Dr. Alpern is a widely-published child psychologist who had a private practice in Aspen, Colorado. He has treated families and children for more than 40 years, and has performed custody evaluations, supervised family mediation, and served as an expert witness in court. He has done research and clinical work on the use of neurofeedback in treating psychological problems.

 

Before establishing his private practice, Dr. Alpern was professor and director of research in child psychiatry at Indiana University Medical School. He has published extensively throughout his career, with a special focus on autism, developmental delays, and childhood intelligence.

Elizabeth Carrow-Woolfolk, PhD  (1927-2022)

Widely recognized for her accomplishments in the field of language development, Dr. Carrow-Woolfolk founded the Harry Jersig Center for Communication Disorders at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio, Texas, where she created the master’s program in speech-language pathology. She also headed the Communication Disorders Program at the University of Texas and the Speech Pathology Program at Baylor College of Medicine. In addition, she directed speech pathology services at three hospitals in Houston—St. Luke's, Texas Children's Hospital, and Methodist Hospital.

Dr. Carrow-Woolfolk held an MA in educational psychology from the University of Texas and a PhD in speech pathology from Northwestern University. She completed postgraduate work in linguistics at Indiana University, and published numerous books and articles on reading, language, and multilingualism. For six years Dr. Carrow-Woolfolk served as editor of the Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders. She has received numerous honors from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Dr. Constantino is Blanche F. Ittleson professor and director of the William Greenleaf Eliot Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Cornell University and his medical degree from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Dr. Constantino completed a combined residency in pediatrics, general psychiatry, and child psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and a postdoctoral research fellowship in psychiatric epidemiology at Washington University School of Medicine.

Dr. Constantino’s work has involved the genetic epidemiology of autistic social impairment, quantitative methods for measuring inherited phenotypic components of autistic syndromes, and the discovery of distinct patterns of subclinical autistic traits in the relatives of children with autism. He has authored or co-authored 78 original, peer-reviewed papers in the scientific literature. In addition, he has developed rapid quantitative methods for measuring inherited aspects of social impairment. These methods, used worldwide, have led to the discovery of genes that confer risk for autism and related disorders and have helped clarify nature-nurture effects on social developmental disorders (including autism, conduct disorder, and personality disorder). Dr. Constantino currently holds grants with NIH/NICHD, Autism Speaks, the Simons Foundation, CDC, and HRSA. He participates in scientific review committees for Autism Speaks, theMarch of Dimes Foundation, Simons Foundation, and the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. He has also served on, and chaired, the scientific advisory committee for AGRE (a program of Autism Speaks).

Janet Barker Fudala, PhD (1935- 2020)

The author of numerous books and articles on speech-language-hearing issues, Dr. Fudala developed several well-known assessments, including the Tree/Bee Test of Auditory Discrimination, Quickscreen, the Auditory Pointing Test, the Prescriptive Reading Performance Test (PRPT), and the widely used Arizona Articulation and Phonology Scale™, Fourth Revision (Arizona-4). She earned her doctorate in speech and hearing from the University of Washington.

Dr. Fudala served as director of special education and special programs for the Port Townsend, Washington schools and executive director of curriculum and instruction for the Brighton, Colorado school district. She also served as a superintendent of schools for 12 years. She taught graduate courses in speech, language, and learning disabilities at Seattle University, Western Washington University, and Seattle Pacific University, and was a popular presenter at conventions and school districts.

Dr. Harrison is a professor in the Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling at the University of Alabama. She holds a PhD from the University of Georgia, National Certification in School Psychology, and Class AA certification as a school psychologist from the Alabama Department of Education.

Dr. Harrison’s research and scholarship relate to assessment methods for children with development, learning, and behavior problems and professional school psychology issues. Her articles and chapters on assessment and professional standards appear in school psychology and special education journals and texts, and she has conducted numerous refereed and invited presentations on these topics at professional conferences. Dr. Harrison has been the editor of School Psychology Review and has served on the editorial boards of other professional research journals, including Journal of School Psychology, School Psychology Quarterly, and Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment.

Dr. Harrison has been active in professional school psychology organizations, including the National Association of School Psychologists, Society for the Study of School Psychology, and School Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association. She served on the planning committee for both the 2002 and 2012 Conferences on the Future of School Psychology. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and American Educational Research Association.

Diana Henry, MS, OT/L, FAOTA president of Henry Occupational Therapy Services, Inc., studied with Lorna Jean King in 1975, and then together founded what is now called the Children’s Center in Arizona. Diana opened her clinic specializing in sensory integration (SI) in 1984 and developed programs for Arizona schools.

