NCLD's Professional Advisory Board (PAB) includes leading educators, psychologists, researchers, physicians and advocates. The PAB guides NCLD program activity and advises the staff and Board of Directors on educational needs, program opportunities, public policy development and strategic planning. NCLD convenes the PAB annually and consults members on an ongoing basis.

Honorary Professional Advisory Board Members:

Stevan Kukic, Ph.D.
Sopris West Educational Services
Longmont, Colorado

Mark J. Griffin, Ph.D.
Eagle Hill School
Greenwich, Connecticut

Betty Osman, Ph.D.
White Plains Hospital Medical Center
White Plains, New York

Deshler and his colleagues at the CRL have designed and validated the Strategic Instruction Model^TM (SIM), a comprehensive approach to adolescent literacy that addresses the needs of students to be able to read and understand large volumes of complex reading materials as well as to be able to express themselves effectively in writing. SIM encompasses an array of academic and social strategies to help students accomplish these goals.

Through CRL's International Professional Development Network, more than 400,000 educators have learned how to use different components of SIM. Several states have implemented SIM in their classrooms statewide. Deshler and his colleagues have also developed a school-wide reform framework for secondary schools called the Content Literacy Continuum. This framework outlines important, but unique, roles for every teacher in middle and high schools to play in raising the literacy levels of all students. It also indicates that instruction needs to take into account the fact that some struggling adolescent learners require more intensive instruction of content, strategies, and skills.

Deshler’s most recent text, Teaching Content to All: Evidence-Based Inclusive Practices in Middle and Secondary Schools, details several of the instructional practices validated through CRL research. He has served as editor of several top journals in the field, and is currently the member of several journal publication boards and serves on a number of policy and advisory boards and boards of directors related to adolescent literacy and learning disabilities.

Deshler is the recipient of the J.E. Wallace Wallin Award from the Council for Exceptional Children and the Learning Disabilities Association Award from the Learning Disabilities Association of America for outstanding research and service for at-risk populations. He has been named a Distinguished Faculty Fellow in the National Institute on Leadership, Disability, and Students Placed at Risk, University of Vermont.

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Daniel B. Berch, Ph.D.
Dr. Berch is Associate Chief of the Child Development and Behavior Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), where he also directs the Program in Mathematics and Science Cognition and Learning -- Development and Disorders. He is a cognitive and developmental psychologist who received his Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the University of Michigan, his Master's degree in Special Education from Michigan State University, and his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of New Mexico.

Dr. Berch spent the preponderance of his academic career at the University of Cincinnati in the Department of Psychology, and as Research Coordinator at the University Affiliated Cincinnati Center for Developmental Disorders. He has written articles and book chapters on numerical cognition, mathematical learning disabilities, sustained attention, and cognitive processing dysfunctions in individuals with Turner syndrome. Coming to the Washington, D.C. area in 1997, Dr. Berch initially served as an SRCD/AAAS Executive Branch Science Policy Fellow at NICHD. He was subsequently appointed Senior Research Associate at the U. S. Department of Education, where he advised the Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement on technical and policy matters pertaining to educational research. In 2002, he returned to NICHD, taking on the responsibility of developing a major funding initiative in the area of mathematical learning disabilities.

A recently elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association's Division of Experimental Psychology, Dr. Berch also received the honor of being appointed by the Secretary of Education to serve as an ex officio member of the U.S. Department of Education's National Mathematics Advisory Panel, which will advise the administration on the best use of scientifically based research to advance the teaching and learning of mathematics. His most recent contribution to the field of learning disabilities is a multidisciplinary book on math LD for which he is the senior editor (co-edited by Dr. Michele Mazzocco), entitled "Why is math so hard for some children? The nature and origins of mathematical learning difficulties and disabilities" (Paul H. Brookes Publishing Company, 2007).

