Connie Kasari, PhD

Connie Kasari, Ph.D. University of California, Los Angeles, Distinguished Professor of Human Development & Psychology in the School of Education with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry.  She received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has been on the faculty at UCLA where she teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses and has been the primary advisor to more than 90 PhD students.  She is a founding member of the Center for Autism Research and Treatment at UCLA. Her research aims to development novel, evidence-tested interventions implemented in community settings.  Recent projects include targeted treatments for early social communication development in at risk infants, toddlers and preschoolers with autism, and peer relationships for school aged children with autism. She leads several large multi-site studies including a network on interventions for minimally verbal school aged children with ASD, and a network that aims to increase equity in access to interventions for children with ASD who are under-represented in research trials.  She is the current past-president of the International Society of Autism Research.

Stephanie Shire, PhD

Stephanie Shire is an Associate Professor of Early Intervention & Early Childhood Special Education in the Department of Special Education and Clinical Sciences in the College of Education at the University of Oregon. Her research focuses on the development and testing of interventions in real-world community settings in partnership with schools, practitioners, and families of young children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. This work includes effectiveness-implementation hybrid designs (e.g., Shire et al., 2017) to examine both the development of implementation strategies to support community practitioners’ use of the intervention as well as maximize children’s social, communicative, and cognitive outcomes. With the goal to personalize interventions to the strengths and needs of individual children, current projects include the application of research trial designs and methods to build and test adaptive interventions.

Facilitated by Kate Chase, PhD, SLP, BCBA

Dr. Kate Ballem Chase is a registered Speech-Language Pathologist and a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst. She is a certified therapist in both JASPER and the Early Start Denver Model. She is also the proud mom of a neurodiverse daughter. After pursuing undergraduate studies at the University of Victoria, Kate studied at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, where she completed her doctorate in Experimental Psychology in 2004, with a focus on early language and cognitive development. After returning from Oxford, Kate completed her clinical training as a speech-language pathologist at the University of British Columbia in 2006. Kate worked briefly at the BC Centre for Ability before joining Loyst and Associates Autism Services, where she led the team in the Richmond area from 2007-2013. Kate is also a Clinical Assistant Professor in the School of Audiology and Speech Science at the University of British Columbia. When she isn’t playing with clients and their parents, Kate can be found playing outside with her husband, two children, and their dog! Executive Functioning – you will find many free resources.