Speakers
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZDona Alvino (bio to come)
Jon Bailey
Jon Bailey, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Florida State University where he teaches graduate courses for behavior analysts in the area of Applied Behavior Analysis Theory, Research Methods, Ethics, and Professional Issues. Dr. Bailey was a founding director of the Behavior Analysis Certification Board. In 2005, Dr. Bailey received the Distinguished Service to Behavior Analysis Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis. He is co-author of six books including, How to Think Like a Behavior Analyst, and 25 Essential Skills and Strategies for Professional Behavior Analysts.
Jamie Baker (bio to come)
Kimberly Bennett
Kimberly Bennett has been an educational consultant for children on the autism spectrum for the past eight years. She holds certifications in speech language pathology as well as autism, applied behavior analysis, and a master’s degree in education. Kimberly has worked with the Verbal Behavior Autism Initiative and has established eleven classrooms throughout nine school districts. She also provides autistic support in the regular education setting, providing consultation in the areas of reading, social skills training, and behavior.
Vincent J. Carbone
Dr. Vincent J. Carbone is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst–Doctoral. He serves as an adjunct faculty member at Penn State and is visiting professor in the doctoral program in Behavioral Education at Simmons College, Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Carbone serves on the editorial review board of several peer-reviewed behavior analytic scientific journals. His research is published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and The Analysis of Verbal Behavior and several other peer-reviewed scientific journals. He is the director of a center-based clinic for children with autism in Rockland County, New York, 20 miles north of New York City.
Amiris DiPuglia
Amiris DiPuglia obtained her degree as a medical doctor in 1991 from the Pontificate Catholic University Mother and Master in the Dominican Republic. When her eldest son was diagnosed with autism, she abandoned her medical career and pursued her certification as a behavior analyst. Amiris has dedicated the past ten years to serving children with autism and other developmental delays by providing training and consultation to staff members in educational programs as well as home-bound service providers. She also provides training to family members in order to promote and facilitate collaboration as well as optimize outcomes. She is currently an educational consultant for the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistant Network (PaTTAN) serving as a parent consultant and works with the autism initiative to provide consultation and training for staff serving students with autism and related disorders.
Brenda Eaton
Brenda Eaton has worked at the Chester County Intermediate Unit for eight years as the Autism Network coordinator. She has developed and run programs such as Pennsylvania First Signs for early identification; the CATCH Team, a diagnostic program; and the Autism Alliance of Chester County to support the community, among other organizations. She is an ASD College Coach, working to develop a summer program for students with AS to attend college. Brenda is an adjunct professor at Drexel University and West Chester University.
Amy Foor (bio to come)
Eric Emmons (bio to come)
Linda Franchok (bio to come)
Lynda Geller
Lynda Geller has been in the field of autism spectrum disorders for three decades. She served on the faculties of Georgetown University, Stony Brook University, and New York University Medical Schools for twenty-five years, where she worked on the development of clinical centers, providing a wide array of services for children and adults with autism spectrum conditions. Dr. Geller has a clinical practice in New York City and founded Spectrum Services, a multidisciplinary group of independent practitioners dedicated to providing social, psychological, psychiatric, speech and language, vocational training and employment, family support, consulting, and coaching services for children and adults with Asperger’s syndrome and related conditions. She serves on the advisory boards of the Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism Association, the Young Adult Institute/National Institute for People with Disabilities Network’s Center for Autism, and the editorial board of Autism Spectrum News. Dr. Geller has taught numerous academic courses on autism spectrum, and she developed a certification course that trains individuals to coach transitioning students in the process of moving from high school to college and the world of work. She writes scholarly and popular articles, conducts professional training and continuing education, testifies on behalf of children and adults on the spectrum, and speaks at regional, national, and international conferences.
