The Red Door has been honoured to have had the services of leading national and international speakers at our conferences. All have supported us in our attempt to bring information and advice to a wider audience.
Our speakers have included (in alphabetical order):
Helen Bloomer (USA, in 2006, 2007 and 2008)
Helen Bloomer BCBA is the founder of Aspire Programs, a new centre for children with autism, and formerly founder and the executive director of Crossroads Centres for Children.
Ms. Bloomer was trained and affiliated for ten years at the Children's Unit for Treatment and Evaluation at SUNY Binghamton under the direction of Dr. Raymond Romanczyk. Ms. Bloomer has done extensive work in the field of autism and applied behaviour analysis, co-authoring and presenting at numerous conferences, nationally and internationally. In addition, she produced the training video series "Bridges" which has helped families and educators throughout the world.
Ms. Bloomer has been a member of the executive board for the New York State Association for Behaviour Analysis (NYSABA) for approximately 10 years. She is the current president and previously has served in many positions including President, Member at Large, etc. Ms. Bloomer was a peer reviewer for the New York State Department of Health clinical practice guidelines for autism/pervasive developmental disorders.
Michael Fabrizio (USA, in 2008)
Michael Fabrizio, PhD, BCBA is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst who received his Bachelor's Degree in Psychology and Master's Degree in Educational Psychology/Applied Behaviour Analysis from West Virginia University.
He has worked with children with disabilities throughout his more than fifteen-year career, serving as a Senior Educational Specialist for the West Virginia Autism Training Centre, an autism Program Specialist for the Spectrum Centre for Educational and Behavioural Development in Berkeley, California, Head Teacher for Morningside Academy, a private school for children with learning differences, and later as the Lead Trainer in Morningside's Public School Improvement Project.
He currently serves as Clinical Services Director Families for Effective Autism Treatment (FEAT) of Washington and is a full partner and Clinical Services Supervisor of The Organization for Research and Learning.
Louise Gallagher (Dublin, in 2008)
Dr. Louise Gallagher (MB MRCPsych PhD) is a Clinical Senior Lecturer in Psychiatry in Trinity College Dublin and a Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with the HSE/ National Children’s Hospital, Tallaght. She completed her medical training in University College Dublin in 1994 and trained in Psychiatry in the Dublin University Training Scheme at St. Patrick’s and St. James’s Hospital.
Following the award of a Wellcome Trust Mental Health Training Fellowship, she completed her PhD on autism genetics in the Department of Psychiatry, Trinity College and subsequently completed Higher Specialist Training in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. During the course of her PhD she established a research group in Autism Genetics and this group is actively involved in the investigation of genetic vulnerability factors contributing to autism. The group is part of a large international collaboration of autism researchers, the Autism Genome Project (AGP) and Dr. Gallagher is one of the Senior Investigators of this research program. She is the principal investigator of The Autism Simplex Collection (TASC), which is an international collaborative effort to establish a repository of autism trios in association with Autism Speaks, AGRE and the NIMH.
Dr. Gallagher has a busy clinical practice involving an autism spectrum disorders pre-school assessment service in the National Children’s Hospital and a community based Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service in Clondalkin.
Peter Gerhardt (USA, in 2006, 2007 and 2008)
Dr. Peter Gerhardt, Ed.D, is President of the Organization for Autism Research, based in Washington DC. Dr. Gerhardt has over 25 years experience working with adolescents and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders in educational, employment, and community based settings.
He is the author or co-author of articles and book chapters on the needs of adults with autism spectrum disorder, the school-to-work-transition process and analysis and intervention of problematic behavior. He has presented nationally and internationally on these topics. Dr. Gerhardt received his doctorate from the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education.
Joanne Gerenser (USA, in 2007 and 2008)
Joanne Gerenser is the Executive Director of the Eden II Programs in Staten Island, New York. She received her Ph.D. in Speech and Hearing Science at the City University of New York Graduate Centre. She is an adjunct Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College as well as Penn State University.
Joanne is a member of the Scientific Advisory Council for the Organization for Autism Research. She is on the boards of the Partnership for Autism Education, the Interagency Council for Mental Retardation and the New York State Association for Behaviour Analysis. Joanne is co-author of the interactive CD-ROM entitled “Behavioural Programming for Children with Autism”.In addition, she has authored several book chapters and articles on autism and developmental disabilities.
She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Applied Behaviour Analysis. She sits on a number of Professional Advisory Boards for several programs serving children and adults with autism in the US and abroad. She has received numerous awards for her work with children and adults with autism, including the Nassau Suffolk Autism Lifetime Achievement Award, the Mosaic Foundation’s Educator of Excellence Award, and the Lou Miller Business Leadership Award.
