Darinka Ruiz
Service Coordinator
Coming soon
Claudine Faure
Service Coordinator
Claudine has been working with children, young adults, and adults since graduating with her BA in Education Administration in 1987. After moving to the United States, she graduated in 1992 with another BA in Spanish and was authorized to teach Spanish and French in the state of Florida. She is fluent in Spanish, French, and English. She has been working at Early Steps since 2018 as a Bilingual Service Coordinator. Her hobby is painting.
Barbara Rodriguez-Echevarria, SC
Service Coordinator
Barbara is a graduated Drama Teacher that has been working with young children 0-5 since 2011. She has worked with families as an educator, administrator and service coordinator. She is currently a service coordinator in the Early Steps Program since April 2018 in Hendry and Glades County. Since then, she found her passion to work as a liaison between services for infant and toddler, their families and the Early Intervention services.
Jennifer Smock, ITDS
Service Coordinator
Coming soon
Celia Burke, OT
Occupational Therapist
Celia is a bilingual OT who has been working with Early Steps since 2022. She received her master's degree from Florida Gulf Coast University and completed her student internship with Early Steps in 2020. Areas of interest include autism and responsive feeding therapy.
Olga Rodriguez, ITDS
Coming soon
Coming Soon...
Elizabeth Pineda, ITDS
Service Coordinator
Coming soon
Stacey Charles, LMHC
License Mental Health Counselor
Stacey has been working with Early Steps as a Licensed Mental Health Counselor since 2018. She currently provides services to the Lee, Collier, Hendry and Glades counties. She has been working with families with children of all ages since 2012 and enjoys helping build healthy family dynamics and watching families use learned skills to continue to thrive.
Melissa Murphy, PT
Physical Therapist
Melissa graduated in 2015 with her doctorate in Physical Therapy. She is a pediatric physical therapist with experience in the clinic and early intervention settings. Her passion is in working with and supporting the most vulnerable and medically fragile children. She specializes in assessing and recommending appropriate equipment and orthotics to help enable each child to be successful and to reach their fullest potential.
Elizabeth Pedregal, ITDS
Service Coordinator
Jean Leopold, ITDS / M.Ed
Infant-Toddler Developmental Specialist
Jean came into ES from the classroom, as a middle school teacher in Lee County. Prior to that, he spent the previous 10 yrs as Social Studies teacher & Dep't head. As a parent of a child with disabilities; and a board member at Florida network on disabilities; he enjoys what he does, coaching concerned parents, and helping them navigate through their journey.
Mary Adams, SLP
Service Coordinator
Coming soon
Brandon Puddefoot, ITDS
Coming soon
Coming Soon...
Parent Resources
Hear from another parent
Florida Early Steps Website