Kim Herb (bio to come)
William L. Heward
Bill Heward, Ed.D., BCBA-D, is Professor Emeritus in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University. He has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Portugal, a Visiting Professor of Psychology at Keio University in Tokyo and the University of São Paulo, a Visiting Scholar at the National Institute of Education in Singapore, and lecturer and workshop presenter in 14 other countries. His publications include more than 100 journal articles and book chapters and nine books, including Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education (9th ed., 2009), and Applied Behavior Analysis (2nd ed., 2007, co-authored with John Cooper and Tim Heron), which have been translated into several foreign languages. A Fellow and Past President of the Association for Behavior Analysis International, Dr. Heward has received numerous awards recognizing his contributions to education and behavior analysis, including the Fred S. Keller Behavioral Education Award from the American Psychological Association Division 25, the Distinguished Psychology Department Alumnus Award from Western Michigan University, and the Ellen P. Reese Award for Communication of Behavioral Concepts from the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.
Joel Hundert
Dr. Joel Hundert is a psychologist and a director of Behaviour Institute, a private agency providing applied behavior analysis for children with autism in Ontario. He is an associate clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, and associate member of the Psychology Department, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. Dr. Hundert is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and has served on the board of directors of the Behavior Analysis Certification Board. He has published numerous research articles in scholarly journals and is on the editorial board of several professional journals. His recent book, published by PRO-ED, Inc., is titled Inclusion of Students with Autism: Using ABA-Based Supports in General Education.
Brian Iwata
Brian Iwata is professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Florida, where he directs programs on disorders of learning and behavior. He developed the first model for conducting functional (experimental) analyses of problem behavior, which is regarded as the standard in the field for both clinical research and best practice. Brian is the former chief editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and former president of four national or international organizations, including the Association of Behavior Analysis. He has published more than 225 articles and chapters on various aspects of behavior analysis and has received more than $7 million in research grants to support that work.
Bill Jenson
Bill Jenson is a Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Utah. He received his doctorate from Utah State University in 1976, with a specialization in child clinical psychology. Dr. Jenson's research interests are in the areas of behavioral interventions for tough kids, parent training, generalization of treatment effects, and autism. Dr. Jenson is the author of The Tough Kid Book.
Emily A. Jones
Dr. Emily A. Jones is assistant professor of Psychology at Queens College, City University of New York. Her research interests are in the development and demonstration of interventions to address deficits in children with developmental disabilities, including those with autism and Down syndrome. This research has been published in peer-reviewed journals and received funding through the Organization for Autism Research (Dr. Jones, PI and Dr. Feeley, Co-PI) and internal university grants. Current projects include examination of the choice of materials with which to address early deficits in joint attention in children with autism and teaching the coordination of eye. She recently collaborated on a book in the area of augmentative and alternative communication for individuals with the most severe/profound communication disorders. Dr. Jones is also involved in the development of programs for children with developmental disabilities, most recently a sibling support and skills program for children with autism and their siblings.
Tamara S. Kasper
Tamara Kasper, MS/CCC-SLP, BCBA, has practiced as a pediatric SLP for twenty years, specializing in treatment of children with autism. She has devoted her career to identifying, developing, and promoting effective treatment to promote functional communication. Under the mentorship of Dr. Vincent Carbone, Tamara became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. A frequently invited international lecturer, she directs The Center for Autism Treatment, and is a past recipient of the Wisconsin Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Clinical Achievement Award.