Jose Blackorby, Ph.D.
Dr. Jose Blackorby, Program Manager for the Disability Policy Program and Associate Director in the Center for Education and Human Services, brings 15 years of experience in conducting and managing large-scale, multifaceted studies with research, policy, and practice implications. He has been author or co-author of SRI reports and journal articles that have been an important source of information for the development of state and federal policy regarding special education, education reform and innovation, charter schools, and human services coordination.

Dr. Blackorby is co-director of the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study (SEELS) and is on the research team for the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2). A key contribution to these studies is his design and oversight of the direct assessments of students' abilities in reading and mathematics and, for secondary school students, content knowledge in science and social studies. He coordinated the efforts of an advisory group of nationally known assessment and disability experts in developing and field testing the direct assessment instruments, an alternative assessment, and a process for determining and meeting students' needs for accommodations.

Previously, Dr. Blackorby was an analyst for the National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) and authored important products related to student secondary school performance and postschool success. He also was co-director of SRI's Study of School-linked Services for Children with Disabilities and Their Families and served as director of the Study of Persons with Disabilities Majoring in Science, Engineering, Mathematics, and Technology, for the National Science Foundation, which provided information regarding the characteristics of this population and their educational and career plans, as well as an analysis of formal and informal barriers to participation in science fields.

In addition to research in special education, Dr. Blackorby has considerable experience in projects related to emerging trends in education reform and innovation generally, as well as their potential for students with disabilities. For example, he was a key staff member for a U.S. Department of Education-funded collaboration between Westat and SRI regarding disability issues relating to charter schools. Dr. Blackorby also led an investigation of the consequences for learning and school system finances of using specialized training software for students with language impairments.

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Margarita Calderón, Ph.D.
Dr. Margarita Calderón, a native of Juárez, Mexico is a Senior Research Scientist and Professor at the Johns Hopkins University' School of Education. She serves on the National Research Council's Committee on Teacher Preparation, the National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth, the Carnegie Adolescent ELL Literacy Panel, the IRA ELL Literacy Panel, and the California Pre-School Literacy Panel.

She is principal investigator in a 5-year study in middle and high schools called: Expediting Reading Comprehension for English Language Learners (ExC-ELL), that focuses on professional development of science, social studies, and language arts teachers of ELLs in New York City Schools funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

She developed and tested in a 5-year experimental study the program called Bilingual Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (BCIRC), a K-5th dual language program, and The What Works Clearinghouse has recently included it as one of the best scientifically tested models of dual language instruction and for transition into English literacy.

She is Co-PI with Robert Slavin on the 5-year randomized evaluation of English immersion, transitional, and two-way bilingual programs funded by the U. S. Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences.

She collaborates with the Center for Applied Linguistics on transition from Spanish into English reading studies. Her latest publication is Teaching Reading to English Language Learners, Grades 6-12: A Framework for Improving Achievement in the Content Areas. She has published over 100 articles, chapters, books and teacher training manuals.

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Candace Cortiella
Candace Cortiella has been involved in the fields of learning disabilities and special education since 1989. She has trained hundreds of parents in their rights and responsibilities within special education, founding and directing a three-person consulting firm providing training and advocacy services for families of students with disabilities from 1994 to 1996.

From 1994 to 1995 Candace also worked as a government affairs associate for the National Center for Learning Disabilities, advocating for sound public policy on behalf of children and adults with learning disabilities. She directed LD OnLine, an award winning Web site providing information and resources on learning disabilities, from 1996 to 2000.

Candace served on Virginia's State Special Education Advisory Committee from 1996 to 2000. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Virginia's Legal Advocacy Center (LAC), a non-profit established in 1999 dedicated to improving educational services and outcomes for students with disabilities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. She also serves on the board of directors of The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, the professional advisory boards of the National Center for Learning Disabilities and Smart Kids with LD.

In 2000, Candace founded The Advocacy Institute, a non-profit organization that develops services and products to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities.

