Experts
This page provides an index to the experts interviewed on the LD Podcast, with brief bios about them. The list is alphabetical, and will link to the original interview file. If you have any questions, please email us at ldpodcast at gmail dot com.
Dr. Russell Barkley
After serving in the United States Air Force, Dr. Barkley obtained his Bachelor’s Degree with Honors in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1973. He then attended Bowling Green State University in Ohio where he received his Masters Degree in 1975 and his Ph.D. in 1977 in Clinical Psychology, receiving the Distinguished Dissertation Award for his research on the effects of medication on children with ADHD. He then attended the Oregon Health Sciences University for internship training in developmental, learning, and behavioral disorders of children. Thereafter, in 1977, he joined the Department of Neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCOW) and Milwaukee Children’s Hospital where he worked in the Child Neurology Division and eventually founded the Neuropsychology Service at MCOW. He served as its Chief and as Associate Professor of Neurology until 1985. Dr. Barkley then relocated to the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he served as the Director of Psychology and as a Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology (1985-2002). While there, he established the research clinics for both child and adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders. In 2003, Dr. Barkley relocated to the Charleston, SC area where he became a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina. In 2005, he joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY.
Dr. Barkley has written many books, including some of the definitive textbooks on ADHD, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (3rd Edition), and ADHD in Adults- What the Science Says. He is the primary investigator on one of the longest followup studies of children with ADHD, commonly referred to as the Milwaukee Study, which has now followed children until age 27, giving us one of the best pictures to date of the life-cycle and long term outcomes of ADHD children.
Dr. Robert Brooks
Dr. Robert Brooks is one of today’s leading speakers on the themes of resilience, self-esteem, motivation, and family relationships. During the past 30 years, Dr. Brooks has presented nationally and internationally to thousands of parents, educators, mental health professionals, and business people with a message based on encouragement, hope, and resilience. He is renowned for the warmth and humor he uses to bring his insights and anecdotes to life.
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Dr. Thomas E. Brown
Dr. Brown is a clinical psychologist who received his Ph.D. from Yale University and maintains a private practice in Hamden, CT. specializing in assessment and treatment of high-IQ children, adolescents and adults with ADD and related problems. He is an Asst. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and is Associate Director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders.
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Anne Ford and John Richard Thompson
Anne Ford served as Chairman of NCLD’s Board of Directors from 1989 to 2001 and is currently Chairman Emeritus. During her term as Chair, Ford led the reorganization and broad expansion of NCLD, including establishing a Washington, D.C., office, presenting educational summits on learning disabilities, and collaborating with other national service organizations representing issues including literacy, cultural diversity, and early childhood development. In 1994, Ford was appointed to the Department of Health and Human Services Commission on Childhood Disabilities as the representative for LD. Her story has been featured in Newsweek and Newsday and on ABC, Lifetime, and the Oxygen Network, among other news venues. She lives in New York City. Ford’s book, Laughing Allegra, was released in early May; in this interview, she talks about her reasons for writing and of her life with Allegra.
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Jenifer Fox
Jenifer Fox is an international award-winning author and speaker and a recognized leader of the Strengths Movement within our educational system, for parents and organizations that serve youth.
She draws on 25 years experience in virtually every kind of precollegiate school setting to challenge the current educational system. Her message is focused on the need to develop children’s strengths in an effort to help them find success and build meaningful futures. Jenifer sees this as not only a means to help the individual, but as an important step to secure our nation’s economic status as well as our democracy.
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Dr. Perri Klass
As a pediatrician, writer, wife, and mother—Perri Klass has demonstrated how medicine is integral to the health of families and communities, and how doctors themselves struggle to balance the conflicting needs of profession, self, and family. With her love of literature and her involvement with literacy, Klass is acutely aware of the importance of reading to personal and professional success. As medical director of Reach Out and Read, a national program which makes books and advice about reading to young children part of every well-child visit, she encourages other pediatricians to foster pre-reading skills in their young patients.