Alice S. Kau
Alice S. Kau joined the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) as a program director in June 2003. Dr. Kau is responsible for the Biobehavioral Research program in the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities branch. She serves as the program director for research on Autism Spectrum Disorders and behavioral science research communities on behalf of the branch and assists in formulating and planning activities of these programs. She has received numerous awards, including the National Institutes of Health Director’s Award in 2005 for scientific and programmatic contribution to research on autism. She received her doctorate in developmental psychology from Ohio State University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at the Department of Pediatrics of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Prior to coming to the NICHD, Dr. Kau was an assistant professor at the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Rachel Kittenbrink
Rachel Kittenbrink, M.Ed., BCBA, received her undergraduate and masters degrees in Special Education/ Behavior Analysis from Vanderbilt University. She is currently a doctoral student in Special Education at the University of Pittsburgh. For the past two years, Kittenbrink has served as the Education Supervisor for Pace School in Pittsburgh. Since 2009, Kittenbrink has been teaching part-time at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Education. Her recent research interests focus on incorporating data based decision making in applied settings. As a practitioner, Kittenbrink served as a life skills high school teacher in a high performing suburban school district, as well as an inner city middle school emotional support/learning support teacher. In her current position as the Pace School Education Supervisor, Kittenbrink oversees instructional delivery, legal compliance, and a number of special programs including inclusion initiatives, FBA program development, and the integration of PA Autism Initiative supports.
Ami Klin
Ami Klin is the Harris Professor of child psychology and psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of London and completed clinical and research post-doctoral fellowships at the Yale Child Study Center. He directs the Autism Program at Yale, which is one of the designated National Institutes of Health Autism Centers of Excellence. This program includes a broad range of diagnostic and treatment services and an interdisciplinary program of research that includes behavioral, brain, and genetics investigations. The program also provides training in a broad range of disciplines and is strongly committed to advocacy at the local, national, and international levels. Klin's primary research activities focus on the social mind and the social brain, and on aspects of autism from infancy through adulthood. These studies include novel techniques such as the eye-tracking laboratories co-directed with Warren Jones, which allow researchers to see the world through the eyes of individuals with autism. These techniques are now being applied in the screening of babies at risk for autism in the Simons Laboratory of Social Neuroscience in Infancy. He is the author of over 180 publications in the field of autism and related conditions.
Lindsay Lawer
Lindsay Lawer is a senior research coordinator for Dr. David Mandell at the Center for Autism Research. She primarily manages a national study to examine Medicaid usage among children with autism, a qualitative study examining families’ experiences after an autism diagnosis, a Pennsylvania family needs assessment survey project and a study examining the prevalence of autism among adults at one state hospital in Pennsylvania. Lindsay holds a master’s degree in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in health policy at the Drexel University School of Public Health.
Margaret Likasewski (bio to come)
Liz Maher
Liz Maher has extensive experience working in schools throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with PaTTAN’s Autism Initiative. As part of the initiative, Liz trains teachers to use the principles of applied behavior analysis and Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior with their students with autism spectrum disorders. Liz is the co-founder of Data Makes the Difference, LLC, and was the designer of the apps Behavior Tracker Pro and Skill Tracker Pro. She also has a teenage daughter with autism. In the summer of 2007, Liz was chosen to attend the prestigious Carbone Clinic’s Summer Institute which trains and evaluates teachers of individuals with ASD. Liz holds a master's degree in special education with a minor in applied behavior analysis and became a board certified behavior analyst in March 2008.
Carl Manfredi (bio to come)
Jose Martinez-Diaz
Jose Martinez-Diaz, associate professor, is the founder and chair of Behavior Analysis Programs at the Florida Institute of Technology, a department offering graduate degrees in Behavior Analysis in Melbourne and Orlando. He also is the Program Director of Florida Tech's ABA Professional Development Program and is the C.E.O. of ABA Technologies, Inc. In addition, he is on the adjunct faculty at Penn State University's Distance Learning Center. Dr. Martinez-Diaz is a member of the Board of Directors of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, serving as its treasurer since 2004. He is a member of the Florida Behavior Analysis Certification Committee and the Florida Behavior Analysis Peer Review Committee. He is a past president of the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis, which awarded him the Charles H. Cox Award for Outstanding Service and Advancement of Behavior Analysis in Florida.
Patrick McGreevy
Patrick McGreevy provides consultation and training to families, schools, and residential programs that serve children and adults with developmental disabilities. He specializes in the replacement of severely noncompliant, aggressive, and self-injurious behavior with appropriate speaking and listening skills. He also specializes in teaching speaking, listening, and cooperation repertoires to children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities, using Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior.
