Parenting Coordination in 2026: Rules, Recommendations, and Redemption of Best Interests – Lancaster

Ms. Kinsey is a therapist and former family law attorney. She specializes in clinical issues associated with divorce and separation, high-conflict couples, blended families, coparenting, parent-child reunification, children’s adjustment to divorce and custody arrangements, and family therapy. Ms. Kinsey is an approved Parenting Coordinator, a divorce and custody mediator, and is trained as a custody evaluator. In addition, Ms. Kinsey has worked as a Mobile Therapist and Behavioral Specialist with high needs children. She also treats individual adults, adolescents, and children. Ms. Kinsey has previously volunteered for Good Shepherd Mediation and MCAP and participates in the Philadelphia Bar Association Custody Committee as well as a five-county family court interdisciplinary group. Ms. Kinsey is a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC) and has attended numerous conferences and trainings through this international organization. Ms. Kinsey received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, her J.D. from Temple University, and her Masters in Family Therapy from Thomas Jefferson University.

Ms. Childs is a partner at the firm of Vetrano|Vetrano & Feinman LLC, King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. Ms. Childs graduated from Villanova University School of Law in 2011, and from the University of Richmond in 2008. While in law school, Ms. Childs interned as a law clerk for the Honorable Katherine B.L. Platt of the Family Court Division of the Chester County Court of Common Pleas. She also served as a certified legal intern at Villanova’s Civil Justice Clinic, where her practice included family law matters. Ms. Childs served as Chair of the Montgomery Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Section in 2017 and as Chair of the Montgomery Bar Association’s Family Law Section in 2022. She is a prior council member for the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Family Law Section, County Representative for the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s House of Delegates and Young Lawyers Division Zone 9 Co-Chair. Ms. Childs also formerly served as the President of the Doris Jonas Freed American Inn of Court from 2020-2021. She currently sits on the Board of Directors for Legal Aid of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and serves as an Affiliate Attorney with the Women’s Resource Center in Wayne, Pennsylvania . Ms. Childs has been appointed as a guardian ad litem for children in numerous custody and abuse cases and is a certified Parenting Coordinator. Ms. Childs was the Pennsylvania Reporter for the American Bar Association’s Family Law Quarterly, Law in the 50 States Annual Report, for 2012 through 2015. She has been published several times in the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Family Lawyer Magazine. And in 2020, the American Bar Association published a book authored by Ms. Childs, titled “Divorce in the Golden Years: Estate Planning, Spousal Support, and Retirement Issues for Clients and Midlife and Beyond, Second Edition”. Ms. Childs is a frequent presenter for the Doris Jonas Freed American Inn of Court, Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Family Law Section and the Montgomery Bar Association. Ms. Childs has chosen to limit her practice to family law, including the areas of divorce, custody, equitable distribution, child support, alimony, spousal support, enforcement/modification of property settlement agreements, and prenuptial agreements. She has been recognized as a Pennsylvania Super Lawyers Rising Star each year since 2017, and as a Main Line Today Top Lawyer each year since 2019.

Judge Tate-Wilborn is currently assigned to the Family Court Division of the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas where she presides over divorce and custody-related cases. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Tate-Wilborn spent nearly 20 years as an attorney, primarily in criminal practice – as an Assistant District Attorney (“ADA”) at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office; an Assistant United States Attorney (“AUSA”) for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; and as a Partner in the White Collar & Government Investigations Practice Group at the law firm of Montgomery McCracken Walker and Rhoads, LLP. Judge Tate-Wilborn served as the Senior Director for the Office of Career Planning at Temple University Beasley School of Law and as an adjunct professor for Temple Law School’s Federal Criminal Practice Seminar. Judge Tate-Wilborn’s involvement in the legal community includes her appointment to The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee; Assistant Secretary, Clifford Scott Green Chapter of the National Bar Association’s Judicial Council; University of Pennsylvania American Inn of Court; Doris Jonas Freed American Inn of Court; Montgomery Bar Association; former Advisory Board Member, Barristers Association of Philadelphia and former Board Member for Philadelphia VIP. Her community involvement includes the National Coalition of 100 Black Women – Pennsylvania Chapter; and the Delaware Valley Chapter of The Links, Incorporated; as well as having served as a volunteer with Philadelphia Reads, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and the Montgomery Bar Association Civics Education Program. Judge Tate-Wilborn serves on the Board of Directors for the Youth Action organization. She supervises interns from the Cristo Rey High School work-study program in her courtroom each week. Judge Tate-Wilborn has lectured on topics such professional responsibility, trial advocacy and family law issues to lawyers and law students. He also frequently conducts presentations to youth from elementary to high school. As an AUSA, Judge Tate-Wilborn was involved in the federal Supervision to Aid Reentry Court Program, which assists participants in successfully reintegrating into society after serving federal prison sentences. During her time of involvement, the “Reentry Court” team (which included the presiding federal judges, representatives from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Federal Defenders Office, and U.S. Probation Department), was awarded the Clifford Scott Green Bill of Rights Award from the Federal Criminal Law Committee for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Continuing her commitment to rehabilitation and recovery, in Fall 2025, Judge Tate-Wilborn was appointed as Presiding Judge over Montgomery County’s new Family Dependency Treatment Court designed to help support lasting recovery through personal growth, avoid termination of parental rights and/or additional involvement in the dependency system for parents struggling with substance use disorder. Judge Tate-Wilborn has been recognized as a Women of Distinction Honoree by the Philadelphia Business Journal; a Justice Juanita Kidd Stout Woman of Distinction by the Barristers Association; and received the Honorable Horace A. Davenport Award from the Montgomery Bar Association. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, cum laude, from Spelman College (Atlanta, GA), and a Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law (Boston, MA).

