ISII and PMTO™
Staff, Mentors,
and Associates
Staff
Gerald R. Patterson, Ph.D., OSLC founder and Senior Scientist Emeritus Dr. Patterson is well known for his pioneering work in three major areas in psychology: a theory of aggression, parent-training forms of intervention, and multiple-method measurement with emphasis on direct observation of family interaction. His work at OSLC expanded the theoretical and empirical foundation for coercion theory, which provided a firm basis for the later development of the Oregon Model of Parent Management Training (PMTO™). Recently, he has been involved in applying data 
from randomized PMTO intervention trials to demonstrate experimentally that the causal mechanisms underlying aggression are in keeping with the tenets of the coercion model. His numerous awards include the Distinguished Scientist Award from the American Psychological Association, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota, an honorary doctorate from the University of Norway in Bergen, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Research in Aggression, and a Merit award from the National Institute of Mental Health for excellence in research. In addition to more than 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, he has authored or coauthored several books: Families, Living with Children, Coercive Family Process, Families with Aggressive Children, Parents and Adolescents, Antisocial Boys, and Antisocial Behavior.
Marion S. Forgatch, Ph.D., Executive Director
Marion Forgatch, PhD, first joined the group that would become OSLC in 1970 as a research assistant. Now she is Senior Scientist Emerita. In the interim, she worked as observer, therapist, project coordinator, and eventually principal investigator. She has developed and tested several observational systems and two programs for families in the divorce or repartnering process. In 2001, Dr. Forgatch founded Implementation Sciences International Inc. (ISII), www.isii.net, a non-profit affiliate of OSLC. ISII implements projects based on Parent Management Training, the Oregon Model (PMTO™), a set of empirically supported treatments developed and tested by the OSLC group. At ISII, Forgatch serves as Executive Director and Director of Research. She and her team have been involved in several large-scale implementation projects including: PMTO statewide in Michigan community mental health (CMH) agencies; PMTO nationwide in Norway, Iceland, the Netherlands, and Denmark; and in CMH and Juvenile Justice Centers in Detroit/Wayne County. The most recent implementation programs began in Mexico City in 2010 and statewide in Kansas in 2011.
Forgatch has developed and tested programs for families whose children are experiencing or at-risk for substance abuse and adjustment problems. Her program Parenting through Change (PTC), recognized as an "Effective Program" in the National Registry of Effective Programs and Practices (NREPP), has been adapted and applied for use with diverse populations. Adaptations include non-English speaking Latinos, mothers living in shelters to escape homelessness or violence, parents with severely emotionally disturbed children, and parents whose children have been removed for reasons of abuse/neglect. Currently the program is being adapted for soldiers reintegrating home following service in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Forgatch has co-authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, audio and video tapes for parents, and two books. She has received two awards from Society of Prevention Research: Friend of the Early Career Prevention Network in 2003 and the Award for International Collaborative Prevention Research in 2008 and is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science.
Jon Baker, ISII Administrator
My role is the development and management of administrative functions of the organization including its financial structure, contracts, and employee and independent contractor relations. Prior to joining ISII in October of 2005 I worked with the Oregon Social Learning Center for 19 years in a wide variety of research positions, including coding, assessment, assessment supervision, and project coordination. When I’m not at my work desk, I’m most likely involved in some home construction project, the kind that continue for years. As a result I love the home I live in with my wife, Georgie. It’s my favorite place to be with my favorite person. I’m a lucky guy.
Margaret Lathrop
Currently I am working as a PMTO therapist, coach and trainer with ISII. Prior to my rewarding experience with ISII, I worked as an elementary school counselor for 10 years. In this capacity I was able to support families in crisis, facilitate small support groups for students, work with a team to create behavior support plans that worked for both students and staff and most importantly focus on prevention. Prevention in the schools includes Parent Education, classroom instruction, staff education and coordination of the school wide Positive Behavior Support and Interventions team.
The foundation for my behavior expertise was acquired over the 16 years that I worked at the Oregon Social Learning Center. Coding behavior and emotion, working with families, facilitating parent training groups and providing Social Skills Instruction as part of the LIFT project.
My husband and I have 2 great young adults just becoming the independent people I’d hoped they would be.