Caio Miguel
Caio Miguel received his Ph.D. in Psychology - Applied Behavior Analysis from Western Michigan University under the co-advisement of Dr. James Carr and Dr. Jack Michael. Currently, Dr. Miguel is an assistant professor of Psychology and an affiliated faculty in the Doctoral program in Education at California State University, Sacramento. holds adjunct appointments at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology -Los Angeles, and at the University of Sao Paulo - Brazil. He is also a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Dr. Miguel is the past-editor (2009-2011) of the journal The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, and currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, The Behavior Analyst, The Psychological Record, and The Brazilian Journal of Behavior Analysis
Erin Miner
Erin Miner graduated from West Chester University with a bachelor of science degree in special education. She then attended East Stroudsburg University, where she earned her master of education degree in special education. She also attended Penn State to complete her course work in applied behavior analysis and became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst in March 2007. She supports families with private consulting on behavior, and she also supervises future behavior analysts. Erin is also one of four certified trainers for Central Bucks School District for Safe and Positive Approaches, formerly Crisis Prevention Intervention. She has been teaching special education and in the Autistic Support setting for nine years and has worked with Central Bucks School District for the past four years. She has worked in the high school setting as well as the elementary setting, along with language-based classrooms and academic-based classrooms. Erin also served as the track and field coach for Northampton County Special Olympics for three years. She attended the state games at Penn State, where she coached and supported her athletes each year.
Amy Nemirow (bio to come)
Rosemary Nilles (bio to come)
Nancy Nowell
Nancy Nowell has worked with children, adolescents, and adults with intellectual disabilities and Autism Spectrum Conditions for the past 35 years. Receiving a master's degree in human sexuality education from Widener University, Nancy combined her knowledge of people with disabilities and her training as a sexuality educator to address many educational shortcomings in the areas of relationship, friendship, and intimacy. In November 2007 Nancy received the national Emerging Professional Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS) and the Foundation for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. Since 2002 she has taught adults and students in special education classes about relationships, safety, puberty, sexual health, how to take care of your body, boundaries, relationship rules, laws, and sexual abuse risk reduction skills.
Lynn Norlander (bio to come)
Daniel Openden
Daniel Openden, Ph.D., BCBA-D is Vice President and Clinical Services Director for the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center (SARRC). He received his doctorate in Special Education, Disability, and Risk Studies under the mentorship of Drs. Robert and Lynn Koegel at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Openden has worked extensively with families with children with Autism Spectrum Disorders on both federal and state funded research projects; provided consulting and training for school districts across the country; presented research at regional, state, and national conventions; and has been published in peer reviewed journals and book chapters in the field. He has expertise in developing training programs for teaching parents and professionals to implement Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT), a comprehensive, evidence-based treatment model for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Dr. Openden is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions and his research interests include parent education, professional development, positive behavior supports, early intervention, inclusion, and dissemination of service delivery models for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
David Palmer
David Palmer, with undergraduate degrees in geology and English, stumbled on the works of B. F. Skinner by accident, but as he devoured the Skinner canon, he was struck by the power and parsimony of an account that traced all adaptive complexity to parallel principles of natural selection and selection by reinforcement. After a decade of attempts to start a Walden Two community, he turned to graduate school in behavior analysis at the University of Massachusetts, where he worked under John Donahoe. He received his degree in 1987 and has devoted his subsequent career to trying to extend Skinner's interpretations of behavioral complexity to the full range of human behavior. As a consequence, he has wrestled with phenomena such as remembering, verbal behavior, the behavior of the listener, multiple control, and the implications of Skinner's concept of response strength. With Donahoe, he co-authored Learning and Complex Behavior, a book that attempts to integrate neuroscience and behavior in a parsimonious selectionist account. He has been the token behaviorist at Smith College since 1989 and teaches graduate classes in verbal behavior and cognition at both Western New England College and Simmons College.
