Lorena Aynalem, LCSW, PMH-C
Chair

Lorena Aynalem, LCSW, PMH-C is a psychotherapist in private practice in Santa Clarita. She is a certified Perinatal Mental Health Clinician and focuses her practice on Perinatal Mental Health and overall Women’s Mental Health. She is also a volunteer Coordinator for PSI in the Santa Clarita, Palmdale and Lancaster areas and for Ventura County.

Lorena has been in the mental health profession for 15 years. Prior to private practice she worked primarily in the non-profit sector providing counseling services to underserved populations both in-office and community based. Lorena is second generation Latinx with roots from El Salvador. She currently serves as the Diversity and Inclusion Chair on the PSI CA Chapter Board of Directors.

Jennifer Cordeau
Treasurer

Jennifer Cordeau is a former urban planner/project manager turned Certified Style Coach™ with a passion to help empower and support woman through style. After her own fight with postpartum anxiety and depression, Jennifer was inspired to help raise awareness about perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) leading her to a local non-profit in San Diego with the same mission. With a master’s degree in Public Administration and a flair for spreadsheets, she was appointed to the Treasurer position on the local Board. Now, she serves as the Treasurer on the PSI California Board of Directors.

When she’s not helping women to feel confident in their own skin, or busting out a new budget, you can find Jennifer belting out made-up lyrics in the kitchen with her nine-year-old daughter, throwing a mangled chew toy to her dog as if in a scene out of the movie Groundhog Day, giving her husband a hard time, and binge-watching Project Runway episodes.

Dr. Kelly Harkey
Hospital-Medical Liaison Co-Chair

Dr. Kelly Harkey and his wife, Sharon Harkey, CNM are serving together as the Board Liaisons for the Hospital and Medical communities. Kelly and Sharon sought educational training from PSI, to better assist with the management of their patients suffering from PMAD. What became abundantly clear to them was the need for a team approach to establish a comprehensive referral and treatment network in San Diego.

Dr. Harkey is a practicing Obstetrician, as well as serving as the Medical Director for Women’s Services at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla. He represents a significant number of providers who have struggled to find the resources in our community to care for PMADs. His goal is to establish a blueprint for medical groups and hospitals, which will allow them to expedite the establishment of such a network, while utilizing the framework that PSI already has in place.

Sharon Harkey
Hospital-Medical Liaison Co-Chair

Sharon Harkey has been in OB/GYN nursing for more than 30 years and a Certified Nurse Midwife for more than 22 years. Her career started out in the Army as a postpartum, then labor & delivery nurse and childbirth educator. After advancing her education with a master’s degree, she has worked as a full scope nurse midwife, adjunct faculty teaching maternal child health to RN students and in research and development. Since her very first day functioning independently as an L&D nurse, caring for a woman delivering a stillbirth, she has felt woefully undereducated in the mental side of maternal health. Seeing many women for their postpartum visits, who were suffering from PMADS with nowhere to send them, she sought out PSI for education and expertise in treating these women, with the hopes to create a maternal mental health model of care with her husband, Dr. Kelly Harkey. Sharon feels it is critical to educate the first line OB providers regarding the scope and needs of our patients suffering with PMADS.

Meri Levy, LMFT, PMH-C, CLE
Peer Support Chair

Meri Levy, LMFT, PMH-C, CLE is a psychotherapist certified in perinatal mental health with a private practice in Lafayette, California. After a 12-year career in energy public policy for the State of California, Meri founded The Nurture Center, a store and resource center for new parents, where she ran support groups and provided breastfeeding assistance as a Certified Lactation Educator. After finishing a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, Meri volunteered for two years as a PSI support coordinator for the San Francisco Bay Area, and currently coordinates the PSI online peer consultation groups for mental health providers and facilitates one of the consultation groups monthly. She is Peer Support Chair on the PSI California Board of Directors, and her goal is to make high-quality, inclusive peer support groups available to new mothers throughout California.

Elyse Springer, MA-CLP, LMFT, PMH-C
Established Organizations Chair

Elyse Springer, MA-CLP, LMFT, PMH-C – Elyse Springer is a licensed marriage and family therapist (licensed in CA, OR & WA) with focus on perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, pregnancy and infant loss, LGBTQIA+, depression, trauma, anxiety, OCD, and HIV/AIDS. Elyse is an Emeritus Governing Council member for Maternal Mental Health NOW after serving an eight-year Governing Council term, and maintains her role training for the organization. Elyse served as a Board Member of national maternal mental health policy and advocacy non-profit, 2020 Mom, from 2014-2019, and Clinical Advisory panel member from 2019-2021. In addition, Elyse is Emeritus Board Member for national perinatal loss organization Return to Zero: H.O.P.E., and current training faculty. Elyse currently serves as the Established Organizations Board Chair for the California chapter of Postpartum Support International. Elyse is certified in perinatal mental health, certified in Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) by the IPT Institute, certified in EMDR Therapy by EMDRIA, and an EMDRIA-approved consultant-in-training.

Carly Marks, BSN, RN, IBCLC, RYT
Volunteer Chair

Carly Marks, BSN, RN, IBCLC, RYT is the owner of Marks Lactation Support, in San Diego, CA where she provides expert infant feeding care. As a Lactation Consultant, she has learned that the way parents feel is dramatically impactful in infant feeding. Human milk is a high priority, but cannot be at expense of a parent’s mental wellbeing.

Carly started her career as a Navy nurse, and her husband continues over 20 years of service in the US Navy. She is a PMADs survivor, although undiagnosed until recently (10 years after the birth event). Because she suffered in silence while piecing together components of care for herself, she knows there is a better way. All families deserve competent care.

Melissa Nefalar, LMFT, PMH-C (she/her)
Diversity & Inclusion Chair

Melissa Nefalar, LMFT, PMH-C is a second generation Filipino-American and native San Diegan. She’s a mom to three kids, has a spouse in education, PMAD survivor, and is passionate to work with parents and their families utilizing mind-body and holistic approaches. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, she has a full time private practice specializing in perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, brainspotting, children/teens, and grief/loss. She also currently serves on the board of directors for Postpartum Health Alliance (PHA) in San Diego as the PSI Liaison Co-Chair.

Dr. Asheena Lee, M.D.
At-Large Board Member

Asheena Lee M.D. is a reproductive psychiatrist in Long Beach, CA. She is a board-certified psychiatrist from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. She is currently working in private practice and specializes in advanced psychopharmacology during the reproductive cycle, pregnancy, breastfeeding, and postpartum periods. Before private practice, she served as community-based clinical faculty for the University of California, Riverside. She also served on the service committee for an extensive hospital system and the program evaluation committee for the University of Maryland/ Sheppard Pratt Psychiatric residency program. She has performed research that has been published in peer-review journals and has been a speaker for the American Psychiatric Association. Her clinical skills were also recognized with the John Talbot Award for Clinical Excellence.