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Lindy Crawford, Ph.D.
Lindy Crawford, Ph.D., is an assistant professor and department chair in the Department of Special Education at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Dr. Crawford has received over one million dollars in grant money to conduct applied research in two areas: (1) effective pedagogy for English language learners, and (2) educational assessment of students with and without disabilities. She has received funding from the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the National Academy of Education, and the Colorado Department of Education to lead various research projects. Dr. Crawford has published results of research studies in various journals; her most recent publications appearing in the Journal of Special Education, Remedial and Special Education, Journal of Learning Disabilities, and the Bilingual Research Journal. Currently, Dr. Crawford is leading a multi-state research study on the effectiveness of an online mathematics program for middle school English language learners, and analyzing results of a statewide student assessment of writing.

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Judy Elliott, Ph.D.
Dr. Elliott is the Chief Academic Officer for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Some of Dr. Elliott's many interests include effective instruction for students with diverse learning and behavior needs, IEP development and its alignment with standards and assessments, decision-making for accountability, and accommodation and assessment of special populations.

She has trained thousands of staff, teachers, and administrators in the United States and abroad, in the areas of inclusive schooling that include: linking assessment to classroom intervention, strategies and tactics for effective instruction, curriculum adaptation for students with mild to severe disabilities, and collaborative teaching. She received her degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo.  Her most recent writing efforts include: "Strategies and Tactics for Effective Instruction-II," Timesavers for Educators," "Testing  Students with Disabilities: Practical Strategies for Complying with State and District Requirements (2nd ed)," "Improving Test Performance of Students with Disabilities on District and State Assessments (2nd ed.)," and "Response To Intervention: Policy Consideration and Implementation," "Response to Intervention Blueprints:  District Level (NASDSE, 2008)."

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Lynn S. Fuchs, Ph.D.
Lynn Fuchs is the Nicholas Hobbs Professor of Special Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt University, where she also co-directs the Kennedy Center Reading Clinic. She has conducted programmatic research on assessment methods for enhancing instructional planning and on instructional methods for improving reading and math outcomes for students with learning disabilities. Dr. Fuchs has published more than 200 empirical studies in peer-review journals. She sits on the editorial boards of 10 journals including the Journal of Educational Psychology, Scientific Studies of Reading, Elementary School Journal, Journal of Learning Disabilities, and Exceptional Children. She been identified by Thompson ISI as one of 250 "most highly cited" researchers in the social sciences, and has received a variety of awards to acknowledge her research accomplishments that have enhanced reading and math outcomes for children with and without disabilities. Her awards include the Council for Exceptional Children's Career Research Award; Vanderbilt University's Joe B. Wyatt Distinguished University Professor; Vanderbilt's Earl Sutherland Award for Research Accomplishments; the American Education Research Association's Distinguished Researcher Award from the Special Education Research SIG; the 2001 Article of the Year Award for best article in the 2000 volume year in School Psychology Review; the 2000 Council for Exceptional Children/Division of Learning Disabilities Samuel A. Kirk Award for the exemplary practice article from the 1998 volume of Learning Disabilities Research and Practice; the 2000 Alumni Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award, awarded by the Peabody Alumni Board of Vanderbilt University; the 1998 American Educational Research Association's Palmer O. Johnson Award for the outstanding article appearing in an AERA-sponsored journal for the 1997 volume year; the 1998: Mayor's Educator of the Year Award (Nashville, TN); the 1997 Learned Article Award from the Educational Press Association; and the 1996 School Psychology Quarterly/American Psychological Association Division 16 Fellows Award for Best Articles.

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Ed Greene, Ph.D.
Ed Greene is an early childhood professional with 30 years of experience in the field. He completed his undergraduate degree in music at the DePauw University School of Music; his M.A. in Child and Human Development at Pacific Oaks College, and his Ph.D. in Child Development and Early Learning at Indiana State University. Ed has worked with infants, preschool children, and adults, and has served in a variety of capacities in governmental and non-governmental settings, including: The Detroit Free School; the Children's School of Pacific Oaks College, Head Start-Staff Development; The Discovery Channel's "Ready, Set, Learn;" High/Scope Educational Research Foundation and demonstration preschool; The National Association for the Education of Young Children-Information Services Director; The National Coalition for Children and Youth-Public Policy Internship Director; and Michigan Legislature-- Legislative/Administrative Aide

He has received appointments and served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Early Childhood, Elementary and Literacy Education, in the School of Education and Human Services, Montclair State University in New Jersey specializing in teacher preparation and early childhood program leadership; and as an Assistant Professor of early childhood education in the Graduate Program at Lehman College of the City University of New York. His experience also includes over four years of experience in the delivery of graduate level coursework as a member of the Pacific Oaks College Online faculty.