Ruth Anne Rehfeldt
Ruth Anne Rehfeldt, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is a professor of behavior analysis and therapy at Southern Illinois University. She holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, (1993), and master’s and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Nevada (1998 graduation), where she was a student of Dr. Linda J. Hayes. Dr. Rehfeldt has published more than seventy articles and book chapters in the area of applied behavior analysis. Her expertise focuses specifically on verbal behavior and derived relational responding as curricular approaches for people with autism and other developmental disabilities. She recently co-edited a book with Yvonne Barnes-Holmes titled Derived Stimulus Relations Applications for Learners with Autism and Other Developmental Disorders: A Progressive Guide for Change. Dr. Rehfeldt is the editor and business manager for The Psychological Record, a journal founded by J. R. Kantor in 1937 and for which B. F. Skinner was one of the first editorial board members. She is also an editorial board member for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, The Behavior Analyst, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, and Education and Treatment of Children. Dr. Rehfeldt and her students have delivered more than 100 conference presentations over the years. She was the co-founder, program chair, and past president of the Mid-American Association for Behavior Analysis. Ruth Anne has been awarded the Rehabilitation Institute Teacher of the Year award several times in recent years; was the Teacher of the Year for the College of Education and Human Services during 2006; and was recently awarded the Researcher of the Year Award for the College of Education and Human Services for the year 2010. Ruth Anne is the director for the Center of Autism Spectrum Disorders at Southern Illinois University.
Hanna Rue
Hanna C. Rue, Ph.D., BCBA-D is the Director of Evidence-based Practice at the National Autism Center. She holds a joint appointment as Vice President of Autism Services for May Institute. Dr. Rue’s responsibilities include updating and extending the National Standards Project, a systematic review of the treatment literature for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. Dr. Rue obtained her doctorate in clinical psychology at the University of North Dakota and completed her pre-doctoral training at May Institute. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in Massachusetts and a board certified behavior analyst. She served as a clinical director for May Institute’s largest special education school prior to assuming her role at the National Autism Center.
Ed Schaefer
Ed Schaefer has taught or administered at every level of education, from pre-kindergarten through university graduate school. He is the vice president and director of research and technology for Educational Resources, Inc.
Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger Jr.
Dr. Henry D. Schlinger Jr. received his doctorate in psychology (Applied Behavior Analysis) from Western Michigan University with Jack Michael. He then completed a two-year NIH–funded postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral pharmacology with Alan Poling. He was a full-tenured professor of psychology at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts, before moving to Los Angeles in 1998. He is now associate professor of psychology and director of the master's program in Applied Behavior Analysis at California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Schlinger has published more than fifty scholarly articles and commentaries.He has also authored or co-authored three books: Psychology: A Behavioral Overview (1990), A Behavior-Analytic View of Child Development (1995) (which was translated into Japanese), and Introduction to Scientific Psychology (1998). He is currently editor of The Behavior Analyst and is on the editorial boards of several other journals. He serves on the board of trustees of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. Dr. Schlinger is regularly invited to present at professional meetings all over the country.
Ralf Schlosser
Ralf Schlosser is a professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at Northeastern University, with a joint appointment in the school psychology program. He also serves as the director of research at the Center for Communication Enhancement at Children’s Hospital Boston. He is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language Hearing Association, the American Association of Intellectual Disabilities, and a Distinguished Switzer Fellow of the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research. He has published extensively on the efficacy of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions for children with developmental disabilities, including children with autism spectrum disorders. A second interest relates to evidence-based practice (EBP) and how to increase the uptake of EBP by clinicians and educators as well as future clinicians. He published the first book on EBP in the AAC field in 2003. Along these lines, Ralf and his colleagues have developed a database of appraised evidence in AAC (called EVIDAAC), which will be launched later this year. Along with Dr. Jeff Sigafoos, Ralf is editor-in-chief of Evidence-Based Communication Assessment and Intervention, a journal that appraises published studies and reviews through structured commentaries.