Will Phillips, Data Tracking Coordinator
Will has an eclectic position at ISII, tracking a wide variety of data, sending out weekly progress reports for each training cohort, providing support for therapists and coaches, Beta-testing websites, editing and uploading videos, conducting Exit Interviews and even occasionally acting in ISII training videos. Will began doing family assessments at OSLC in 2002 and joined the ISII team in 2005. Previously, he worked in a residential treatment program for at-risk adolescents, taught and coordinated classes at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, and was an adjunct instructor at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He was a monthly columnist for the Tallahassee Democrat from 1994-2001, is the author of Every Dreamer’s Handbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Understanding and Benefiting From Your Dreams (1994, 1996, and a Russian edition in 2001), and is currently working on a novel. When not at work, Will enjoys homemade music and spends as much time as possible in the rivers, forests and mountains of Oregon.
Laura Rains, Director of Implementation and Training
I plan and design ISII’s training programs; co-author educational materials, coding schema and infrastructure protocol; and train, coach, coordinate and troubleshoot across systems. I have led, supported and learned from PMTO implementation projects in the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Mexico City, Michigan and Minnesota. As a result, I have the opportunity to connect with an amazing array of people and enjoy the scenery along the way.
Previously, I was the managing editor at a small newspaper before coming to the University of Oregon to earn my masters degree in journalism, health education and sociology. To support my studies, I worked as a research assistant at OSLC in 1990 on the landmark Oregon Youth Study. Soon after, I became a parent group facilitator on the LIFT project and the Oregon Divorce Study. I was captivated by family work! Back to graduate school I went to earn an MSW. Along the way, I’ve coordinated assessment and worked as a therapist with a wide variety of populations. I’m grateful for exemplary mentoring by Marion Forgatch and Nancy Knutson, and I continue to feel enthusiastic about learning new therapeutic techniques and methods. Weaving storylines, connecting head and heart, and participating in meaningful change make this work tremendously rewarding.
Cathy Scissors-Collins
Since 1985, Cathy has been providing services to youth and families in Lane County. She’s worked in the public schools as a drug prevention counselor and sign language interpreter. For local agencies, she has provided drug treatment to adolescents and parenting education to step-families. Most recently, she assists with a counselor training program through an OSLC affiliate, ISII. Her interest in working with families has grown with the growth of her own family. Cathy has three daughters who teach her much about the challenges and joys of parenting. Her educational degrees include an MA - Counseling, University of California at Santa Barbara – 1985, BS - Psychology, University of Missouri – 1983, and BA – ASL/English Interpretation, Western Oregon University, 1997.
Kelly Bryson, Executive Assistant
I was fortunate enough to begin working for Marion Forgatch and her team in June 1997. I relocated to Eugene in 1993 from Los Angeles and have a background in the legal field. I received a liberal arts bachelor’s degree from Johnston College at the University of Redlands in Southern California. I have one grown daughter and enjoy traveling, gardening, University of Oregon football, and my pets.
Mentors
ISII currently has five certified mentors and three mentors in training. Mentor certification includes family work, coaching, FIMP and training. For each project we assign a team of mentors (often one lead and one support) to work together with the client to develop a training program that is tailored for the targeted population, agencies, and professionals to be trained.
Mentors in our group hail from the United States (Marion Forgatch, Laura Rains, Abi Gerwirtz) and Iceland (Margrét Sigmarsóttir, Edda Vikar Guómundsdóttir). Our mentor group includes auxiliary members Mona Duckert and Elvind Elgesem. Mona and Eyvind both reside in Norway and have been active as both therapists and researchers in the implementation of PMTO in Norway (see bios for additional information).
ISII will periodically offer apprenticeships for clinical practitioners who have shown excellence during PMTO training. An apprenticeship gives valuable knowledge in training, coaching, and mentoring of clinical practitioners across multiple arenas, ranging from clinical work to cultural adaptation of materials. An apprenticeship is required to become a certified ISII PMTO mentor.
Dr. Marion Forgatch's professional interests blend intervention and basic research. She began doing intervention under the tutelage of the OSLC group in the 1970's, working as a therapist and school specialist with families of youngsters referred for problems ranging from aggression to chronic delinquency.
In the 1990's, she shifted focus from clinical work to prevention, designing and evaluating interventions based on the OSLC parent management program (PMTO) to prevent conduct and substance problems with at-risk families.
Late in the 1990's, Dr. Forgatch extended small training projects into an implementation of PMTO nationwide in Norway by training and certifying community mental health providers.