Diana is SCSIT and SIPT certified. She received her B.S. in OT from Tufts University, and her M.S. in sensory integration from Rush University. Diana has taught at Arizona State University, nationally to school districts, associations/clinics and internationally in Australia, Canada, Brazil Denmark,  England, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Scotland  and Sweden. With her husband Rick, Diana produced the Tools for Teachers and the Tools for Students DVDs, co-authored the Tool Chest, the Tools for Parents, the SI Tools for Teens handbooks, the Sensory Tools for Pets,  the Tools for Tots: Sensory Strategies for Toddlers and Preschoolers and the Tools for Infants: Sensory-Based Strategies for Parents, Caregivers, and Early Intervention Providers books, co-produced the Teen Sensory Tool DVD and the Sensory Songs for Tots music CD.  Diana is presently working on the Sensory Processing Measure -2 Quick Tips for Adults and for Adolescents.

In April 2008, Diana and her colleagues were awarded the American Occupational Therapy Recognition of Achievement Award for developing The Sensory Processing Measure (SPM).

In 2007, ATEACHABOUT   was featured in a PBS documentary titled: The Boomer Century.

Ann Le Couteur is a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry and honorary consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist at Newcastle University. She co-leads the Newcastle University Autism Research Team, and has more than 24 years of experience in assessment, diagnosis, management, and treatment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other complex mental health disorders in children, young people, adults, and their families/caregivers. She has numerous journal publications, with research interests including the etiology of ASD, evaluation of interventions for children and families, and the promotion of models of assessment and treatment. Professor Le Couteur also provides second opinion clinical services for children and young people with complex neurodevelopmental disorders, including ASD.

Professor Le Couteur chaired the work that led to publication of The National Autism Plan for Children (2003) in the UK. She is currently a member of the ASD NICE guideline development group, and a member of the Department of Health reference group for the adult autism strategy. She is involved with a number of UK charities for children and young people with complex needs.

Principal author of the ADOS-2, Dr. Lord is director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical College, and Columbia University Medical Center. Previously, she directed the Autism and Communication Disorders Center at the University of Michigan. Dr. Lord has chaired the Committee on the Effectiveness of Early Intervention in Autism for the National Research Council, and currently serves on the DSM-5 Neurodevelopmental Disorders Committee. She received her PhD in psychology and social relations from Harvard University.

Throughout her career, Dr. Lord has worked to improve the way autism spectrum disorders are diagnosed and treated. She is currently developing an ADOS module for adolescents and adults with limited verbal skills, as well as an assessment of spontaneous, functional language in children with ASD. In addition, she is studying therapies for children on the autism spectrum and conducting longitudinal research that follows individuals with autism from age 2 into adulthood.

Lucy Jane Miller, PhD, founded the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation in 1979 in Colorado. She served as that organization’s Executive Director until recently, when she moved into the role as Research Director. Devoted to the study and treatment of Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) for 35 years, she is spearheading the effort to gain recognition of SPD as a separate diagnosis. She is known internationally for generating awareness and acquiring funding for SPD research programs. Dr. Miller is also the prolific author of norm-referenced standardized assessments, two books, and more than 50 articles in peer-reviewed journals. In her world-renowned assessments, Dr. Miller brings creativity and fun to the testing process, enabling children to perform at their highest level rather than become frustrated with tedious activities. This is the basis for the new Goal-Oriented Assessment of Lifeskills (GOAL). Dr. Miller’s degrees include a Bachelor of Arts in psychology, Master of Arts in occupational therapy, and doctorate in early childhood special education with an emphasis in educational research. The American Occupational Therapy Association honored her with its highest accolade, the Award of Merit. The State of Colorado, in recognition of Dr. Miller’s more than 30 years of work with children who have disabling conditions, presented her with its Martin Luther King, Jr. Award. Learn More: www.spdfoundation.net/founder.html spdstar.org/lucy-jane-miller-ph-d-otr/

During her 30-year career Dr. Monteiro has evaluated more than 4,000 children on the autism spectrum. In addition, she has trained scores of educators and clinicians in the US and internationally, teaching them how to diagnose and understand children on the autism spectrum and communicate with the children’s families. Dr. Monteiro has pioneered a qualitative approach to evaluation that gives clinicians the tools to describe autism spectrum behavioral profiles in individualized and descriptive terms, leading to practical intervention strategies. Her descriptive evaluation tools complement and enhance the use of standardized autism tools, including the ADOS-2, providing evaluators with a visual framework and accessible language to describe each child’s autism spectrum differences in development in substantive terms.