Colleen has focused her practice entirely on family law since 2009, working to provide her clients with compassionate, knowledgeable, and family-centered guidance through all stages of their family law matters. A former shareholder at Hangley Aronchick Segal Pudlin & Schiller’s family law group, Colleen has handled matters including divorce, equitable distribution, custody, spousal support and child support, abuse matters, and both pre- and post-nuptial agreements. Colleen also serves as a parenting coordinator, helping to find resolutions to ongoing issues in high conflict custody situations. Colleen is active in the Montgomery County Bar Association, and currently serves as the Vice Chair of the Family Law Section. She is also a member of the Delaware County Bar Association’s Family Law Section. As a member of the Family Law Council for the Pennsylvania Bar Association, Colleen also serves as the co-chair of the sponsorship committee and a case note editor for the Pennsylvania Family Lawyer publication. Recognized as a Pennsylvania “Super Lawyer” in family law from 2022 through 2024, Colleen was named to the Best Lawyers in America’s “Ones to Watch” list in 2022 and was named in the Best Lawyers Family Law list for 2024 – 2026. Colleen received her J.D. from Temple University Beasley School of Law, where she was awarded the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Eric D. Turner Award, which is awarded to the student who best demonstrates the positive attributes of a matrimonial lawyer. Prior to law school, Colleen attended Colgate University, where she earned a degree in history.

Ms. Grossman has devoted her career exclusively to Family Law since graduating from Temple University Law School in 1991. She is a 1988 cum laude graduate from Brandeis University. Having spent the first 15 years of her legal career as an advocate and most recent 15 as a Family Court Master in Chester County, Pennsylvania, Ms. Grossman founded the Family Arbitration and Mediation Center in 2017. In 2020, she merged the Center with the law firm of Potts & Shoemaker, now Potts, Shoemaker & Grossman, LLC whereby she leads the firm’s alternative dispute resolution department and has resumed the representation of individuals in their domestic relations matters. Ms. Grossman is a certified mediator and completed the arbitration certification program of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. She has used her experience as a master and arbitrator to train other arbitrators. She also holds a graduate tax certificate in estate planning, and is a past-chair of the Montgomery Bar Association Family Law Section. Additionally, Ms. Grossman has served on Council to the Pennsylvania Bar Association Family Law Section and has been a frequent author and lecturer for the American Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Institute and Pennsylvania Bar Association Continuing Legal Education programs in all areas of family law and alternative dispute resolution. Ms. Grossman is past-president of the Brandywine Valley Chapter of CISV (formerly, Children’s International Summer Villages), an international peace education organization; and sits on the board of the West Chester Area Child Access Center, which provides free supervised visitation for parents and their children.

