Life at OPI
Program Director at Menninger OCD Meeting
WOODLAND HILLS, CA – The Optimum Performance Institute was represented by Katie Mikolyski, Program Director, at a recent conference on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder held at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, Tex. Ms. Mikolyski attended weekend workshops about OCD and studied with John Hart, Senior Behavioral Therapist at Menninger’s.
Read MoreOPI Announces New Program Director
Woodland Hills, CA – The Optimum Performance Institute is proud to announce that Katie Mikolyski is our new Program Director. Ms. Mikolyski has worked at OPI almost since its inception serving first as an Administrative Assistant and then as Director of Milieu Supervision and Staff Development. She will continue to organize special activities including teaching…
Read MoreOPI Attends APA Convention
Woodland Hills, CA – For the first time since opening, executives of the Optimum Performance Institute participated in the Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Assn. (APA). The 160th convention in San Diego was attended by more than 20,000 professionals. Dr. Robert Fischer, M.D, OPI’s Executive Director and co-founder, is a long-time member of APA…
Read MoreOPI Participants Attend Lecture at the Kavli Institute
A few weeks ago some young adults piled into one of our vans to take the 1 ½ hour drive up the California coast to University of California, Santa Barbara, and hear a lecture about how the quantum spin of electrons can be used to convey information and help create the most powerful computers ever…
Read MoreOPI Re-conceptualizes Volunteering Program
Because we recently re-conceptualized our Volunteering Program at OPI, Participants as well as staff have been seen serving food at the Midnight Mission, wrapping presents at the Boys and Girls Club and exchanging goodies as part of our “Do a Good Deed Month”. Volunteering has always been part of OPI. But until recently it was…
Read MoreOPI Announces New Volunteer and Career Coordinator
Woodland Hills, CA – Altesah Hatcher is the new Volunteer and Career Coordinator at OPI, helping residents volunteer at a variety of organizations in the Los Angeles area. Altesah also is organizing monthly volunteer opportunities that the entire OPI milieu participates in. Our first outing took place in November at Los Angeles’ Midnight Mission. The…
Read MoreOPI Site for MSW Training
Woodland Hills, CA – The Optimum Performance Institute has been selected as a clinical training site for Master of Social Work students at California State University, Northridge. As a result Allison Corson is the newest member of the OPI clinical team under the supervision of Jeffrey Kestenbaum, LCSW, OPI’s Director of Counseling Services. Allison assists…
Read MoreOPI awarded Excellence in Education Award
OPI was honored to receive an “Excellence in Education Award” from Woodbury Reports as a result of being included in their Parent Empowerment Handbook 2005/06. Only a small group of Programs in the U.S. are included in the handbook, “on the basis of their excellent reputation of producing positive and consistent results with at-risk children…
Read MoreFilm Maker is New Mentor at OPI
Woodland Hills, CA – Michael Andreen, former executive vice president at Warner Independent Pictures and senior vice president for production at 20th Century Fox, is the newest mentor at the Optimum Performance Institute. He joins a Nobel Prize winning physicist, a Grammy-nominated drummer, a realtor, a fashion designer and a surgeon (among others) who work…
Read MoreOPI Participants Return from Peru
Woodland Hills, CA- Optimum Performance Institute Participants are back after a dramatic trip to Peru where they spent 10 days visiting the Land of the Incas including Machu Picchu and the Manu Wildlife Center in the Peruvian Amazon Basin. They were be accompanied by Program Director, Joseph Roberson. The customized trip was organized by Geographic…
Read MoreNobel Laureate is OPI Mentor
David J. Gross, Ph.D., winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering how the nucleus of an atom works, is the newest mentor at the Optimum Performance Institute. Dr. Gross is the director of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara. OPI Participants often attend lectures at the Kavli Institute.…
Read MoreAdditional Psychiatrist Joins OPI
The Optimum Performance Institute is pleased to announce that Janet Martin, Ph.D., M.D, has joined OPI as consulting psychiatrist. Dr. Martin graduates in June from the University of California, Irvine Medical School. She is the chief resident at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Dr. Martin holds a doctorate in neurobiology and behavior. She joins…
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