Karen Finello is an applied developmental psychologist with a specialization in birth to five-year-olds and their families.
Finello serves as Project Director in WestEd’s Center for Prevention & Early Intervention, directing California Project LAUNCH, focused on building stronger family engagement and mental health consultation processes, and a California State Screening Taskforce created to support developmental and behavioral screening in primary care settings.
As part of WestEd’s National Center for Systemic Improvement (NCSI), Finello provides training and technical assistance to IDEA Part C (B-3) programs across the country, providing specialty expertise around infant/family mental health and evaluation and measurement issues for birth to three-year-olds and their families. She also serves as the Co-Lead for the NCSI Part C Knowledge & Skills Cross State Learning Collaborative.
Previously at WestEd, Finello served as the Principal Investigator for the external evaluation of the California Maternal Infant & Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program.
Finello has authored numerous publications focused on infant and early childhood mental health, assessment, home visiting, and reflective supervision.
She has extensive clinical and research expertise in evaluation; infant and family mental health; early intervention; infant and preschool behavior; assessment; cultural components of child rearing; poverty issues; home visiting; and the development of high-risk infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.
Finello received a doctorate in psychology from the University of Southern California. She is certified as a school psychologist and counselor in the state of California.