Dr. Monteiro has a BA in psychology and education from Grinnell College, an MA in psychology from Drake University, and a PhD in psychology (applied behavior analysis) from Western Michigan University. She completed postgraduate work in family systems therapy at the Southwest Family Institute in Dallas. She is a frequent speaker at state, regional, and national conferences, and provides autism evaluation training workshops for school districts throughout the United States.

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Formerly professor emeritus at the University of Florida and a professor at the University of Texas, Dr. Oakland was board certified in neuropsychology and school psychology. He had a forensic practice and served as a consultant to approximately 200 school boards and agencies. He was a fellow of the American Psychological Association (APA), American Academy of School Psychology, and American College of Professional Neuropsychology. In addition, he had been president of the International School Psychology Association, International Test Commission, International Association of Applied Psychology’s Division of Assessment and Evaluation, International Foundation of Children’s Education, and APA’s Division of School Psychology.

Dr. Oakland developed 10 standardized tests and wrote and edited 15 books, approximately 100 chapters, and 200 scholarly articles. He was editor of the Journal of School Psychology and associate editor of School Psychology International, and served on the editorial boards of 70 other professional journals. Dr. Oakland received APA’s Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology, as well as the Distinguished Service Award and Senior Scientist Award from APA’s Division of School Psychology. His many other professional honors include the Legends Award from the National Association of School Psychologists, the Willard Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Association of School Psychologists, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Florida College of Education.

Dr. Oakland died March 4, 2015 at his house in Gainesville, FL. He was 75. In recognition of Dr. Oakland's contribution to the psychological health community, WPS is sponsoring a scholarship in his honor at the Florida Association of School Psychologists (FASP) and the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP).

Professor emeritus and distinguished research scholar at Texas A&M University, Cecil Reynolds earned his doctorate from the University of Georgia under the tutelage of Dr. Alan S. Kaufman, with a major in school psychology and minors in statistics and clinical neuropsychology. During his long career as an educator, clinician, and researcher, he has developed many highly regarded psychological tests, authored more than 300 scholarly papers, and written or edited more than 50 books, including the Handbook of School Psychology, the Encyclopedia of Special Education, The Energetic Brain, and the Handbook of Clinical Child Neuropsychology.

Nationally recognized for his work, Dr. Reynolds has received the Lightner Witmer Award from the American Psychological Association (APA), Early Career Awards from two APA divisions, the Senior Scientist Award from APA’s Division of School Psychology, the Robert Chin Award from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the Distinguished Neuropsychologist Award from the National Academy of Neuropsychology (NAN), a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), and the Jack I. Bardon Award for Lifetime Distinguished Service Contributions to school psychology.

Dr. Reynolds has been President of NAN, as well as three divisions of APA (Clinical Neuropsychology; School Psychology; and Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics). He has also served on the executive boards of NASP, three APA divisions, and APA’s Committee on Psychological Tests and Assessment. In addition, Dr. Reynolds has been editor-in-chief of three professional journals—Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, Applied Neuropsychology, and Psychological Assessment.

During his 50-plus years of therapeutic work with children and their families, Dr. Roberts has also concentrated on developing the test of child and adolescent personality functioning that is now titled the Roberts-2.

Dr. Roberts received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Purdue University, where he began the process of developing the test as he studied aspects of stimulus variation. As he subsequently worked in a wide variety of clinical settings in the Los Angeles area, he studied pictures that elicited meaningful interpretations of the situations portrayed. With significant situations identified, he tested thousands of clinical and non-clinical children and adolescents to construct an objective scoring system, and established norms with a regional population. The test was first published in 1982, as the Roberts Apperception Test for Children (RATC), and was adopted by clinical and school psychologists as a significant tool to assess child personality functioning.

In Dr. Roberts’ work as the clinical director of a community mental health clinic, he acquired knowledge from his own research and the practical experiences of staff and psychology interns to improve and refine the scales of the RATC. With updated pictures and the addition and refinement of scales, the test was administered to thousands of children and adolescents nationally to establish valid norms. The improved and refined test was published in 2005 and named the Roberts-2. Dr. Roberts continues to commit to the utility of the Roberts-2 , and has conducted training workshops nationally and internationally for educators and clinicians.