Margrét Sigmarsdóttir is trained as a psychologist, educated in Iceland and Denmark. She is a specialist in clinical child psychology and has many years of training in the PMTO intervention.
Margrét has worked as a teacher and as a child psychologist, and currently serves as a project leader for a PMTO project in Iceland as well as being a mentor in Parent Management Training for Implementation Sciences International, Inc (ISII).
Margrét has published papers about behavior problems and eating disorders in Iceland and Denmark and is now working on a research project regarding the effects of PMTO therapy in Iceland.
Melanie M. Domenech Rodríguez, Ph.D. is a PMTO coach and workshop leader. She began her collaborations with Dr. Forgatch in 1999 and attended her first PMTO training workshop in Eugene, Oregon in 2000. She has since been involved in numerous trainings. Dr. Domenech Rodríguez has implemented PMTO in Logan, UT, and has supported training efforts in the Michigan state-wide implementation project. Dr. Domenech Rodríguez received National Institutes of Mental Health funding (2003-2008) to culturally adapt and deliver a PMTO intervention with Spanish-speaking Latino families. She is currently participating in a PMTO-informed implementation project in Mexico City, Mexico. Dr. Domenech Rodríguez is an associate professor of psychology at Utah State University where she teaches courses in ethics, multiculturalism/diversity, and clinical/counseling practice. She practices her PMTO skills at home with her two young daughters, María Luisa and Ana Cecilia.
Abigail Gewirtz, Ph.D., L.P. is Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Social Science and the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota, and a PMTO specialist, and trainer. Her research focuses on implementation and dissemination of evidence-based prevention interventions, especially those focusing on parenting of children exposed to violence, homelessness and related traumatic stressors. She is Principal Investigator on a National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded project to modify and test a web-enhanced PMTO intervention for military families with parents returning from combat deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Dr. Gewirtz is also PI/Project Director for Ambit Network, a SAMHSA/National Child Traumatic Stress Network Community Services and Treatment center focusing on the implementation of evidence-based interventions for traumatized school-aged children and their parents. Dr. Gewirtz has written and has presented widely at both the local and national level on prevention and intervention for high-risk children.
J. Rubén Parra-Cardona, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the program of couple and family therapy at Michigan State University. Dr. Parra-Cardona is currently involved in research focused on the cultural adaptation of the Parent Management Training, the Oregon Model intervention (PMTO). Specifically, he is the principal investigator of a R34 study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The primary goal of this investigation is to compare and contrast the differential treatment efficacy and cultural relevance of two culturally informed versions of PMTO. Dr. Parra-Cardona closely collaborates in this project with Dr. Marion Forgatch (ISII), Dr. Melanie Domenech Rodriguez (Utah State University and ISII), as well as Co-Investigators from Michigan State University (MSU), MSU-Extension, and University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. This project is being implemented in close collaboration with a leading mental health institution in Southwest Detroit (Southwest Solutions). Dr. Parra-Cardona is also a core member of the MSU Violence Against Women Research and Outreach Initiative. Currently, his violence research focuses on the evaluation of cultural relevance of services for Latino survivors and Latino men who batter. Dr. Parra-Cardona is also exploring alternatives to integrate research focused on parenting and intimate partner violence.
William L. Conwill, Ph.D.
I am a consultant with ISII. I have been a member of the team commissioned to introduce PMTO in Wayne County (Detroit), Michigan. I also assist in examining associated multicultural issues. I met Gerald Patterson and Marion Forgatch in the mid-1970s when they were at the Stanford Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. I was conducting research on the Black family. I truly admired their exciting vision for research on family processes, and stayed in contact with them over the years. Gerald Patterson invited me to OSLC’s first multinational, multicultural training series conducted in Eugene about 10 years ago. I also participated in later training workshops. When Marion Forgatch invited me to be a member of the ISII/Wayne County project to disseminate PMTO, I jumped at the chance. Recent relevant recognitions include The University of Florida Black Student Assembly Scholarship Award (2008); the Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development’s Presidential Award for Meritorious Service (2007); the Association of Multicultural Counseling and Development’s Exemplary Diversity Leadership Award (2007); and the Ringshout the Route: A National Rite of Initiation into African American Culture award as Distinguished Elder (2006). In May 2010, my oldest son completed doctoral studies in Cultural Anthropology at Duke University, and got married a few days later. So now, I anxiously await the fruition of these two milestones in family development!