About Us - Meet the Team

Nancy Mansfield, PhD, has been the executive director of Institute for Families since 1987. Housed at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, the non-profit Institute provides a full program
of multi-lingual counseling and support to families with children where there has been a diagnosis of cancer or other diseases that may impact vision.

In addition to the clinical services and advocacy she provides, Dr. Mansfield is an internationally renowned speaker to the medical community on the impact that a diagnosis affecting vision has upon a family. She has published many chapters and articles on the subject and has been a speaker at the National Institute for Health (NIH) on how a devastating diagnosis such as cancer can disrupt a family system and the direct consequences it has when support in not readily available.

Dr. Mansfield also is a counselor and patient advocate for the Retinoblastoma Program at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, as well as a patient advocate for the Institute of Maternal Fetal Health, a USC/ CHLA program. In addition, she advises physicians and support staff throughout Childrens Hospital on such issues as grief, loss and sharing difficult news with families.

Dr. Mansfield's philosophy that she speaks about postulates that "parents and children are one and what helps one, helps the other and what hurts one, hurts the other."

Dr. Mansfield brings an extensive background in child development and family dynamics, and has received a Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts and PhD. She is an assistant professor of clinical ophthalmology at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.