Staff

Our teaching community is very stable with a low turnover rate. Our staff includes credentialed special education teachers, instructional aides, licensed clinical social workers, and a speech therapist. Credentials vary from Learning Handicapped Specialist, Clear Level-II Education Specialist, and Preliminary Level-I Education Specialist. Staff members share the teaching philosophy that all children and troubled teens, regardless of their mental illness and learning disability, can learn in the appropriate setting. Our teachers are continually finding new ways to adapt the special education curriculum to relate to a student’s background, interests, and needs.

Amy Cousineau, Ph.D., Division Chief, Campus-Based Services

Interim Director

Amy Cousineau, Ph.D., is the division chief of campus-based services. In this position she oversees the Residential Treatment Services program, the Hillsides Education Center, nursing, Residentially-based Services and Therapeutic Behavioral Services. She is also in charge of steering the residential program through foster care reform as mandated by the recent state law AB 403, the Continuum of Care Reform. Most previously to this position, she served as Hillsides director of programs and strategic initiatives.

Amy began her career at Hillsides in 2008, starting out as a psychologist and assessment program manager. She was then promoted to Hillsides training program manager and then to the director of Hillsides Family Resource Center in Echo Park, Calif., which offers the community a wide range of programs and services such as mental health support and parenting classes. While supervising the Echo Park location, she also served for eight months as the interim director of Youth Moving On, Hillsides program for transition-aged youth 16 – 25.

While working at Hillsides, Amy concurrently worked as a psychologist in private practice in Glendale, Calif., for about five years. She also worked as a therapist at the VIP Community Health Center in Los Angeles, as a psychological assistant at the Learning Disabilities Testing Center in Redondo Beach, Calif., and as a staff therapist at the Biola Counseling Center in La Mirada, Calif., among other jobs.

Amy received a bachelor’s degree from Biola University with a double major in psychology and music and a master’s and doctorate degree in clinical psychology from the Rosemead School of Psychology at Biola University.  

Jennifer M. Henry, M.S., LMFT

Clinical Director

Jennifer Maristela Henry is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has been providing public mental health services for the past 11 years throughout Los Angeles County.

An alumna of the University of Phoenix, Jennifer holds a Master of Science degree in Counseling, with emphasis in Marriage, Family, and Child Therapy. Presently, she

 is pursuing her Doctoral of Social Work degree at University of Southern California, focusing on the Grand Challenge of Enhancing the Healthy Development for all youth.

She has worked with a diverse population ranging from children, adolescents, families, adults with co-occurring disorders and domestic violence survivors and conducted comprehensive mental health assessments, created individualized treatment plans, and provided holistic individual, family, and group therapy. 

Jennifer is trained and certified in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy (TF-CBT,) Seeking Safety (SS,) Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT,) Crisis Oriented Recovery Services (CORS,) Matrix Model (MM,) A Window Between Worlds (AWBW,) Cognitive Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools (CBITS,) Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and Recovery Oriented Supervision (ROS.) Furthermore, she has undergone and has successfully completed a rigorous training to become a Seeking Safety Champion, which allows her to train in-house trainees/associates. She has evolved in her clinical practice throughout her professional experience. Her field and volunteer experience has also shaped her to be a versatile clinician. She is affiliated with California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT,) Foothill Child Abuse Council and is the President of Humanitarian Organization for People Everywhere (HOPE.)

Her life’s mission is to be a vessel of change to make a difference. An altruistic and humanistic legacy is what she aims to gift this world.  

Jimmy Fernandez, J.D. 

Program Specialist

Jimmy started out as a classroom assistant and then returned to school to receive  an education specialist credential.  He has taught fifth through 10th grade at HEC, and worked as a lead teacher, running his own program that  focused on individualized instruction to a small group of students.  Jimmy holds a law degree and worked in the legal field for many years before making a career change to education.

Other support staff includes:

• Credentialed teachers
• Physical education teacher
• Music teacher
• Teaching assistants
• Behavioral specialist team
• Social workers
• Speech and language therapist
• Office manager/billing manager