About our panelists:

Holly Elissa Bruno, MA, JD, best-selling and award-winning author, international keynote speaker and radio host served as Assistant Attorney General in Maine and faculty at University of Maine-Augusta and Wheelock College, now part of Boston University, and most recently in Singapore. Holly Elissa’s just released book, Happiness is running through the streets to find you: Translating trauma’s harsh legacy into healing offers useful insights and heartfelt examples of facing trauma with HOPE, not terror.

Natasha Khazanov, PhD, is a neuropsychologist, a psychotherapist, and creator of the SMARTT™ Parenting program. She also is an Associate Clinical Professor at UCSF School of Medicine, where she teaches medical school students and residents. Her deep interest in the neurobiology of trauma led her to forensic field. She served as an expert witness in over eighty criminal (mostly capital) cases. In her SMARTT™ Parenting Program she was able to integrate all she learned in her thirty-year career about the brain, mind and behavior to assist parents and caregivers in raising children who become resilient, responsible and successful adults. Dr. Khazanov believes that, "Dr. Pikler was an intuitive neuroscientist".

Pia Dögl is a parenting counselor, author, and social entrepreneur. Pia has focused her work on fostering the precious potential of children and the empathetic well being of the whole family. Pia founded the organization Beginning Well, which offers parents and caregivers practical support for mindful care. beginningwell.org/en Her book, Beginning Well - Empathy From The Very Beginning, was published in autumn 2018 in English and will soon be available in Mandarin. Pia works internationally with groups and organizations on self-awareness and the unfolding of unique capacities, that's what her new company dailyempathy.com is about.

Ute Strub, Master Pikler® Trainer and physiotherapist, worked for 12 years at University Hospital in Freiburg, Germany with very sick patients. Since 1950, Ms. Strub worked closely with Elfriede Hengstenberg, who named her as successor of her work and commissioned her in writing Hengstenberg’s published biography. In the 70’s, she worked closely with Dr. Emmi Pikler, including on various publications. As Master Teacher of their pedagogies, Ms. Strub became co-initiator of the Pikler-Playroom movement in Austria, Germany and Switzerland in 1996. In 2007 she founded the Emmi Pikler House for abandoned children, and in 2010, Strandgut, a unique playroom in Berlin for both adults and children. At 86, she is still a dynamic and active presenter worldwide.

Elsa Chahin, President and CEO of Pikler USA is an in-demand speaker, writer, teacher, infant-toddler consultant, and is one of only two Pikler® certified and accredited trainers of the Pikler® Pedagogy in North America. In addition, Chahin, a RIE® Associate, has served as a keynote speaker and presenter at over 125 national and international conferences and seminars on the topic of caring for babies with respect. She recently co-authored the book, In Loving Hands: How the Rights for Young Children Living in Children’s Homes Offer Hope and Happiness In Today’s World, with Anna Tardos, Dr. Pikler’s daughter. Chahin, who has been mentored by Ute Strub since 2004 and named as her successor, is a working group leader for World Forum Foundation™, a PITC Trainer and a UCLA Certified Lactation Educator. Chahin, a rare leader who not only brings passion and commitment to her work, but also a deep knowledge coupled with both insight and generosity, was a professional ballerina and has practiced yoga, meditation and mindfulness for 25 years. Above all, she is a joyous mom.