Ken Kerr (Ireland, in 2007)
Dr Ken P. Kerr is Director of Developing Ability in Partnership, a cooperative of leading behavioural practitioners working with children and adults with Autism and Intellectual Disability. He has extensive experience in supporting individuals with Autism and Intellectual Disability in school, community and residential settings. Prior to this appointment he has been Regional Services Manager for Children’s Autism Service in Co Mayo, Senior Psychologist/Acting Principal Psychologist in Co Mayo, Director of Saplings School in Kildare and Director of Training of PEAT in Northern Ireland. He has been involved with training parents and supervising home-based educational programmes for many years. His main research interests include ABA, Precision Teaching, Early Intervention for children with autism and positive behaviour support. He has published widely on ABA and related topics in national and international journals and has co-edited two books on educational supports for children with autism.
Claire McDowell (Ireland, 2008)
Dr. Claire McDowell is a lecturer in Applied Behaviour Analysis with the School of Psychology, Coleraine. A former graduate of UUC, Claire completed her Ph.D. in Behaviour Analysis and Precision Teaching and indeed, her doctoral thesis was the first study into the efficacy of Precision Teaching conducted outside the USA.
She is widely published in this area. Prior to taking up the position with UUC, Claire was Director of the Saplings School for Children with Autism in South Dublin, and has over 10 years experience applying the principles of applied behaviour analysis (ABA) to working with children with disabilities. She was instrumental in the development of some of the first ABA schools in Ireland and has provided training and consultancy for numerous professional and parent led groups.
She has presented at national and international conferences and lectured on Behaviour Analysis and Precision teaching for several Universities. Claire is currently conducting research looking at the efficacy of Precision Teaching with children with autism and also researching effective interventions to deal with feeding problems in young children.
Bobby Newman (USA, in 2006, 2007 and 2008)
Dr. Bobby Newman is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and licensed psychologist. He is the Past President of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment and the New York State Association for Behavior Analysis. Affectionately known as the Dark Overlord of ABA, his past books have included:
- When Everybody Cares: Case Studies of ABA with People with Autism
- Words from those who Care
- Graduated Applied Behavior Analysis
- Behaviorask
- Behaviorspeak
- No Virtue in Accident
- The Reluctant Alliance
He has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed professional journals. Bobby is on the faculty of the psychology department of Queens College, CUNY and, in his role as director of Room to Grow, provides regular clinical services and staff training all over the world.
Dr. Newman has been honoured for his work with individuals diagnosed with autistic-spectrum disorders by several parents’ and professionals’ groups, including having an award named for him by one parents’ group. Bobby has hosted a regular radio call-in program and has appeared in numerous television programs and training films.
Gary Pace (USA, in 2008)
Gary Pace, Ph.D., has been actively involved in the research and treatment of brain injury and neurological diseases in children, adolescents and adults for more than 20 years. As Clinical Director for the May Center for Education and Neurorehabilitation and Senior Vice President of Neurorehabilitation Services for the May Institute, Dr. Pace oversees the May Institute's brain injury program and is responsible for the supervision and training of pre- and post-doctoral interns. In addition, he conducts, supervises, and disseminates advanced research on treatment for children and adolescents with brain injuries. Dr. Pace completed his post-doctoral fellowship at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics. Prior to joining the May Institute, he was the Program Director and Director of Outpatient Services at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. A member of the National Brain Injury Association, the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts, and the Association for Applied Behavior Analysis, Dr. Pace frequently presents his work at national conferences. A past member of the editorial board for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Dr. Pace has published in many leading professional journals, including Brain Injury Source, Journal of Head Injury Rehabilitation, and the American Journal of Psychology.
Juliet Quinlan (Ireland, 2008)
Juliet Quinlan has worked in the field of Applied Behaviour Analysis with children with ASD diagnoses since 2001. Upon completing a BA(Hons) in Applied Psychology at University College Cork Juliet secured a job in the Cork CABAS School and from there transferred to Drogheda in early 2003.
Juliet completed her MA in Behaviour and Cognitive Therapies at NUI Maynooth in 2005 and achieved Board Certified Behaviour Analyst accreditation in 2006. Juliet was appointed Director of Education of Drogheda ABACAS in September 2007 and currently works with 21 children and adolescents with autism aged 2 1/2 – 14 years old.
Simon Wallace (UK, in 2008)
Dr Simon Wallace studied psychology at the University of London before completing his PhD at the Institute of Psychiatry, London. For a number of years Dr Wallace worked as a psychologist on the International Molecular Genetics Study of Autism Consortium, assessing children in the UK using standardised diagnostic assessments. His PhD research focused on how adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) perceive and identify faces, engage in eye contact and recognise facial expressions. For his post-doctoral research studies at the University of Oxford he used a neuroimaging technique called magnetoencephalography to investigate the neural responses of children with ASD whilst looking at pictures of faces. Dr Wallace has recently left academic research to take a post as Autism Speaks' Director of Scientific Development – Europe.
Draft 16/03/2010. Details are based on the time of most recent participation.