C.A.S.E., Inc. - Comprehensive Autism Services & Education, Inc.

Rene Perez is a Napa native who has been involved in the community of people with disabilities most of his life.  His passion to work with this community stems from his personal experience with his brother who was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at an early age.  After receiving his B.A. in Sociology from UC Davis, Rene continued in the field, working with children with a wide range of disabilities.  He later joined CASE in 2011.  In his free time, he enjoys playing sports, spending time with family and friends, and playing with his dog, Kahlua.

Kristi MacLiesh grew up in the beautiful Napa Valley. She began her passion of working with children in her junior year of high school. She received her A.A. in General Education, Math and Science, and Social and Behavioral Sciences and transferred to San Francisco State University and received her B.A. in Child and Adolescent Development with a concentration in Youth and Family.

While living in San Francisco, Kristi worked as an Early Childhood Interpreter at the California Academy of Sciences and as a Camp Counselor at UCSF. In her last semester at SFSU, she conducted her internship at the non-profit, Edgewood Center for Children and Families. She interned through the school base program mentoring inner city children. She was drawn to ABA therapy and joined CASE in June 2011. She helps co-lead F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Club and strongly believes in the importance of socialization. In Kristi’s spare time, she enjoys curling up with a good book, being surrounded by nature, going to concerts and festivals, and spending time with family and friends. Some of her goals include, developing appropriate activities to teach social skills and communication, earning a Master’s in School Psychology, and learning how to speak a second language fluently.

Brian Ragan began working with children under the Autism Spectrum Disorder in 2003 and immediately fell in love with the field. He transferred to California State University Fullerton and finished with a Bachelor of Science in Child and Adolescent Development. While obtaining his degree he was in charge of the Media and Social unit for a non-profit cooperation in Orange County and worked closely with a client who is on the board of the Consumer Advisory Committee at the Department of Developmental Services in Sacramento. He also helped begin a new non-profit program for adults with disabilities in Long Beach which is still running today. Since then, he has moved to Northern California to his lovely wife’s hometown of Napa and has gone back to his roots working with children, teens, and adults under the spectrum at Comprehensive Autism Services and Education, Inc.

Sonja Kiser has been be involved working with children diagnosed with Autism throughout Napa County for six-years. Services have included providing early behavioral intervention within the classroom and home settings. She joined C.A.S.E Inc in August 2010, with enthusiasm to continue providing services for children and their families.

At this time Sonja is pursuing the completion of a B.S degree in Early Childhood Education through the Pacific Union College.

In her spare time Sonja enjoys gardening, shopping…and helping around her family's ranch.

Sonja Sunderland was born and raised in a little town called Paradise CA. She was in search of a college town with sandy beaches and continuous sunshine which brought her to Santa Barbara, CA. There she graduated from UC Santa Barbara earning a Bachelor of Arts In Psychology with major emphasis in Child Development.
 

Sonja has always been interested in the creativity and excitement children bring to everyday life. She has spent close to ten years working with youth in childcare facilities, as a nanny, in public school classrooms, as a soccer camp coach, and as an ABA Interventionist.

After discovering her passion working with children on the spectrum at an ABA preschool in Seattle, Sonja moved to Northern California and joined C.A.S.E, Inc. in 2010 as a Behavior Interventionist.

In her free time she enjoys being active, hiking, cooking and spending time with her friends and family.  She also loves to travel and explore new cultures and surroundings. Sonja is very excited about growing with CASE and looks forward to the adventures ahead. 
 

       Jennievie Taylor Graduated from CSU Sacramento in 2005 with her B.S. in Psychology.  She has worked with children with disabilities, mostly Autism, ages 0-18 for eight years and loves what she does.  It has been the growth in the children, little or big, that keeps her passion in this field.  She believes that the children and young adults that have been severely impacted with Autism have shown her a new way to look at life.  Through her training, dedication and love for her relationships with her clients, she has been able to build a bond that keeps her wanting to expand her knowledge about Autism and other disabilities.