Ed has served as an elected member of the Governing Board of the National Association for the Education of Young Children, and currently serves on the boards of Jumpstart for Young Children, Educational Equity Concepts, and The Council for Professional Recognition. Prior to his recent work, from 1990-1997 Ed was the Director of Programs at the New York Center for Educational Programs, a foundation of the Milken Families based in Santa Monica, CA.

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Daniel P. Hallahan, Ph.D.
Daniel P. Hallahan received his B.A. in Psychology in 1967 and his Ph.D. in Education and Psychology in 1971 from the University of Michigan. He has been a member of the faculty of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia since 1971. He was chair of the Department of Special Education from 1980 to 1985 and was appointed chair of the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education in 1997. Hallahan was the inaugural occupant of the Virgil S. Ward Professor of Education Endowed Chair from 1996 to 1998 and was appointed to the university's Cavaliers' Distinguished Teaching Professorship from 2002 to 2004. He has held the Charles S. Robb Professorship since 2004. He received the University of Virginia Outstanding Teaching Award in 1998. In 2003, he was one of ten recipients of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia's Outstanding Faculty Award. He was the inaugural editor of Exceptionality from 1990 to 1992 and currently serves on the editorial boards of Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, Learning Disability Quarterly, The Journal of Special Education, and Exceptionality. Hallahan is a past president of the Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), and in 2000 he received the CEC Career Research Award.

Hallahan's primary research interests are in the areas of learning disabilities, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and the history of special education. Many of his early publications focused on the use of cognitive training procedures for students with learning disabilities. Many of his most recent publications have focused on educational placement issues in special education. He has been the principal or co-principal investigator on several federally funded research or doctoral level training projects, including the UVa Learning Disabilities Research Institute, one of five research institutes in learning disabilities. He is co-author of several books, including the widely used Hallahan & Kauffman (2003). Exceptional learners: Introduction to special education (10th ed). Boston: Allyn & Bacon and Hallahan, Lloyd, Kauffman, Weiss, & Martinez (2005). Learning disabilities: Foundations, characteristics, and effective teaching (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

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Connie Hawkins
Connie Hawkins is the Executive Director for the Exceptional Children's Assistance Center (ECAC). The ECAC is a federally funded Parent Training & Information Center providing a full set of services, at no charge, to families in North Carolina, and also houses a PIRC (Title 1 Parent Center). For over 20 years, Connie has served parents to provide information, training and resources, managing more than 40 full and part-time staff with offices throughout North Carolina. In 2004, Connie was honored by the Public Schools of North Carolina and received the Distinguished Service Award for making an outstanding contribution to the lives of students with disabilities. She serves as a national advisor to the National Center for Education Outcomes and has held numerous local, state and federal advisory positions. She is also the director of two Regional Centers for the OSEP Funded Technical Assistance Alliance for Parent Centers. Connie is the parent of an adult with learning disabilities.

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Bob Lichtenstein, Ph.D.
Bob Lichtenstein is the Director of the School Psychology Program at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology in Boston. A Nationally Certified School Psychologist and licensed psychologist, he received his doctorate in psychology and school psychology at the University of Minnesota. He has worked as a school psychologist in Minnesota, Delaware and Massachusetts; as coordinator of the School Psychology Program at the University of Delaware; as Director of Clinical Training at North Shore Children's Hospital in Salem, Massachusetts; and as Supervisor of Psychological Services for the New Haven Public Schools.

From 1994 to 2006, Bob worked for the Connecticut State Department of Education as the consultant for school psychology and school social work. In this capacity, he served as liaison to state professional associations, delivered professional development to school psychologists and other educators, provided technical assistance to educators and parents, and assisted with policy and program development. He represents the National Association of School Psychologists on the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities.

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Dane Linn
As director of the Education Division at the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices, Dane Linn oversees all education-related policy research, analysis, and resource development. He frequently provides consultation and tailored analysis to all of the nation’s governors on a host of issues including No Child Left Behind, early childhood, elementary and secondary, and postsecondary education. Recognized as a national expert in his field, Mr. Linn has authored numerous policy reports on issues ranging from school finance to teacher quality and school redesign to pay for performance. Recently, under the leadership of former Governor Mark Warner of Virginia, Mr. Linn spearheaded the division's national initiative on Redesigning the American High School. NGA's work will continue to assist governors on developing policies to increase the number of students who graduate from high school ready for postsecondary education and the workplace. Prior to his work at NGA, Mr. Linn worked at the West Virginia Department of Education where he was responsible for ensuring the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Before that, he served as legislative liaison to the House of Delegates. Mr. Linn's professional experience in education began as an elementary school principal and teacher. A graduate of Cabrini College, Mr. Linn received a master's degree from Marshall University Graduate College and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

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Margo A. Mastropieri, Ph.D.
Margo A. Mastropieri is a University Professor and Professor of Special Education in the College of Education and Human Development. She received her Ph.D. in Special Education from Arizona State University in 1983, her M.Ed. and B.A. degrees from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Before coming to George Mason, she worked at Utah State University and Purdue University in Indiana. Prior to working in higher education, Mastropieri was a high school teacher in Massachusetts, an elementary teacher in Arizona, and a Diagnostician at the Mt. Holyoke College Learning Disabilities Center.

Professor Mastropieri is interested in how students with disabilities learn in school and much of her research has focused on cognitive strategies designed to promote learning and retention of school-related information. She has also studied what happens during inclusive instruction with students with disabilities and suggested instructional strategies to facilitate inclusive efforts. Her publications include over 165 journal articles, 40 book chapters, and 25 co-authored or co-edited books. Book titles include: A Practical Guide for Teaching to Science to Students with Special Needs in Inclusive Settings (Pro-Ed), Teaching Students Ways to Remember: Strategies for Learning Mnemonically (Brookline), and The Inclusive Classroom: Strategies for Effective Teaching (Prentice Hall, 2004).

Mastropieri is the co-editor of Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities (Elsevier Sciences/JAI Press), a research annual. She served as co-editor of Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, the journal of the Division for Learning Disabilities of the Council for Exceptional Children from 1991 to 1997. She also serves as Chair of the Division for Learning Disabilities Research Committee and in that role coordinates the editing of the joint Division for Learning Disabilities and Division for Research Alerts that highlight effective practices for students with learning disabilities. She has served on the Editorial Boards of a number of professional journals, including Journal of Educational Psychology, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Educational Psychology Review, Exceptional Children, Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, Learning Disability Quarterly, The Teacher Educator, The Journal of Special Education, Remedial and Special Education, Exceptionality, and Behavioral Disorders.

One of Mastropieri's co-authored articles (with Tom Scruggs) received the Samuel Kirk Award for Research and Practice in Learning Disabilities, Outstanding Article published in Learning Disabilities Research & Practice from the Division for Learning Disabilities, Council for Exceptional Children in April, 2003. In 2006, Mastropieri and Scruggs were awarded the field of special education’s most prestigious research award, the Council for Exceptional Children Outstanding Research Award. In 2007 Mastropieri was awarded the distinguished University Professor title from George Mason University.

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Paul O'Neill, Esq.
Paul T. O'Neill is an attorney who focuses his practice and scholarship on education law. Currently, he is Senior Counsel & Senior Vice President of Edison Schools, headquartered in New York City, NY. Before joining Edision he was Of Counsel to Brustein & Manasevit, the Washington D.C.-based education law firm. For several years, Mr. O'Neill served as General Counsel of the Charter Schools Institute of the State University of New York, one of the leading charter authorizers in the nation, and was a founding board member of a charter school in New York City's South Bronx. He serves on the adjunct faculty of Teachers College, Columbia University, where he teaches education and special education law. Mr. O'Neill received a B.A. from Oberlin College, an M.Ed. in Educational Administration from Teachers College and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is a former Associate Director of the Newgrange School and Educational Outreach Center in New Jersey, which serves individuals with learning disabilities, and has been a litigator with the New York offices of both Dewey Ballantine LLP and Willkie Farr & Gallagher. Mr. O'Neill is the author of numerous scholarly publications, and lectures nationally on a wide range of education law topics.

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Diane R. Paul, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Dr. Diane R. Paul is the Director of Clinical Issues in Speech-Language Pathology for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Dr. Paul is responsible for providing professional consultation to speech-language pathologists, tracking speech-language pathology trends, developing professional information products, coordinating professional education programs, and assisting with the development of policy documents on speech-language pathology issues. Her work focuses on issues such as speech-language pathology practice in neonatal intensive care units, emergent literacy and early intervention, health literacy, early indicators of learning disabilities, communication wellness, the role of the speech-language pathologist with individuals with autism spectrum disorders, cognitive-communication disorders, mental retardation and developmental disabilities, and severe communication disabilities. She previously served as ASHA's Director of Consumer Information and helped write the Let's Talk newsletter, brochures, and other consumer materials. Prior employment included work as a clinical supervisor at the University of Maryland and as a clinical director at the National Children's Center and the National Institute of Dyslexia in Washington, DC. Dr. Paul's research has focused on communication interactions among preschool children at different developmental levels. Dr. Paul is the chair of the Committee on Speech and Language Learning Disabilities in Children for the Council for Exceptional Children's Division on Communicative Disabilities and Deafness. She serves as the DCDD representative to the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities.

Blanche Podhajski, Ph.D.
Dr. Blanche Podhajski is President and Founder of the Stern Center for Language and Learning. Established in 1983, the Stern Center is a non-profit organization that provides literacy services for children and adults, professional development opportunities for educators and medical professionals, and research on best literacy practices. Dr. Podhajski is also a Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

Dr. Podhajski received her doctoral degree in communication disorders, specializing in learning disabilities, from Northwestern University. She holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence in speech pathology from the American Speech and Hearing Association and has published and presented numerous papers in the areas of language and learning disabilities.

Dr. Podhajski is the co-author of the Sounds Abound Program: Teaching Phonological Awareness in the Classroom, a program based on current reading research that helps teachers build essential pre-literacy skills for their students. She created TIME for Teachers™, a Stern Center professional development initiative to bring information about current research-proven reading interventions to classroom teachers. In collaboration with Dr. Nancy Mather at the University of Arizona, TIME has evolved into TIME/RIME Online, a robust distance learning course for primary educators soon to be published by Paul H. Brookes in a stand-alone version for personnel preparation and professional development. She has published numerous papers and presented across the country on topics related to language and literacy. Most recently, she has coauthored Identification of Reading Difficulties and Best Referral Practices: A Guide for Future Physicians, a CD Rom course for medical students.

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Alexa Posny, Ph.D.
Dr. Alexa Posny became the Commissioner of Education with the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE), in June 2007. As Commissioner, Dr. Posny works with the Kansas State Board of Education and the KSDE in their commitment to help all students meet or exceed academic standards. This priority is at the heart of what the Department strives to accomplish by establishing the principles of intervening early, providing visionary leaders, ensuring caring and effective teachers, and designing a system to meet the needs of the 21st century.

In her prior position as the Director of the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) for the U.S. Department of Education, she provided leadership and fiscal resources to assist state and local efforts to educate children with disabilities to improve results and to ensure equal protection of the law. Additionally, her focus as OSEP Director was to promote: early learning opportunities including response to intervention; effective transition from secondary to post-secondary; positive parent partnerships; and the integration of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act.