Cindy Schneider
Cindy Schneider earned a B.S. in elementary and special education from West Chester State University. She has done extensive graduate work at several universities, earning a communication specialist certification from Temple University, an autism specialist certification from Penn State, and her master’s in educational leadership from Immaculata University. Cindy was a classroom special educator for twenty years before becoming an autism consultant for the Chester County Intermediate Unit (CCIU) for seven years. She was also involved in the local community as a children's theatre director for twenty years. She then began creating theatre workshops for individuals on the autism spectrum. When she retired from the CCIU in 2007, Cindy opened the Acting Antics Art Center, which provides programming to increase social understanding through music and drama for all ages and levels of individuals diagnosed with ASD. Her book, Acting Aantics was published in 2007. Organizations and schools have requested that Cindy teach these techniques to parents and professionals around the country and in Canada.
George Shadie
George Shadie is an accredited estate planner and has been a financial services representative with New York Life for twenty-three years. George is the parent of a child with autism and an advocate.
William Sharp
Dr. William Sharp is the program manager for outpatient services in the feeding disorders program at the Marcus Autism Center, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to provide information, services, and programs to children with autism and related disorders. He is also an instructor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Sharp’s work focuses on developing and evaluating behavioral approaches for addressing severe feeding difficulties and other challenging behaviors related to autism, and disseminating this technology to parents, educators, and practitioners. His interests also include a parallel line of inquiry—investigating the nutritional, developmental, and medical issues associated with atypical feeding patterns among children with pediatric feeding disorders. Dr. Sharp has co-authored a treatment manual aimed at helping parents manage feeding difficulties related to autism, and he has published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters related to psychological treatment of children.
Jerry Shook (more information to come)
Gerald (Jerry) L. Shook, Ph.D., BCBA-D is Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Inc.
Katie Staub (bio to come)
Ian Stewart
Ian Stewart received a Ph.D. from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM), in the Republic of Ireland. He spent one additional year there, conducting postdoctoral research, and joined the department of psychology at NUI Galway in August 2002. A core area of his research has involved developing and evaluating behavior analytic and especially Relational Frame Theory–based procedures for training and assessing derived relational responding in both children and adults, and in both typically developing and developmentally delayed populations. He is a member of several associations dedicated to the promotion of behavioral science, including the Association for Behavior Analysis International, the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour Group, and the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science.
Mark Sundberg
Mark L. Sundberg, Ph.D., BCBA received his doctorate degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from Western Michigan University (1980), under the direction of Dr. Jack Michael. Dr Sundberg is the co-author of the books Teaching Language to Children with Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities, The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills: The ABLLS, and A Collection of Reprints on Verbal Behavior. He has published over 45 professional papers, including a recent chapter titled “Verbal Behavior” in the new edition of Cooper, Heron, & Heward’s (2007) book Applied Behavior Analysis, 2e. He is the founder and past editor of the journal The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, a twice past-president of The Northern California Association for Behavior Analysis, a past-chair of the Publication Board of ABA:International, and was a member of the committee that developed the BACB Task List.
Lawrence Sutton
Lawrence R. Sutton is a licensed psychologist is employed as a psychologist and manager of the Western Region Office of Bureau of Autism in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He holds a research faculty position at Duquesne University. He earned his doctoral degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1980 and has been licensed as a psychologist since 1983. Dr. Sutton has worked with individuals with developmental disabilities since 1992 and began focusing on those touched by autism since 2001. He has numerous publications in the area of identification of and treatment of behavioral issues for teens and adults with developmental disorders, particularly those with autism.