       Jennievie plans on going back to school to obtain her Master's Degree in Special Education.  She hopes that she can continue to help children and their families understand how to teach and learn from one another.  In her spare time, Jennievie loves spending time with her husband, Rudy, and two beautiful daughters, Toni Rue and Rikki Riz.  As a family they love to go to the beach, sing and dance.

     As a teen, Sean Zeigler began working with children and teens as a player and little league umpire. He also taught hitting and fielding to children between the ages of 5 to adult which he grew fond of the coaching profession.

     Sean has also traveled a different path than most of our employees here at C.A.S.E., Inc. His background is in media production and technology.  Sean excelled at the number one film school in the country.  At USC's George Lucas School of Film and Television, Sean obtained a position as assistant to Dean Elizabeth Daley.  Following film school, Sean worked on a variety of projects in creative and technical production departments, with major studios like NBC, Paramount, Televisa, Miramax and Disney. All the while, Sean volunteered as head coach for 7th and 8th grade Softball at Marlborough School for girls and later, Culver City High School JV Softball in Los Angeles County.  Sean wants to refurbish baseball fields and raise funds to outfit new equipment in Non-profit community gyms. Sean councils a local community youth athletics foundation, and has a determination to organize support through social networking to raise large scale aid for domestic and international community athletics development.

     After 10 years of media production in Los Angeles, Sean, returned to the Bay Area to giveback to his home community in the Tri-County Area.  A volunteer varsity Baseball coach at Rodriguez High School and volunteer high school and community college sports audio & video facilitator. Sean wants to leave his mark as a athletics philanthropist. 
Sean feels Autism is a fascinating disorder and began working at C.A.S.E Inc in 2010, to develop skills as a Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) Interventionist. Eventually, Sean would like to begin and help lead Summer Friends' Camps as well as Playground Patch, a program developed by Courtney Evanskaas, M.A. and Dr. Cynthia Norall for school recesses.  He brings enthusiasm and athletic appreciation to our clients and their families.
In Sean's spare time, he likes to do anything team-sports related like, baseball, basketball, and football. He also likes creating and analyzing sports film and developing competition strategies. Sean hopes that he can help prepare our population for real life situations.

July 2-July 5
Wigglie Gigglies
This week in Friends’ Club we focused on how to work through disagreements with friends.  We read how even The Bernstien Bears have trouble with friends! We discussed what types of disagreements might come up when playing with friends, and how to work them out.  Through a game of tug-of-war, we practiced how it felt to work against our friends, then how it felt when our friends “gave a little bit”.  Through this week’s activities, we were able to review the art of compromise and taking turns with friends.  We also found out just how strong our groups are!!

Tweens
This week in Friends’ Club we focused on how we communicate with friends.  We started this week’s sessions with a game and moved “What’s Up” to second. This allowed a change-up in routine, and the kids to be more comfortable talking with each other by the second activity.   We practiced how we communicate with friends using non-verbal communication through “Show Me, Don’t Tell Me” game. The kids were able to act out an activity to the group using only their bodies (harder than it seems)! Through this activity, we were able to decide which actions were helpful and which actions were unclear.  The actor also had to interpret whether the group needed more hints if they had trouble coming up with a guess.  The groups were able to work together in a really fun way!

Teens
This week in Friends’ Club we focused on how we communicate with friends.  We started this week’s sessions with a game and moved “What’s Up” to second. This allowed a change-up in routine, and the kids to be more comfortable talking with each other by the second activity.   We practiced how we communicate with friends using non-verbal communication through “Show Me, Don’t Tell Me” game. The kids were able to act out an activity to the group using only their bodies (harder than it seems)! Through this activity, we were able to decide which actions were helpful and which actions were unclear.  The actor also had to interpret whether the group needed more hints if they had trouble coming up with a guess.  The teens also practiced using words only as a means of communicating instructions to a partner through “Building with Words” activity.  One partner would have a lego design in front of them, and with a divider between them, would have to explain how to make that same design.  We learned the importance of using specifics and asking clarifying questions! 

