabeth Scholom, Ph.D. - Licensed Clinical Psychologist

Elizabeth (Liz) is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who earned her doctorate at Adelphi University’s Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies in Garden City, NY, with a child, adolescent and family focus. Liz brings extensive experience working with children, adolescents, adults and families in primary care, residential treatment programs, schools, therapeutic early childhood programs, and community mental health clinics in Chicago and New York City, where she worked to develop school-based mental health programs in the NYC public school system, as well as early childhood primary prevention programs at NYC Health and Hospitals. Liz’s areas of clinical focus include trauma informed infant/early childhood mental health, parenting, and adolescent identity development. She is particularly passionate about working with individuals and families of all walks of life who might not ordinarily seek out or have access to services. Her treatment approach is relationship based and combines a psychodynamic orientation with attachment-based, family systems, MBCT, and trauma informed frameworks.

Will Bartz, MSW - Staff Therapist

Will earned his Master of Social Work degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has experience in residential therapy, education-oriented case management, and outpatient psychotherapy. Will works with clients across the lifespan but is receiving specialized training in Child and Parent Psychotherapy for young children ages 0-6, and generally draws on interventions that are relationship, play, and emotion based. Will’s work with children typically involves a family therapy element as he views the parent-child relationship as the greatest restorative factor in children’s treatment. In working with adults, Will’s aims typically involve exploration of meaning/meaningful relationships and development of one’s autonomy/identity in pursuit of a greater sense of freedom, purpose, and satisfaction in life. His approach draws on elements of psychoanalysis/psychodynamic therapy, Child and Parent Psychotherapy, Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC), and existential therapy.