Deborah Pryor, Co-Chief Executive Officer
As Co-CEO, Deborah A. Pryor, provides leadership, strategic planning and implementation of best practices to Extra Special Parents. As a motivational and strategic leader who utilizes relational engagement to maximize the success of the organization. Understand challenges and develop innovative solutions to achieve the desired result. Ms. Pryor has a Master’s Degree in Administration of Justice and over 20 years of experience working with children and families. Her work experience includes working in wilderness settings, acute care settings, residential treatment center group homes, and community-based services. She has also worked for the Department of Social Services with an emphasis on children transitioning out of residential treatment to a permanent placement. She has been the Regional Treatment Director and Chief of Operations for a wilderness program, Director of Programs for group homes, and State Director of a Treatment Foster Care program. She completed the Emerging nonprofit leader program through VCU, has sat on two non-profit boards, and has volunteered as a Court Appointed Special Advocate.
Nanette Jorge, LCSW, Co-Chief Executive Officer
Co-Chief Executive Officer Nanette Jorge, provides leadership, strategic planning and ensures the implementation of evidence-based practice to Extra Special Parents. This practice is youth-centered and is refined through quality improvement and benchmarking. It is individualized to each youth, and compatible with ESP’s system policies and resources. Nanette is a licensed social worker in the states of Virginia and Florida and has over 20 years of experience working with youth and families.
Her professional experiences are varied and include working with youth in community-based therapy, group homes, foster care as well as residential treatment with adjudicated youth. Her roles in these milieus have varied between Therapist, Clinical Director, Chief Administrator, Regional Clinical Director, and Executive Director. In these roles, she has had a range of responsibilities. She has worked with children and families by providing face-to-face therapeutic services, to leading teams of both clinical and non-clinical staff in providing superior evidence-based services to all children served.
Nanette was a licensed foster parent many years ago in the state of Maryland. She has five adopted children, all of who have reached adulthood. As a former foster parent, she is excited about the work done at Extra Special Parents. She understands the importance of helping to develop a nurturing environment that meets the children and parents where they are and guide them with a strength-based approach to achieve their goals.
Todd Jenkins, M.A.Ed., Director of Operations
Todd recently joined the Extra Special Parents team as the Director of Clinical Services and he is looking forward to working with the clinical team to ensure that the youth we serve here at ESP receives the best care and the appropriate services they need to thrive! For the past three years prior, Todd worked with the City Of Richmond's Department of Social Services as the Family Assessment and Planning Team Coordinator and the acting Children's Services Act Office Administrator. Through his experiences in working with youth who have been placed in foster care, he has come to admire their resilience and their spirit! Todd has seen children achieve levels of success that few would have imagined possible after going through the negative experiences that led to their placement in foster care. Todd has been working with children and adolescents since 1996 in a variety of capacities. He has worked as an exceptional education teacher in both an acute psychiatric setting as well in a private day school setting. Todd has provided individual and group counseling to adolescents in the City Of Richmond Juvenile Drug Court as an employee of the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority and served as that organization’s liaison to the Richmond Family Assessment and Planning Team. Todd holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Vermont, and a Master’s Degree in Counseling from Wake Forest University.
Toni Collins, MS, C. S. A. C., Director of Adoption Services
Toni Collins holds the position of Director of Adoption Services with Extra Special Parents. In this position, she coordinates with and provides services to Virginia localities regarding foster children who are in the process of moving on to adoptive placements. Toni is also currently a board member for The Central Virginia Partnership on Youth. She is a certified substance abuse counselor and has worked in challenging clinical settings to include Richmond City’s methadone clinic, and both out-patient and residential drug treatment facilities. Toni worked as a case manager with the Alcohol Safety Action Program and served as a juvenile probation and parole officer with the 11th District Court Service Unit. For ten years she directed the Comprehensive Services program for Powhatan County. Positive outcomes for children and families has always been her passion. Toni holds a B.S. from the University of Maryland and a M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Amy Lucy, BA, Director of Business Operations
Amy Lucy is the Director of Business Operations for Extra Special Parents working out of the Richmond office. In this role, Amy is responsible for Invoices, Purchase Orders, Medicaid billing, Human Resources, Fleet Management and numerous other tasks. Amy started working for ESP in February 2009 as an Administrative Assistant. She moved to the role of Medicaid and Compliance Specialist in August 2010 and has been in her current role as Director of Business Operations since June 2012. Amy holds an Associate in Science from Richard Bland College and a Bachelor of Arts in History from Longwood University. In her free time she enjoys spending quality time with her husband and two sons.
Amber Johnson, Director of Branch Operations, Roanoke Office
Amber Johnson recently joined the team with Extra Special Parents as the Director of Business Operations, overseeing the Roanoke and Mt. Crawford offices. She comes with 15 years of experience in the mental health field, in a combination of almost 10 years of experience in child welfare out of Northeast Florida. She started out as a mental health aid in a mental health hospital. Here she worked with adults with addiction, severe mental health issues as well as teens in the residential and short-term care program. Amber gained experience in evaluating adults and teens for the appropriate services within the hospital. She then transitioned into the social services/child welfare arena as a case manager. From there she worked her way to Program Manager. During that time, she gained knowledge of the appropriate need for services for adults and children who have experienced trauma. As part of a Florida shift in the social services area, she oversaw a new prevention service program for the agency and area serviced. This program expanded greatly for families who needed extra support while working through their trauma, ensuring the safety and well-being of the children in the community. Amber spent time in Community Mental Health and received her certification as a QMHP when she started her career in Roanoke, VA. She worked with children and adults as an Intensive In-Home QMHP as well as Mental Health Skill Building QMHP. Amber graduated from St. Leo University with her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. She went on to receive her Master’s degree in Psychology with a focus on School Psychology from Nova Southeastern University.