 

July 9-July 12

Wigglie Gigglies

This week in Friends’ Club we focused on how to include new friends into our play, join a group already playing, and levels of friendship.  We started each group with a game of ‘Four Corners’ to liven things up and encourage the kids to use each other’s names when playing.  After reading Best Friends for Frances, the groups discussed the differences between a friend and a best friend.  During our game of ‘Red Rover, Red Rover’ the groups practiced inviting others by name to join their group.  All the kids were able to reflect that it “felt good” to have their name called to join another group.  The groups were concluded with a song about following directions and using their bodies.  The kids were able to work together to help each other if someone missed a direction.  Lots of moving and shaking!

Tweens

This week in Friends’ Club we focused on our introduction to Levels of Friendship.  We started this week’s sessions with a guessing game where the kids had to practice how to not give facial cues to their friends.  The leader begins by having the kids line up shoulder to shoulder, then places one object in one person’s hand behind their back.  The kids have to not react if they are given the object.  A guesser on the opposite side of the room tries to watch everyone’s faces for clues. This is certainly a tough skill, and the kids are really improving!  The groups reviewed the levels of Friendship and what it means to have friends in different levels.  This week we discussed a Level One Friend in depth.  A level one friend is defined as someone you would give a “Friendly Greeting” to; someone you don’t really know but might recognize.  We reviewed what expected and unexpected behaviors you would use when encountering a level one friend.  The kids were then able to act these behaviors out in partners for the group.  We discussed how giving a hug would be an unexpected behavior for a level one friend, but not a close friend.  Of course, it is WAY more fun to act out the unexpected behaviors!!

Teens

This week in Friends’ Club we focused on our introduction to the Levels of Friendship.  We started this week’s sessions with a guessing game where the teens had to practice how to not give facial cues to their friends.  The leader begins by having the kids line up shoulder to shoulder, then places one object in one person’s hand behind their back.  The teens have to not react if they are given the object.  A guesser on the opposite side of the room tries to watch everyone’s faces for clues. This is certainly a tough skill, and everyone is really improving!  The groups reviewed the levels of Friendship and what it means to have friends in different levels.  This week we discussed a Level One Friend in depth.  A level one friend is defined as someone you would give a “Friendly Greeting” to; someone you don’t really know but might recognize.  We reviewed what expected and unexpected behaviors you would use when encountering a level one friend.  The teens were then able to act these behaviors out in partners for the group.  We discussed how giving a hug would be an unexpected behavior for a level one friend, but not a close friend.  Of course, it is WAY more fun to act out the unexpected behaviors!!

        
     Leilani Wakin joined the Napa C.A.S.E. team in June 2009 as an ABA Interventionist. In May 2008 she graduated from UC Berkeley with major concentrations in Psychology and Social Welfare. Leilani’s ultimate goal is to pursue her Masters in Public Health concurrently with her M.D. and eventually become a pediatrician. Ideally, she’d like to improve the healthcare system and develop community-level programs to assist families in living active, healthier lives.

    With six younger siblings and volunteer experience with local summer camps, Leilani has spent quite a bit of her life as a role model working with children. Her first personal experience with autism came with the opportunity to provide regular one-on-one care for a young woman. Inspired by this experience, Leilani has enthusiastically embraced the challenge of her role in providing early intervention for children on the autism spectrum. Outside of C.A.S.E. she enjoys singing, cooking, hiking, reading, and spending time with her wonderful family and friends."

        
        Jen Birkett has loved working with kids since she started babysitting in Junior High. After leaving the Chicago area and heading to Northern California in 1998, she has had the opportunity to continue her work with children and families of all ages and demographic. In 1999, she began working as a summer camp counselor for at-risk youth at CYO Camp Armstrong, and continued through the school year as a Teacher Naturalist for Caritas Creek. Over her five years spent there, she rose through the ranks as a Leadership Supervisor, Unit Head, and Director, until deciding to go back to school full time. In 2006, she graduated with Honors from UC Berkeley, majoring in Sociology and Mass Communication. Jen joined the C.A.S.E team in October of 2008, and has passionately and enthusiastically embraced her niche working with this inspiring population of kids.