Barbara Coyne Cutler, Ed.D., got her advocacy training the hard way. Divorced and with two small children to raise, she began to search out services for her son with autism. It took her almost 10 years to realize that being a patient, no-trouble-at-all parent was not the way to get attention or services. She learned painfully through her personal experience ... Read morethat a parent has to become vocal, visible, knowledgeable, and relentless in order to become an effective advocate. As a parent of a now middle-age son in continuing need of services, Dr. Cutler has been through the system in the dark days when her small son seemed to have no rights at all through the early days of the educational rights movement and later into the adult service system. From a once quiet and compliant parent she has become a leading advocate for people with disabilities and their families. Aware of deficiencies in systems serving people with disabilities, Dr. Cutler worked on her own professional development, acquiring bachelors and master's degrees from Harvard (where she was also a Merrill Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute) and a doctorate in special education from Boston University. Dr. Cutler has directed educational, supported works and community resource programs, including the Autism National Committee (http: //www.autcom.org), which she serves on now; facilitated the development of a model respite care program; trained parents and professionals in positive behavior support programs; and provided individual consultation in various states to public schools dealing with the needs of students with autism and developmental disabilities. In her more than 30 years of service, she has continued to advocate as a member of boards of service, state, and advocacy organizations including her local Commission on Disability and Regional Developmental Disabilities Council. She has presented throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Canada. She has published chapters in various disability-related books and newsletters. Looking back, she realizes that because of her son's disability, her career was chosen for her. I've made my personal and career decisions by dealing with the crises that parents of children with disabilities learn to expect as part of their daily routine. It's a life that's sometimes harrowing, sometimes rewarding--but never, never dull. I have never regretted my decisions. Without strong parent advocates, our sons and daughters could be overlooked and poorly served. Dr. Cutler lives next door to her son, George, and his wife, Sherrie, and across the street from her son, Robert. The family is often together on weekends and is always available to support each other. Glen Dunlap, Ph.D., Research Professor, Division of Applied Research and Educational Support (DARES), Department of Child & Family Studies, Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33612-3899 Dr. Dunlap is a research professor at the University of South Florida, where he works on several research, training, and demonstration projects in the areas of positive behavior support, child protection, early intervention, developmental disabilities, and family support. He has been involved with individuals with disabilities for more than 35 years and has served as a teacher, administrator, researcher, and university faculty member. Dr. Dunlap has directed numerous research and training projects and has been awarded dozens of federal and state grants to pursue this work. He has authored more than 185 articles and book chapters, coedited four books, and served on 15 editorial boards. Dr. Dunlap was a founding editor of the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions and is the current editor of Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. He moved to Reno, Nevada, in 2005, where he continues to work on research and training projects as a member of the faculty at the University of South Florida. Karen A. Erickson, Ph.D., David E. and Dolores J. Yoder Distinguished Professor, Director, Center for Literacy and Disability Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 321 S. Columbia Street, Suite 1100 Bondurant Hall, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599 Karen A. Erickson is Yoder Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A former teacher of children with significant disabilities, Dr. Erickson's current research addresses literacy and communication assessment and intervention for students with a range of disabilities, including significant disabilities. Dr. Erickson is codeveloper of the Tar Heel Reader online library of accessible books for beginning readers as well as several other assistive, learning, and communication technologies. Dr. Lise Fox is a professor in the Department of Child and Family Studies of the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida and the Co-Director of Florida Center for Inclusive Communities: A University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (www.flcic.org ). Lise was the Principal Investigator of the Technical Assistance Center for Social Emotional Intervention (www.challengingbehavior.org) funded by the Office of Special Education Programs. Dr. Fox is engaged in research and training efforts related to the implementation of the Pyramid Model in early education and care classrooms, program-wide models of implementation, and positive behavior support. She received the Mary E. McEvoy Service to the Field Award from the Division for Early Childhood. Dr. Mirenda earned her doctorate in behavioral disabilities from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For 8 years, she was a faculty member in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. From 1992 to 1996, she provided a variety of training, research, and support services to individuals with severe disabilities through CBI Consultants, Ltd., in Vancouver, British Columbia. She is now Professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology and Special Education at the University of British Columbia. From 1998 to 2001, she was editor of the journal Augmentative and