Meet the Team

Reina Factor, PhD(Link is external)

Director of Training

Dr. Reina Factor is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Director of Training. With over 20 years of experience providing individual, group, and family-based interventions, she has extensive expertise working with autistic and neurodivergent individuals across the lifespan, particularly children, and those with co-occurring challenges such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, OCD, ODD, early psychosis, and mood disorders. She is trained in a number of evidence-based parent-mediated and focused interventions and both her clinical and research work focuses on the social and emotional development of autistic children, examining family and peer systems, mechanisms of change, and treatment outcomes.

Dr. Factor additionally serves as a staff psychologist at the UCLA Child OCD Intensive Outpatient Program. She completed her undergraduate degree at Emory University, where she studied early social responsiveness in children. She earned her M.S. and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Virginia Tech, and completed both her predoctoral and postdoctoral training at the UCLA Semel Institute. A Los Angeles native, Dr. Factor is a third-generation UCLA Bruin and fourth-generation Californian.

Fred Frankel, Ph.D., ABPP (Link is external)

Program Founder

Professor Emeritus

Dr. Fred Frankel is the founder of the Parenting and Children’s Friendship Clinic. He directed the Parent Training and Children’s Friendship Programs since its inception in 1982. Dr. Fred Frankel is a Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. He is internationally recognized for his work on evidence-based social skills and friendship interventions. His current research extends Children’s Friendship Training to community settings with diverse populations, including children with autism, ADHD, obesity, and fetal alcohol syndrome. He is Principal Investigator of the CART project, Parent-Assisted Friendship Training in Autism, focused on children in elementary school. This work builds on his widely used treatment manual, Children’s Friendship Training (2002). Dr. Frankel received his Ph.D. in psychology from UC Irvine in 1971 and joined the UCLA faculty in 1973.

Jordin (Jo) Rodondi

Doctoral Trainee 

Jordin (Jo) Rodondi (they/she) is an advanced clinical psychology doctoral student at Palo Alto University in neuropsychology and pediatric behavioral health.  They have a background in educational neuroscience developing novel cognitive assessments and conducting large-scale multidisciplinary field investigations at UCSF and Stanford using digital health and human-centered design for typically developing children, and children with ADHD and depression. They have extensive clinical experience working with vulnerable youth and families with diverse clinical populations across the lifespan.

Jo is currently a clinical psychology doctoral trainee at the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Program, and Parent Training Program at the UCLA Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Human Behavior and Neuroscience. They also conduct neuropsychological assessments across the lifespan for children, young adults, and adults with complex medical conditions at the UCSF Dyslexia Center and the Sexuality and Gender Identities Clinic (SGIC), Palo Alto. Their research interests include participant-informed R & D, interoception, anxiety, and mental health policy. Their current research is centered on developing real-world socio-emotional interventions for children with Autism and co-occurring mood conditions, and is co-principal investigator of Yoga for Autistic Youth (YAY), a randomized control trial that explores mental health outcomes of novel clinical yoga and movement interventions for Autistic children and adolescents.

Fernanda Sandoval 

Doctoral Trainee 

Fernanda Sandoval, B.A., is a third-year student in the APA-accredited Clinical Psychology doctoral program (Psy.D.) at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Anaheim. At the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, she receives supervised training through the Children’s Friendship Program and co-leads evidence-based social skills and behavioral parent training groups for children with diverse neurodevelopmental needs and their families.

Her clinical experience includes providing play-based, individualized ABA therapy to young children with autism in home and school settings, with a focus on peer socialization, activities of daily living, and collaboration with teachers and caregivers. She is also trained in neuropsychological assessments for children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as for young and older adults with neurocognitive disorders, in both English and Spanish.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology, with a minor in public policy, from the University of California, Riverside. Her undergraduate research examined parenting, particularly father-daughter relationships, and their implications for mood, anxiety, and self-esteem among school-age Latina girls. She is passionate about using neuropsychological profiles of cognitive and daily functioning to tailor evidence-based interventions and psychoeducation for children with neurodevelopmental disorders and their families, as well as for caregivers of older adults with neurocognitive impairments.