EXEMPLARY ADVICE

Dr. Catherine Lord is a Distinguished Professor-in-Residence at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a Senior Research Scientist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. Dr. Lord is a practicing clinical psychologist with specialties in autism diagnosis and interventions, as well as social and communication development for individuals with autism. She earned her BA in Psychology from UCLA in 1971 and her PhD from Harvard University in 1976.

Dr. Lord has over 300 journal publications, and her longitudinal studies of social and communicative development in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have profoundly impacted autism research.

In collaboration with colleagues from the United Kingdom and the United States, she developed standardized diagnostic instruments for ASD. She created the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview — Revised (ADI-R), which are now used for research diagnoses all over the world. