Scientific Advisory Board

List of 6 items.

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  Dr. Marcia Barnes, Vanderbilt University

  Marcia Barnes, Ph.D. is a Professor of Special Education. She conducts research on the cognitive processes associated with difficulties in reading comprehension and mathematics in children with neurodevelopmental disorders and children at risk for or with learning disabilities. Her research has received federal funding from the Institute of Education Sciences and the National Institutes of Health. She is the author of many peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and co-author of a widely-used book on learning disability identification, assessment, and intervention. Her research papers have appeared in a variety of journals including Scientific Studies of Reading; Psychological Bulletin; Journal of Educational Psychology; Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness; Journal of Learning Disabilities; Journal of the International Neuropsychological Association; and Neuropsychology. 
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  Dr. Laurie Cutting, Vanderbilt University

  Dr. Laurie E. Cutting is the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Special Education, Psychology, Radiology and Pediatrics at Vanderbilt. She is also a Senior Scientist at Haskins Laboratories and a member of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute as well as the Center for Cognitive and Integrative Neuroscience at Vanderbilt University. She is the principal investigator of several NIH-funded research projects on reading and reading comprehension and a co-investigator on other NIH-funded and Department of Education-funded projects on reading, reading disabilities, and ADHD. She focuses on brain-behavior relations in children and adolescents, with a particular emphasis on reading disabilities, language and executive function. She has been a research scientist at Kennedy Krieger Institute and an Associate Professor of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and an Associate Professor of Education at Johns Hopkins University. During her doctoral work at Northwestern University, she completed internships at Yale University School of Medicine's Center for Learning and Attention and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. She has written and co-authored articles on reading, reading disabilities, other learning disorders and ADHD.
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  Dr. Elisabeth Dykens, Vanderbilt University

  Dr. Elisabeth Dykens is the Annette Eskind Chair and Director at the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and is Professor of Psychology, Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Vanderbilt. Dr. Dykens’ research examines psychopathology and areas of strength in persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, especially those with genetic syndromes. Her studies focus on the development and correlates of psychopathology and behavioral problems in Prader-Willi syndrome, Williams syndrome, and Down syndrome. These include marked obsessive-compulsive behaviors in Prader-Willi syndrome, heightened anxiety in Williams syndrome, and increased withdrawal and depression in Down syndrome. Dykens also examines profiles of neurocognitive and adaptive strengths and weaknesses in these disorders, and how these unusual profiles refine treatment and shed light on normal development.
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  Dr. Steve Graham, Arizona State University

  Dr. Steve Graham is the Warner Professor in the division of leadership and innovation in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. For more than 30 years, he has studied how writing develops, how to teach it effectively, and how writing can be used to support reading and learning. In recent years, he has been involved in the development and testing of digital tools for supporting writing and reading through a series of grants from the Institute of Educational Sciences and the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education. His research involves typically developing writers and students with special needs in both elementary and secondary schools, with much of occurring in classrooms in urban schools.  He is the former editor of the journals Exceptional Children, Contemporary Educational Psychology, Journal of Writing Research, Focus on Exceptional Children, and he is the current editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology. He is the co-author of the "Handbook of Writing Research," "Handbook of Learning Disabilities," "APA Handbook of Educational Psychology," "Writing Better," "Powerful Writing Strategies for all Students" and "Making the Writing Process Work." He is also the author of three influential Carnegie Corporation reports: Writing Next , Writing to Read , and Informing Writing.
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  Dr. Karen Harris, Arizona State University

  Dr. Karen R. Harris is a professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University. She has worked in the field of education for over 40 years, initially as a general education teacher and then as a special education teacher. Her research focuses on informing and improving theory, research and practice related to writing development among students with high incidence disabilities, students who struggle with writing, and normally achieving students. She developed the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) model of strategies instruction; SRSD has been most extensively researched in the area of writing, although researchers have also addressed applications in reading, math and homework. Former editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology, Dr. Harris was also senior editor of the American Psychological Association Educational Psychology Handbook (2012). She is the lead editor (along with Steve Graham) of the What Works for Special Needs Learners series published by Guilford Press. She is co-author or co-editor of 14 books and over 200 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and has served on editorial boards for journals in special education, educational psychology, and general education.
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  Dr. Jeanne Wanzek, Peabody College - Vanderbilt University

  Dr. Jeanne Wanzek is the Currey-Ingram Endowed Chair and professor in the Department of Special Education at Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University. She conducts research examining effective reading instruction and intervention. Her focus is on prevention and remediation for students with reading difficulties and disabilities. Prior to receiving her doctorate, she worked as a special educator and as an elementary teacher. She has a number of publications as well as national and international presentations in the areas of early reading, learning disability, response to intervention and adolescent reading intervention.