Alternative Communication. In 2004, she was named a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and was awarded the Killam Teaching Prize at the University of British Columbia. In 2008, she was named a Fellow of the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication. Dr. Mirenda is the author of numerous book chapters and research publications; she lectures widely and teaches courses on augmentative and alternative communication, inclusive education, developmental disabilities, autism, and positive behavior support. Her current research focuses on describing the developmental trajectories of young children with autism and factors that predict the outcomes of early intervention. Sally J. Rogers, Ph.D. Professor of Psychiatry, MIND Institute University of California Davis Medical Center Sacramento, California Dr. Rydell has been in the field of autism and communication disorders for more than 24 years in public school, hospital, university, administration, and private practice settings. Dr. Rydell is the owner and director of Rocky Mountain Autism Center, a private center dedicated solely to working with children with autism spectrum disorders and their families. The center provides comprehensive center-, community-, and home-based assessments, programs, interventions, and training to individuals with autism, their families, and professionals. Dr. Rydell earned his doctoral and master's degrees in the field of communication disorders and special education, with a primary program emphasis in autism and early childhood education. Dr. Rydell is a Fulbright Senior Specialist grant recipient (2005) and has previously co-authored five book chapters and numerous research articles on autism and unconventional verbal behaviors. In addition, he frequently speaks at international, national, and state levels on topics related to autism. G. Gordon Williamson, Ph.D., is an occupational therapist and special educator who directs two projects at the Pediatric Rehabilitation Department of the John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison, New Jersey, an interdisciplinary department that he originally founded and developed. The COPING Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, offers training and technical assistance to support the provision of family-centered early intervention services that enhance adaptive functioning. The Social Competence Project, previously funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a model demonstration program to foster the interpersonal skills of children with disabilities. Dr. Williamson is also Associate Clinical Professor of Occupational Therapy in the Rehabilitation Medicine Department at Columbia University in New York. He is a member of the board of directors of Zero to Three/National Center for Clinical Infant Programs and the Academy of Research of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation. Previously he chaired the Parental and Child Health Advisory Committee of the New Jersey Department of Health and served as treasurer of the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. Dr. Williamson is on the editorial board of numerous professional journals and has lectured extensively throughout the United States South America, and the Middle East. Recent publications include the Early Coping Inventory, Children with Spina Bifida: Early Intervention and Preschool Programming, and many articles related to human adaptation. His research focuses on the study of the coping resources of children and their families. Amy M. Wetherby, Ph.D., is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Communication Disorders at Florida State University. She received her doctorate from the University of California-San Francisco/Santa Barbara in 1982. She has had more than 20 years of clinical experience in the design and implementation of communication programs for children with autism and severe communication impairments and is an American Speech-Language-Hearing Association fellow. Dr. Wetherby's research has focused on communicative and social-cognitive aspects of language difficulties in children with autism and, more recently, on the early identification of children with communicative impairments. She has published extensively on these topics and presents regularly at national conventions. She is a co-author of the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales (with Barry M. Prizant [Applied Symbolix, 1993]). She is the Executive Director of the Florida State University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities and is Project Director of U.S. Department of Education Model Demonstration Grant No. H324M980173 on early identification of communication disorders in infants and toddlers and Personnel Preparation Training Grant No. H029A10066 specializing in autism. Barry M. Prizant, Ph.D., has more than 25 years experience as a clinical scholar, researcher, and consultant to young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and related communication disabilities and their families. He is an American Speech-Language-Hearing Association fellow and is a member of the Interdisciplinary Council on Developmental and Learning Disabilities. Formerly, he was Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Brown University Program in Medicine, Professor in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders at Emerson College, and Advanced Post-Doctoral Fellow in Early Intervention at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has developed family-centered programs for newly diagnosed toddlers with ASD and their families in hospital and university clinic environments. He has been an invited presenter at two State of the Science Conferences on ASD at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and has contributed to the NIH Clinical Practice Guidelines for early identification and diagnosis of ASD. Dr. Prizant's current research and clinical interests include identification and family-centered treatment of infants, toddlers, and young children who have or are at risk for sociocommunicative difficulties, including ASD. Show Less