Michael Rutter, MD (1933–2021)

Dr. Rutter trained in general medicine, neurology, and pediatrics before specializing in psychiatry and becoming the first professor of child psychiatry in the United Kingdom. He established the Medical Research Council’s Child Psychiatry Research Unit and the Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College, London. Dr. Rutter played a pivotal role in establishing child psychiatry as a medical and biopsychosocial specialty with a strong scientific base. His studies of autism involved a wide range of scientific techniques and disciplines, including molecular and quantitative genetics.

Dr. Rutter served as European editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders from 1974 to 1994. He wrote or edited 50 books, published more than 500 scientific papers, and received numerous international awards and honors. He was a member of the US Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the US National Academy of Education, and the British Academy. He was also a fellow of the Royal Society and founding fellow of the Academia Europaea and the Academy of Medical Sciences. The Michael Rutter Centre for Children and Adolescents at Maudsley Hospital, London, is named for him.

Dr. Goldstein is an assistant clinical instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Utah School of Medicine and clinical director of the Neurology, Learning and Behavior Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sam is a board-certified pediatric neuropsychologist, licensed as a psychologist and certified as a developmental disabilities evaluator in the state of Utah. He has authored, co-edited, or co-authored more than 50 books, including 24 textbooks, as well as approximately 70 book chapters and peer-reviewed scientific research studies, and eight psychological tests and assessments.

Adriana Lavi, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is a practicing licensed school-based speech-language pathologist with more than 15 years of experience working with children and young adults who present with a variety of communication disorders. She currently supervises twenty-four speech-language pathologists and Clinical Fellows in three school districts in Southern California.

Dr. Lavi has also served as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communicative Disorders at Loma Linda University, and recently, she founded the Lavi Institute for Research and Professional Development. Her primary research interests focus in the areas of pragmatics, as well as the assessment and treatment of culturally and linguistically diverse students with communication disorders. She earned a master’s degree in speech-language pathology from California State University at Sacramento and a Ph.D. degree in Rehabilitation Sciences with an emphasis in speech-language pathology from Loma Linda University. Dr. Lavi was one of three students selected by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the US Department of State from the country of Moldova to study in the US in 2000.

She has lived through and understands the culture of poverty. Her professional career has always focused on service delivery for students from low-income backgrounds. She is also a mother of four young, highly energetic little boys, ages 6, 5, 4 and 18 months.

More information is available at www.laviinstitute.com

Diane Parham, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA is a Professor in the Occupational Therapy Graduate Program at the University of New Mexico. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy at the University of Florida, Master’s degree in Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California (USC), and PhD in Education at the University of California Los Angeles. Prior to beginning her academic career as a professor, Diane had over 10 years of direct clinical practice experience in psychiatry, early childhood and primary school consultation, physical rehabilitation, home health, and sensory integration (SI) private practice. She was mentored in SI by A. Jean Ayres, the originator of SI theory, research, and practice. Upon Ayres’s retirement, Diane taught the USC clinical course in SI that Ayres had established. Diane also began her academic career at USC, where she was on the faculty of the Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy for 22 years. While at USC, she contributed to the establishment of the first PhD program in Occupational Science. She joined the faculty of the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in 2007, where she teaches and does research in the Occupational Therapy Graduate Program. She is the recipient of several awards and service commendations from the American Occupational Therapy Association and Foundation, including the A. Jean Ayres Award and the Cordelia Myers Best AJOT Article Award. Her research interests include assessment of sensory integration and processing, as well as effectiveness of Ayres SI intervention and other interventions that support participation and well-being of children and youth with sensory-motor challenges.

Tara J. Glennon earned her Bachelor’s degree in Occupational Therapy in 1985, a Master’s degree in School Psychology in 1993, and a Doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology in 2001. She is a tenured professor of Occupational Therapy at Quinnipiac University and owner of the Center for Pediatric Therapy, with several clinics in Connecticut. Dr. Glennon’s clinical practice specializes in individuals with an autism spectrum diagnosis and young children with significant sensory integrative and processing difficulties. Dr. Glennon lectures extensively at the national level, has over 80 publications related to occupational therapy and pediatric practice, and focuses her advocacy work on therapy reimbursement for children with special needs. Dr. Glennon was awarded Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association in 2002 and was the recipient of several awards from the American Occupational Therapy Association and Foundation, including the Virginia Scardina Award of Excellence in 2017, the Jeanette Bair Writer’s Award in 2011, and the Recognition of Achievement Award in 2008; as well as the Connecticut OT Association’s Award of Merit in 2009. Her research aims to support children and their families successfully engage in meaningful activities, specifically through assessment of sensory integration and processing and the effectiveness of Ayres Sensory Integration intervention.