.: Construction Crew

Featured Consultants

Building Blocks for Tots is honored to feature two of the foremost advisors on childcare in America and two Emmy Award and one Na Hoku Hanohano Award winning artists:

.: Dr. William Sears, MD
Dr. Sears is one of America's most acclaimed and respected pediatricians with over 30 books on childcare, over 100 appearances on television shows including Oprah, Donahue, 20/20, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, CNN, NBC's Today Show and Dateline, and the medical and parenting consultant for BabyTalk and Parenting magazines and Parenting.com website. He received his pediatric training at Harvard Medical School's Children's Hospital and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and is currently an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Irvine, School of Medicine. Visit www.askdrsears.com for more information.

.: Martha Sears, RN
Martha is the mother of eight children, a registered nurse, a childbirth educator, a La Leche League leader, and a board certified breastfeeding consultant. Martha is the co-author of nine parenting books and a frequent speaker at national parenting conferences.

.: Faith Rivera
Faith is an Emmy Award winning artist, songwriter and vocalist from Hawaii. In addition to writing and performing Building Blocks for Tots' theme song, hello song and goodbye song, she also wrote for Passions (NBC), where she won an Emmy for Outstanding Original Song in 2003 for "Forever Near", Guiding Light (CBS), Boston Public (FOX), and several other shows on FOX, MTV, and HGTV. She has released a total of 6 albums, including "In Search of Faith" which was named one of the Top Indy Recordings by Performing Songwriter, and Grammy-nominated "When Worlds Collide."

.: Rita Nazareno
Rita is an Emmy Award winning producer that also has ties back to Hawaii. Recipient of five Golden Promax Awards and two Silver Promax Awards, she is currently the creative services producer for FOX 11 and UPN 13, Fox Television Station Group's duopoly in Los Angeles. Rita was the Valedictorian at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco where she earned her Master in Fine Arts after receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Loyola Marymount University.

.: Daniel Ho
Daniel may be one of Hawaii's favorite musicians and producers with over 50 records and winning two Na Hoku Hanohano awards and seven Hawaii Music Awards. Danny is also well known for leading the contemporary jazz group Kilauea to six best-selling albums in which two reached Billboard's top ten, number on Radio & Record's national airplay charts and all but one placed in the top five.

Hosts

.: Susan Pereira
Susan is the creative force behind the show combining her acting experience with her love for children. Susan has written and performed in numerous children's shows in Hawaii and Los Angeles and even won Best Upcoming Star in the short film Dillinger in Paradise. Currently, Susan instructs play and learn classes, is trained in both art and music classes as well and is a La Leche League volunteer. She received her Bachelor in Arts degree in Theatre with an emphasis in Children's Theater with high honors from the University of Hawaii. On stage, screen and in her life, Susan has portrayed many sundry characters, by far the most ambitious and gratifying has been her portrayal of mother.

.: Robert Shinso
Robert Shinso has played many different roles as an actor, director and production designer but by far his most challenging and rewarding role has been as a father. Currently, Robert is the Program Scheduling Administrator, Children's Programming for Disney/ABC Cable Networks, but other jobs include production assistant for Academy Award winning short "Visas and Virtue" and production designer/second unit director for the multi-award winning "Charlotte Sometimes." Robert received his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre from the University of Hawaii.

Childcare Consultants

.: Linda Harris, PhD
Linda led the State of Hawaii's efforts to establish and build a network of 14 comprehensive Family Centers across the islands. Her doctoral work at Harvard University in Community Psychiatry, with a specialization in psycho-linguistics and learning, along with post doctoral field studies in nutrition, stoked a focus of the Centers on parenting and early childhood development. Linda worked around the globe with first world peoples through helping agencies such as NATO, World Health, and U.S. Aid. Her work included designing and developing an array of nutrition and parent-as-first-teacher programs in Kenya, Turkey, India, Indonesia, and Thailand. With renewed interest in brain development and creativity, Linda also launched a creativity development center, a joint program for Harvard and MIT. Her client portfolio has included diverse corporations as Good Beginnings Alliance, PACT, Kaiser Permanente, HMSA, Queen's Health System, Queen's Physician Group, Hawaii Community Hospitals, Alliance for Drama Education, and more.

.: Karen Yamamoto Hackler
Karen Yamamoto Hackler is the Executive Director, Artistic Director and Founder of Lo`i Theater. She wrote and produced several plays and for close to a decade Karen worked with the professional children's theater group Honolulu Theater for Youth (HTY) as Education Director, actress and Guest Director and was in several of HTY's statewide tours including Na Keiki Haku Mele O Ka`aina (The Children of the Land are Poets) which also toured to American Samoa, the New Orleans World Fair and Albany, New York. Karen graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with distinction in Bachelor of Education Elementary Education and has her 5th Year Teaching Certificate Elementary Education, Bachelor of Arts Anthropology, Drama Minor and Teacher Certification, DOE.

.: Carol Thomsen
While teaching at Glendale Community College, Carol recognized the great need for parents to learn about their babies beyond feeding and diapering. At the time, there were no classes for parents of infants and toddlers, so she created and developed the infant and toddler parent education program there and soon began teaching the same program at other schools and churches. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alaska in Home Economics with a concentration in Child Development and a minor in Physical Education.

Music Consultants

.: Jason Livesay
Jason is a singer, composer, and violinist whose credits include Spider-Man MTV animated series commercial which won the 25th Anniversary Gold Classic Telly Award Winner for Music, The Amazing Race, and violinist for Josh Groban and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

.: Hayden Sears-Livesay
Hayden is a talented choreographer, vocalist, dancer, and professor with extensive experience in musical theater. She won first place at the Musical Arts Club of Orange County vocal competition, Career Achievement Award for musical theatre and Best Actress from Azusa Pacific University, where she also earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music Education with a minor in Drama and her Masters Degree in Music Education.

Production & Marketing

.: Keriann Osada
Keriann brings business experience and passion for children to the show. A business consultant, entrepreneur and recent mother, Keriann consults and owns several businesses but finds working on Building Blocks for Tots the most rewarding. Keriann earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering cum laude from Santa Clara University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Hawaii with a 4.0 GPA.

.: Angela Lopes
Angela is an area coordinator for the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngster, which is a nationally recognized school readiness program. Angela is the mother of three children and has vast knowledge of the numerous programs in Hawaii for infants, toddler and pre-schoolers.