Susan Thompson
Susan Thompson, OTR, is an occupational therapist with more than fifteen years of pediatric experience. She has worked in a variety of settings, including school systems. She has developed and authored the book and program, Handy Learning; Activities for Fine Motor Development in Young Children. Her workshop, The Write Stuff, and her Handy Learning program have received national recognition, having been successfully placed in classrooms all across the United States. Susan will offer an entertaining and informative presentation that will invigorate and inspire participants to apply effective techniques for child development.
Vicci Tucci
Vicci Tucci has a master’s degree in applied behavior analysis from the University of the Pacific and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. For more than thirty years, she and her colleagues have dedicated themselves to implementing the Competent Learner Model (CLM) for naive learners (e.g., autistic learners and other challenged learners). Currently, the CLM is being implemented state-wide in two states in public and private schools. In addition, she has also developed curricula for naive learners, and assessment tools to monitor the progress of the learners and their instructors’ performance. She is committed to helping naive learners become more competent learners who can be more successful in home, school, and community learning environments. She and her colleagues are accomplishing these endeavors by collaborating with instructional teams to engineer their learning environments. Ms. Tucci has also developed a computer-based “Teaching Machine,” designed to teach instructors such content as ABA, DI, and PT evidenced-based practices.
Garth Tymeson
Garth Tymeson is a Profesor of Adapted Physical Education in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of Wisconsin - Lacrosse. He joined UW-La Crosse in 1990 as associate dean in the College of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, one of the largest colleges of its type in the nation. He added the duties of director of university graduate studies from 1997-2001. He served as interim dean for the College of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Teacher Education between 2000-2003. Tymseon, who teaches courses in adapted physical education, research methods and grant seeking in the Department of Exercise and Sports Science, has procured more than $2 million in grants and contracts for a variety of projects, including preparing physical educators to teach children with disabilities, youth sports, and educational enrichment programs for children from low-income families.
Katie Ulrich
Katie Ulrich is an instructor with the Gateway's School District in Monroeville, Pennsylvania. She provides speech and language services to the Life Skills and Autistic Support classrooms at Ramsey Elementary, Moss Side Middle School, and Gateway Middle School. She addresses communication disorders in children with a spectrum of developmental disorders based on principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Analysis of Verbal Behavior.
Lorri Unumb
Lorri Unumb is a lawyer and the mother of three children, the oldest of whom has autism. In 2005, while working as a law professor, she wrote autism insurance legislation for South Carolina (Ryan’s Law) that passed in 2007 and served as a catalyst for the national movement toward autism insurance reform. In 2008, Unumb was hired by the New York–based nonprofit Autism Speaks, where she advocates full-time on behalf of individuals with autism. As head of state government affairs, she has testified more than fifty times on health insurance issues in state legislatures around the country. For her advocacy efforts, Unumb has received the Jefferson Award for Public Service; the Autism Society of America 2008 Parents of the Year award (along with her husband); and the BACB’s Michael Hemingway Award. Unumb’s work has been profiled on CNN and NPR’s, Morning Edition, and in Town&Country magazine, from whom she received one of three 2009 Women Who Make a Difference awards. Unumb teaches a law school seminar at George Washington University, “Autism and the Law.” Earlier this year, Unumb and her husband Dan released the first-ever comprehensive textbook on legal issues related to autism, also titled Autism and the Law.
Anne Van Zelst (bio to come)
Nina Wall-Cote
Nina Wall-Coté, LSW, M.S.S., is director of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare's Bureau of Autism Services. Previously she served as the director for the Department of Public Welfare's Office of Autism Affairs and, before that, as co-chair of the Autism Task Force. She was a founding member and the first president of the Pennsylvania Action Coalition for Autism Services, a statewide board of regional autism advocates. She has served as a board member for Pennsylvania Protection and Advocacy, and she served for seven years as the information and referral director for the Autism Society of Greater Philadelphia. A graduate of Bryn Mawr College's Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, Wall-Coté has worked as a family, child, and adolescent therapist, with a specific focus on clinical work with families of children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders and other behavioral health challenges. She is the parent of a 20-year-old with autism.