Andrea B. Pettine is a Family Law attorney with over 32 years of experience in West Chester and Chester County, Pennsylvania. Andrea’s practice concentrates in the areas of divorce, child and spousal support, alimony, custody, pre-marital agreements, property settlement agreements, mediation, arbitration, and parenting coordination. Andrea serves as a Family Law and Divorce Arbitrator, as well as a Mediator for those couples who wish to pursue mediation or arbitration as an alternative method of resolving the emotional issues surrounding their case without litigation and the benefit of reduced legal fees. Andrea is involved in several professional organizations including the Pennsylvania Bar Association, where she is a member of the Family Law Section, a former member of the House of Delegates, and a former member of the Conference of County Bar Leaders Executive Committee (CCBL). She served as the President of the CCBL in 2022/2023. Andrea also served as the 2009 President of the Chester County Bar Foundation and the 2008 President of the Chester County Bar Association. She is a member of the board of directors for the Chester County Bar Foundation. Her past service to the Chester County Bar Association includes that of President-elect (2007), Vice-President (2006), Treasurer (2005), Secretary (2004), Director, and Chair of the Family Law Section. She served as the Bar Association’s Chairperson of the Bench Bar Conference Committee for more than 20 years. Her other activities with the Chester County Bar Association include work with the Judicial Evaluation Committee, Fee Dispute Committee, Pro Bono and Membership Committees, Ethics and Civility Task Force, as well as the Law Related Education Committee. Andrea is also a member of the Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce’s Professional Development Committee, the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators, and the Amicable Divorce Network. Andrea has served on the March of Dimes’ Salute to Chester County Women of Achievement Committee and is a former member of the Chester County Women’s Referral Network. Through the Chester County Adult Night School, she taught the “Divorce Course for Women.” Andrea also volunteers her time representing clients through the Access to Justice programs and has appeared as a guest speaker on law related topics in various schools throughout Chester County. She has also participated as a panel speaker for both Chester County and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute Parenting Coordination programs. She served as the Chairperson for Chester County’s Safe Harbor Homeless Shelter Spring fundraiser committee and as a long-time member of Safe Harbor’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee. Andrea is currently a member of the West Chester Area Senior Center Board of Directors. Andrea B. Pettine is a 1992 graduate of the Villanova University School of Law and a 1989 graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park. She is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and before the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Early is a family law attorney and owner-partner at Boyd & Early Family Law, LLC. She concentrates her practice in the area of family law and her expertise includes divorce, equitable distribution, support, custody, and abuse matters. She is a certified parenting coordinator in addition to serving as a court-appointed child advocate and guardian for minor children. Ms. Early serves as an arbitrator for civil cases in the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas and also handles private mediation and arbitration cases that involve family law issues. She has previously served as a court appointed mediator in Philadelphia and New Jersey civil cases. Ms. Early received a B.S. in BioBehavioral Health with a Minor in Psychology from The Pennsylvania State University at University Park and a J.D. from Temple University School of Law. After graduating from Temple, she served as a law clerk for the Honorable William C. Todd, III, Presiding Judge Chancery Division in the New Jersey Superior Court. Ms. Early is an active member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and sits on the Council advisor board for the Family Law Section. She also is involved in the Montgomery County Bar Association where she serves as Vice Chair for the Family Law Section. In 2019, she was appointed by the President Judge of Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas to the Montgomery County Family Justice Advisory Board Subcommittee on Support. In 2021, Ms. Early was appointed as a Hearing Committee Member serving the Disciplinary Board of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. She also serves as a trustee for the Montgomery County Bar Foundation and represents the Bar Foundation on the Montgomery County Bar Association Nominating Committee. Ms. Early has been recognized as a “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer Rising Star”, a “Best Lawyers in America for Family Law” and a “Ten Leaders in Divorce Law, Age 45 and Under” for the Greater Philadelphia area. Locally, she has also been recognized as a “Top Attorney” by both Montco Happening Magazine and Bucks Happening Magazine, and a “Top Lawyer” by Main Line Today Magazine. She is a frequent lecturer and educator on the local and state level on complex and evolving family law issues. Outside of her work, Ms. Early spends time with her family and is involved in her local community serving as a board member on the West Chester YMCA Advisory Board, volunteering with a number of local youth sports organizations and, perhaps most importantly, filling the role of a homeroom parent.

Ms. Zack is a partner with the law firm of Momjian Anderer, LLC, practicing family law in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. Ms. Zack is a Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, co-chair of the Pennsylvania Chapter’s Programming Committee, and a member of the national Legislative, Arbitration, and Test Committees. She serves as the Chair of the Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Family Law Section, and is a past-Chair of the Family Law Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association. Ms. Zack is an active member of the Philadelphia Bar Association, Montgomery County Bar Association, and Chester County Bar Association Family Law Sections, the Doris Jonas Freed American Inn of Court, and an Interdisciplinary Group of judges, psychologists and lawyers who meet to discuss ways to improve the resolution of custody issues. She is certified as an arbitrator, mediator, and parenting coordinator. Ms. Zack served for eight years (2009-2016) as a Family Court Hearing Officer in Chester County, as well as as Chief Law Clerk for the Honorable Berle M. Schiller in the Pennsylvania Superior Court (1998-1999). She received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Douglass College (Rutgers University) in 1984, and her J.D. from Villanova University School of Law in 1987.