Throughout her career, Dr. Posny has been heavily involved in program, policy and compliance issues at the district, state and federal levels. Most importantly, she has been a teacher at the elementary, middle and high school levels and remains a teacher today, serving as adjunct faculty with the University of Kansas. A major part of her leadership is to promote initiatives that increase the academic achievement of the well-over 450,000 students in Kansas schools.

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David P. Riley, Ph.D.
David P. Riley is Executive Director of the Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative, a national network of education administrators responsible for policy, procedural, and programmatic decision making affecting children and youth with disabilities in urban school districts. Initiated in the Spring of 1994 under the auspices of Education Development Center, in Newton, Massachusetts, more than 100 large, medium, and small urban school districts are now enrolled. The Collaborative is a national version of the Massachusetts Urban Project, a state-wide network that Dr. Riley founded in 1979 and that continues to provide leadership development and cross-district networking opportunities for urban special education leaders in that state.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Riley has served as an organizational and management consultant to local, state, and federal education agencies. In addition, Dr. Riley serves in a leadership position on several federally-funded initiatives including the National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities and the Education Policy Reform Research Institute. For more than ten years, Dr. Riley has also served as Educational Co-Chair of the Summer Institute on Critical Issues in Urban Special Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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David Rose, Ed.D.
In 1984, David Rose helped to found CAST with a vision of expanding opportunities for all students, especially those with disabilities, through the innovative development and application of new technologies, resulting in the development of the theory and practical framework of Universal Design for Learning.

Specializing in developmental neuropsychology and in the universal design of learning technologies, Dr. Rose lectures at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he has been on the faculty for twenty years. He has been the lead researcher on a number of U.S. Department of Education grants and is currently the principal investigator of two national centers created to develop and implement the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS).

Dr. Rose is the co-author with Anne Meyer of the books Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning (ASCD, 2002) and Learning to Read in the Computer Age (Brookline, 1998), and the author of numerous articles. Dr. Rose is also coeditor, with Anne Meyer and Chuck Hitchcock, of the book, The Universally Designed Classroom: Digital Technologies and Accessible Curriculum (Harvard Education Press, 2005). He is a frequent speaker at regional and national educational conferences.

An author of Scholastic's highly successful Literary Place and Wiggleworks®, Dr. Rose has worked as a consultant for Houghton-Mifflin, Scholastic, Tom Snyder Productions, EBSCO Publishing, Pearson, Sopris West, and other publishers. He has also testified before the U.S. Senate's Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services, and Education, and regularly advises state departments of education on policies related to the education of students with disabilities.

Dr. Rose holds a B.A. in psychology from Harvard College, a master's in teaching from Reed College, and a doctorate in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D.
Dr. Sally Shaywitz is professor of pediatrics and child study at the Yale University School of Medicine, where she co-directs the Yale Center for the Study of Learning and Attention. Her research interests include both the development of skilled reading and the study of disorders of reading and math in children, adolescents, and young adults. She uses functional imaging to understand brain mechanisms involved in reading and in dyslexia and to examine hormonal influences on cognition. She is also principal investigator of the Connecticut Longitudinal Study, an epidemiologic, longitudinal study of the development and outcome of 445 schoolchildren who have been monitored from kindergarten through young adulthood. She is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She received her medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Dr. Shaywitz is frequently cited in the popular press, and has been published in the New York Times Magazine and Scientific American, as well as in many professional journals. She is the author of a new title, Overcoming Dyslexia: A new and complete science-based program for reading problems at any level, released by Knopf in 2003.

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Martha Thurlow, Ph.D.
Martha Thurlow is Director of the National Center on Educational Outcomes. In this position, she addresses the implications of contemporary U.S. policy and practice for students with disabilities and English Language Learners, including national and statewide assessment policies and practices, standards-setting efforts, and graduation requirements. With a career that has spanned more than 30 years, Dr. Thurlow spent many of those years focused on students with learning disabilities, targeting both the assessment and instructional issues for these students in her research. Early childhood identification flowing into the K-12 school system, and student dropout as students moved through school rounded out a research portfolio devoted to the school careers of students.

