Meet Our Team
Ayala Ben-Tall, Ph.D. has been a clinical psychologist since 1999 and has worked at Rady Children's since 2000. Dr. Ben-Tall specializes in the areas of developmental and behavioral concerns, autism disorders, and feeding disorders. She received her doctorate in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Debra Broadbooks, Ph.D. has been a licensed clinical psychologist since 1999 and has worked at Rady Children's since 2004. She earned her doctorate from the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego (now Alliant University). She specializes in psychoeducational evaluation of school-aged children with learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorders, AD/HD and other behavioral disorders, and executive dysfunction, as well as in developmental assessment of preschool-aged children with a variety of learning, social, attentional and behavioral disorders.
Christina Corsello, Ph.D. has been a clinical psychologist since 2002 and has worked at Rady Children's since 2005. Prior to working at Rady Children's, she was the Associate Director of the Autism and Communication Disorders Center at the University of Michigan. Dr. Corsello specializes in the area of autism spectrum disorders, with an emphasis on diagnosis and assessment. She received her doctorate in psychology from St. John's University in New York and completed an internship and fellowship at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
Ryan J. Kaner, Psy.D. comes to Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego with a wide range of experience in the field of neuropsychology. He attended both undergraduate and graduate school in Arizona while performing evaluations at the Arizona Literacy and Learning Center. After receiving his doctorate, he completed his internship at the Neurological Institute/North Broward Medical Center in South Florida. He then completed two years of postdoctoral training in pediatric neuropsychology in Boston, MA working with children and adolescents of all ages. During this time, Dr. Kaner specialized in evaluating kids with learning disabilities, AD/HD, and autism spectrum disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate. He returns to the west coast with the goal of providing children with comprehensive diagnostic evaluations in order to identify any services or treatment needs that will best support their development.
Meghan Korey Lukasik, Ph.D. has been a licensed clinical psychologist since 1998 and as worked at Rady Children's since 999. Dr. Lukasik specializes in the area of assessment of infants and children with developmental, behavioral and learning concerns. She has extensive experience in diagnostic assessment of autism spectrum disorders and attention, behavior and learning disabilities. She is also a member of Rady Children's Feeding Team. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Lukasik also serves as the clinic's team leader and is responsible for clinical supervision, program management and development, and other administrative duties. She received her doctorate in psychology from the California School at Professional Psychology (now Alliant University).
Diane Marques, Ph.D. has been a licensed psychologist since 1988 and has worked at Rady Children's since 2007. Diane received her Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of Rhode Island and completed her predoctoral internship at Boston Children's Hospital Medical Center/Harvard Medical School. She has extensive experience as a staff psychologist at Boston Children's Hospital and served as Chief, Child and Adolescent Division, Lake Shore Hospital, Manchester, N.H. She also has had lengthy experience in the public schools and holds a school psychology credential. Her special interests and training are in the areas of children's developmental and mental health needs. Diane's goal at working at Rady Children's is to provide comprehensive evaluations to all children and to support parental awareness of community resources and the special education process.
Melissa O'Connell, Ph.D. has been a licensed psychologist since 2008 and joined DEC in 2009. She received her doctorate in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and completed her postdoctoral training at Children's National Medical Center in Washington D.C. Dr. O'Connell specializes in developmental assessment of children ages birth to 5 years with a wide range of developmental concerns, including prematurity, autism spectrum disorders, Down syndrome, prenatal substance exposure and children in the foster care system. Dr. O'Connell is a certified infant massage instructor (CIMI) and is a member of the Society for Research in Child Development. Dr. O'Connell's goal in working at Rady Children's is to provide quality developmental assessments for children and to work in partnership with parents to identify and access appropriate intervention services to help all children reach their developmental potential.
Rene Barbieri-Welge, Ph.D. received her doctorate in psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Rene did her postdoctoral training in Pediatric Psychology at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in 1997. She has been a licensed psychologist since 1998 and is a licensed speech-language pathologist since 1983. Rene began working at Rady Children's in 1999. Rene specializes in developmental assessment of children ages birth to 5 years with a wide range of developmental issues, including prematurity, prenatal substance exposure, failure to thrive, developmental delay, language delay, autism spectrum disorders, ADHD and Angelman's Syndrome. She is also Spanish-speaking.
Melanie Weinfeld, Ph.D. completed her doctorate in Educational Psychology from The University of Texas at Austin in 2007. She has provided assessment and intervention services to children in school, clinical, and research settings for the past twenty years. Dr. Weinfeld has expertise in the identification of children with developmental delays, especially those at risk-for autism spectrum disorders, as well as the provision of behavioral and cognitive intervention to children and adolescents. In her work at Rady Children’s Hospital Autism Discovery Institute (ADI) and Developmental Evaluation Clinic (DEC) Dr. Weinfeld is committed to providing families with the information and resources they need to enable their child to reach their full potential.