Laurie LeComer
Laurie LeComer, M.Ed. is an educational consultant to families, medical professionals, and child organizations on developmental and behavioral issues. She is also a special educator, program monitor, and evaluator who supports including children with special needs in regular education programs and classes. Ms. LeComer often speaks on the importance of early intervention, careful diagnosis, and ways to encourage rapid progress in young children. Ms. LeComer’s background is in Bio-psychology (including amphetamine research) with graduate work in Special Education. She has been a member of the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Collaborative on Integrated School Services, and is a member of the Autism Society of America and the Council for Exceptional Children. Ms. LeComer continues to work directly with developmentally delayed, learning disabled, PDD, autistic, and multiply handicapped children in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Richard “Rick” LaVoie
Rick Lavoie has served as an administrator of residential programs for children with special needs since 1972. He holds three degrees in Special Education and has served as an adjunct professor or visiting lecturer at numerous universities including Syracuse, Harvard, Gallaudet, Manhattanville College, University of Alabama and Georgetown. His numerous national television appearances include CBS Morning Show, Good Morning Amedca, ABC Evening News and Disney Channel Presents.
Jan Olsen
Occupational therapist Jan Z. Olsen is the founder and developer of the Handwriting Without Tears® program. The 2008 curriculum is the culmination of successes over the past 30 years, plus many new ideas from collaborations with teachers, occupational therapists, and administrators across the country. Understanding the challenges in the classroom and the gaps in educational offerings, Jan and her staff work to create materials and books that meet educators’ needs in a way that is fun and engaging, while developmentally appropriate and effective for all students.
Sally Smith
Sally L. Smith founded and designed The Lab School of Washington in 1967 for intelligent children and adults with learning disabilities. She was also a Professor in the School of Education at American University in charge of the Master’s Degree Program in Special Education: Learning Disabilities. It was Professor Smith’s belief that everyone can learn, and she designed Lab School teaching approaches involving all the art forms and experiential education to teach academic skills to children and adults. She developed the Academic Club Method, a highly scholastic academic vehicle that teaches history, geography, civics or any subject through the arts, which has been overwhelmingly successful with Lab School students since its inception. It builds storehouses of knowledge, vocabulary, fluency of language, and critical thinking in poor readers and non-readers, which good readers develop from prolific reading. Our interview of Sally Smith was one of the last interviews before her death in December of 2007.
Dr. Andy Van Schaack- Assistant Professor of the Practice of Human and Organziational Development, Peabody College of Education and Human Development
Dr. Van Schaack started his career working for Apple Computer in their education division, and eventually left to return to school to learn more about the effective use of technology in the classroom. ‘Dr Van Schaack recieved his PhD in Educational technology from Utah State University, and currently teaches at Vanderbilt University. His research is focused on the development and dissemination of effective, efficient, and accessible instructional technologies (products and practices) based on empirically-validated scientific research.
Peter Wright
Pete Wright is an attorney who represents children with special educational needs.
In second grade, Pete was diagnosed with learning disabilities including dyslexia, dysgraphia and ADHD. He was fortunate – his learning problems were identified early. His parents obtained intensive Orton-Gillingham remediation for him by Diana Hanburg King.
Pete’s determination to help children grew out of his own educational experiences. While attending Randolph Macon College, Pete worked in a Juvenile Training School as a houseparent. After graduation with a degree in Psychology, he worked in another Juvenile Training School as a counselor and later became a Juvenile Probation Officer in the Juvenile Court system. In 1972, he was honored as Virginia’s “Juvenile Probation Officer of the Year.” During that time, Pete was also attending evening college in a graduate psychology program at Virginia Commonwealth University.
In 1977, Pete graduated from T. C. Williams Law School at the University of Richmond. On October 6, 1993, Pete gave oral argument before the United States Supreme Court in Florence County School District Four v. Shannon Carter, 510 U.S. 7 (1993). Thirty-four days later, the Court issued a unanimous decision for Shannon Carter. (Learn more about Florence County v. Shannon Carter)
Pete is the co-author of Wrightslaw: Special Education Law (1999), Wrightslaw: No Child Left Behind (2003), Wrightslaw: IDEA 2004, (2005) and Wrightslaw: From Emotions to Advocacy, 2nd edition (2005) He appeared as the parent’s attorney in in the award-winning DVD video, Surviving Due Process: When Parents and the School Board Disagree – Stephen Jeffers v. School Board (2004). Pete and Pam Wright are the founders of Wrightslaw, the #1 ranked website about education law, special education law, and special education advocacy.
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