Joseph Perry, Ph.D., ABPP Psychologist, Executive Director
Dr. Perry is the executive director of PREP and has extensive administrative experience in providing mental health services for youth. He has been licensed as a psychologist in Florida for the past 8 years and had been a full-time professor for graduate clinical and school psychology in the Psychology Department at Barry University from 1998 to 2005. He has provided part-time practice in Florida at Barry’s Disability Office and in private practice offices for the past 8 years. The Broward County Court has recently employed him as a Forensic Psychologist Examiner.
Dr. Perry received his Ph.D. at Kent State University and attained a Diploma from the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP), which is the highest professional credential in psychology. His post-doctoral education has been focused on clinical, pediatric, and forensic psychology. He was accepted into the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology in addition to being accepted as a member of the American Psychological Association for 26 years and the Florida Psychological Association for 8 years. He is a licensed psychologist in Ohio and Pennsylvania with 26 years of part-time experience in private practice for children and adults. His 14 years of administrative experience has involved being Chief Psychologist for several organizations such as Tod Children’s Hospital in Youngstown, Ohio; Cleveland Public Schools; Trumbull County Schools in Warren, Ohio; and Associates In Counseling and Child Guidance (ACCG) in Sharon, Pennsylvania. In each of these positions, Dr. Perry directly supervised mental health service providers and expanded services. He has developed innovative grant-funded mental health service and has presented as well as published research regarding the effectiveness of these services. The major themes of his research have been children’s mental disorder, resilience, and adjustment to parental divorce and single parenting. He has developed innovative assessments of resilience and bipolar disorders for youth. His earlier work as a full-time professor was in the Psychiatry Department at Northeastern Ohio College of Medicine for 4 years and in the Family and Child Life program at the University of Akron for 2 years.
Shayen A. George, M.A.
Shayen A. George, M.A. Mr. George is the PREP administrative assistant and has been the Executive Director of (Associates in Counseling & Child Guidance), a private non-profit, JAHCO accredited, Licensed Outpatient Clinic in Pennsylvania for the past 11 years. ACCG has contracts with four counties to provide Community Behavioral Health Services to children including Mercer, Crawford, Erie, and Venango counties.
Under Mr. George’s leadership, ACCG has won numerous awards including receiving a commendation from Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell for being named the Most Psychologically Health Workplace by the Pennsylvania Psychological Association for 2003, and most recently being named “The Best of The Best” by the Herald (Mercer County’s Largest Newspaper). ACCG now serves over 1,000 youth with SED and has over 300 employees including 2 psychiatrists, 10 licensed psychologists, master level behavioral specialists and mobile therapist, and bachelor level therapeutic staff support workers. Comprehensive outpatient mental health services are provided to youth from 3-19 years of age.
Mr. George is currently a Florida resident and is in the process of gaining a Florida Mental Health Counselor’s license. He is licensed as a Psychologist in Pennsylvania, School Psychologist in Ohio, and Licensed Clinical Counselor in Ohio. He has over 20 years of private mental health practice experience and was formerly the chief psychologist at Mercer County Community Counseling Center in Pennsylvania.
Louis Saloom, M.Ed., Director
Lou Saloom is a Director and also a Board Member of PREP. He also is a Director of Community Relations at Associates In Counseling and Child Guidance in Sharon, PA. Mr. Saloom has over 30 years of experience working with children and Adolescents, in Mental Health as well as the Education, where he served as a Superintendent of Schools in the North Ridgeville, Ohio School System (near Cleveland, Ohio).
Kenneth Johnson, B.S. Ed, Director
Kenneth Johnson earned Bachelor of Science degree in Education, and has devoted his entire 35-year career to the field of education, business education including teaching, owning and operating a multi-million dollar business for 20 years in New Jersey and Florida. For the past 5 years I have recently focused my entire time and attention to the issues facing the financial industry, including the training and development of counselors and customer service staffing. Ken has lived in South Florida for the past 30 years and states that "My vision for the future of PREP is to facilitate more effective counseling training and testing in a variety of ways. In fact, my goal is not only to help PREP meet your expectations, but to exceed them."