During the past decade, Dr. Thurlow has been the principal investigator on more than 15 federal or state projects that have focused on the participation of students with special needs in large-scale accountability assessments. Particular emphasis has been given to how to obtain valid, reliable, and comparable measures of the knowledge and skills of these students while at the same time ensuring that the assessments are truly measuring their knowledge and skills rather than their disabilities or limited language when these are not the focus of the assessment. Studies have covered a range of topics, including participation decision making, accommodations, universal design, accessible reading assessments, computer-based testing, graduation exams, and alternate assessments. Dr. Thurlow has published extensively on these topics.

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Linda Wernikoff
Ms. Wernikoff has been involved in providing special education services to students with disabilities for over thirty three years with the NYC Department of Education. Beginning as a Teacher of Speech Improvement and then moving to the position of Deputy Director of the Office of Related and Contractual Services, Ms. Wernikoff presently serves as the Executive Director of the Office of Special Education Initiatives and is responsible for developing policies and capacity building to ensure the provision of high quality special education services to students with disabilities.

For the last seven years, Linda has been at the forefront of special education innovation in New York City. She has been instrumental in making jurisdictional changes that give building principals more flexibility in assigning special education staff and allow previously itinerant staff to become active participants in the mainstream school culture. Most notably, she was the project coordinator for the Department of Education's Continuum of Special Education Services, which re-emphasizes concepts of least restrictive environment and home-zone schooling so that students with disabilities can be surrounded and supported by their siblings and non-disabled peers in their neighborhood schools.

She continues to be a vocal advocate for the inclusion of students with disabilities in mainstream school culture with the ultimate goal of improved student outcomes for all students.

Stevan Kukic, Ph.D.
Dr. Kukic is currently Vice President of Strategic Education Initiatives at Sopris West Educational Services. As the former Director of At Risk and Special Services, Utah State Department of Education, his office provided supervision for all special education services delivered to students with disabilities throughout the state, including direct services to Students-at-Risk, Chapter 1, Migrant Education, Corrections and Youth in Custody, Homeless, Drug and Alcohol, and Vocational Special Needs. He worked for two years for the Franklin Covey Company as a senior consultant. He has served on many advisory and editorial boards, and is a Past President of the National Association of State Directors of Special Education. Dr. Kukic has presented more than 200 workshops and speeches in 49 states, Canada, and Europe, and has over two dozen publications. He was a participant at both NCLD's 1994 Summit on Learning Disabilities and the 1996 Summit on Teacher Preparation, has been a member of the PAB since 1992, and was chair of the PAB from 1998-2004. Dr. Kukic is currently a member of the Board of Directors for NCLD.

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Mark J. Griffin, Ph.D.
Dr. Griffin is Headmaster of Eagle Hill School, a residential and day school for children with language based learning disabilities located in Greenwich, Connecticut. He is a member of the Professional Advisory Board and Board of Directors of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, and the Board of Directors of the Learning Disabilities Association of America. Dr. Griffin maintains a small private practice as a psychologist treating children and adolescents. His research interests center around the development of social competence in children with learning disabilities and parenting issues. Dr. Griffin received his doctorate from Fordham University in Educational and Developmental Psychology.

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Betty Osman, Ph.D.
Dr. Osman, an authority of children with learning disabilities, is a psychologist on the staff of the White Plains Hospital Center, Department of Behavioral Health. She is the author of several books and a contributor of many journal articles, book chapters, and videos. Her books include Learning Disabilities and ADHD: A Family Guide to Living and Learning Together and No One To Play With, Social Problems of LD and ADD Children (revised). She is also the co-editor of Ritalin: Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition, and contributed a chapter, "Learning Disabilties and the Risk of Psychiatric Disorders" in the 2000 edition of the Review of Psychiatry (APA). She serves on many boards, including the Board of Directors of the Eagle Hill School. She formerly was on the Board of NCLD and chaired the PAB for several years. She also served a four year term on NICHD, an Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health.

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