Mary Jane Weiss
Mary Jane Weiss, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is a consultant to several autism organizations and is an adjunct faculty member at Rutgers University, New York University,and Endicott College. Previously, she served as director of research and training and as clinical director of the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center at Rutgers University for sixteen years. Her clinical and research interests center on defining best practice ABA techniques; helping to successfully include learners in classrooms and the community; evaluating the impact of ABA in learners with autism spectrum disorders; and maximizing family members’ expertise and adaptation. She has written several articles and four books on autism and is a regular presenter at regional and national conferences on topics relevant to ABA and autism. A past president of the Autism Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavior Analysis, she is a former member of the APBA Board of Directors, and serves on the ethics committee of the BACB, on the Scientific Council of the Organization for Autism Research, and on the Board of Trustees of Autism New Jersey, Inc.
Amy Wetherby
Amy M. Wetherby, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is a Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Clinical Sciences and Director of the Autism Institute in the College of Medicine and the Laurel Schendel Professor of Communication Disorders at Florida State University. She has thirty years of clinical experience and is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Dr. Wetherby has published extensively and presents regularly at national conventions on early detection of children with autism spectrum disorder and intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder using the SCERTS model. She is the Project Director of a Doctoral Leadership Training Grant specializing in autism funded by the U.S. Department of Education. She served on the National Academy of Sciences Committee for Educational Interventions for Children with Autism and is the Executive Director of the Florida State University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities. Dr. Wetherby is the Project Director of the FIRST WORDS Project (http://firstwords.fsu.edu), a longitudinal research investigation on early detection of autism spectrum and other communication disorders, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is also the Principal Investigator of an early treatment study teaching parents of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder how to support social communication and play in everyday activities funded by Autism Speaks and the National Institutes of Mental Health.
Robyn Wozniak
Robyn Wozniak is a special education teacher who is currently working in the Garnet Valley School District. She is the teacher in a Life Skills classroom that uses the Competent Learner Model as a supplemental curriculum. She holds a master’s degree in education from West Chester University and is certified in elementary education, special education, and as a reading specialist. Robyn received the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence from Duquesne University. She is honored to work with her students and families who inspire her to be the best instructor that she can be!
Patricia Wright
Patricia Wright has a passion for education and advocacy and has dedicated her career to ensuring that individuals with autism are fully included in society. Her personal mission is to offer the support that makes it possible for people with autism to lead meaningful, happy, and productive lives. As the Easter Seals national director of autism services, Wright leads the organization’s autism programs. She knows that early diagnosis and intervention offer the best outcomes, but she is also a proponent of appropriate treatment for anyone with autism at any age. Everyone has the ability to learn and develop skills. She is a member of the Organization for Autism Research’s Scientific Council and serves on the executive committee for the Friends of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. Wright earned her Ph.D. in education from the University of Hawaii in 2006. She also has a master’s degree in public health from the University of Hawaii, and a master’s degree in special education from San Francisco State University.
Perry A. Zirkel
Perry A. Zirkel, Ph.D., J.D., is University Professor of Education and Law at Lehigh University, where he formerly was dean of the College of Education and more recently held the Iacocca Chair in Education for its five-year term. He has a Ph.D. in educational administration and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut, and a Master of Laws degree from Yale University. He has written more than 1,250 publications on various aspects of school law, with an emphasis on legal issues in special education. He writes a regular column in Phi Delta Kappan, and another for Principal Magazine. Past president of the Education Law Association and co-chair of the Pennsylvania special education appeals panel from 1990 to 2006, he is the author of the CEC monograph titled The Legal Meaning of Specific Learning Disability, and recently published books: Digest of Supreme Court Decisions Affecting Education, Student Teaching and the Law, and the two-volume reference Section 504, the ADA and the Schools, now in its third edition.