Dr. Cohen is a psychologist in private practice in Southampton. His practice is currently limited to consultation, reviews of evaluations and testimony, litigation support, and educational presentations. In his past practice he actively worked with high conflict families by providing custody evaluations, parenting coordination, co-parent counseling, and family therapy. In addition, Dr. Cohen treated individual adults, adolescents and children. He was a member and chairperson of the Pennsylvania Board of Psychology (the Licensing Board) and a past president of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association. Dr. Cohen has served as the chairperson of the Ethics Committee of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association and the Ethics Committee of the Philadelphia Society of Clinical Psychologists. He is a past president of the Philadelphia Society of Clinical Psychologists and a past president of the Delaware Valley Society for Adolescent Health. Dr. Cohen is a member of the Child and Family Forensics Committee of the Pennsylvania Psychological Association, and the Southeastern Pennsylvania Association of Custody Evaluators. In addition, he was a member of the PPA Parenting Coordination Task Force, composed of five psychologists, five judges and five attorneys who worked on developing a Model Order and Rules for consistency across the state. Dr. Cohen was on the faculty of Bryn Mawr College Graduate School of Social Work for almost 30 years. He is a frequent guest lecturer for lay and professional audiences, including the Family Law Divisions of the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Bucks County Bar Associations. Dr. Cohen received his doctorate from Bryn Mawr College.

Stacy Dougherty is the Executive Director at Laurel House. During her 15 years at Laurel House and prior to her appointment to Executive Director she held many positions within the organization including Deputy Director, Director of Community Outreach and Domestic Abuse Response Team Manager. She earned her Master’s in public administration and her Bachelor of Science (Criminal Justice) from West Chester University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Fisher is the principal at Fisher Family Law, LLC, with offices in Lafayette Hill and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in Gibbsboro, New Jersey. She is admitted to the Bars of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the State of New Jersey, and the District Court of New Jersey. She is a member of the Family Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, where she currently serves on the Section’s Rule Committee. She has been on the Board of Directors for Philadelphia VIP. She has been named a Volunteer of the Month by Philadelphia VIP and has received the pro bona Publico Award from the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania and the Pro Bono Award from the American Bar Association Section of Family Law. She is a member of the Montgomery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, American, and New Jersey State Bar Associations, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, and the Nicholas J. Cipriani Family Law American Inn of Court. She serves or has served on various committees of those associations. She is a past-Chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Family Law Section, and has served on the Executive Committee of the Association’s Young Lawyers Division. Ms. Fisher has planned courses, and lectured and authored materials, for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Pennsylvania and Philadelphia Bar Associations, the Camden County Bar Association, the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts, Philadelphia VIP, and other organizations. Ms. Fisher has served two terms as a Member of the District IV (New Jersey) Fee Arbitration Committee, several of which were as panel chair. In addition to her litigation practice, she serves as a Parenting Coordinator and Mediator and is trained in Collaborative Law. She received her B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University and her J.D. from the Villanova University School of Law.

Mr. Melchiorre graduated from Villanova University in 1989 with a degree in Political Science and a Business minor in Management. He graduated from Widener University School of Law in 1992. Mr. Melchiorre is a family lawyer who has been in practice for 31 years. He was initially the judicial law clerk for the Honorable Jacqueline C. Cody of the Chester County Court of Common Pleas. Mr. Melchiorre then became staff counsel for Chester County Domestic Relations, where he worked for 12 years, leaving that office as supervising staff attorney. He practiced family law with the law firm of Saling Litvin and Hambleton for several years before opening his own practice in 2007. Mr. Melchiorre frequently handles support, custody, divorce, mediation, arbitration and parenting coordination matters in his practice. He is a member of the Doris Jonas Freed Inn of Court and a past Chair of the Chester County Family Law Rules Committee. He is the former Chair of the Sole Practitioners Section of the Chester County Bar Association and a past member of the Board of Directors of the Chester County Bar Association. He frequently lectures on Family Law related topics for the Chester County Bar Association.

Judge Rovito joined the Chester County Court of Common Pleas in January 2022 and was named the Administrative Judge of Family Court in January 2025. She hears family, criminal and juvenile cases. Prior to her election, she was a sole practitioner in West Chester when, in January 2009, she opened Rovito Law LLC. Her practice was concentrated in all aspects of family law. Judge Rovito also acted as a mediator, arbitrator and a parenting coordinator, both prior to the new rules and after. Prior to opening her own practice, Judge Rovito served as a Family Court Hearing Officer in Chester County for almost 15 years. She presided over thousands of custody conciliations and record support, divorce, and complex equitable distribution hearings. Judge Rovito has also acted as the Juvenile Hearing Officer in both dependency and delinquency matters. After a brief period of time as in-house counsel for a Fort Washington business, Judge Rovito joined the Chester County District Attorney’s Office in 1988, where she assisted with the establishment of the Child Abuse Unit and was the managing attorney of the unit until she left in 1994 to join the Hearing Officers’ Unit. She is a member of the Education Committee for PCSTJ and co-chair of the Family Law Section. She is also a member of the Supreme Court Domestic Relations Procedural Rules Committee. She is a member of the Chester County and Pennsylvania Bar Associations and the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.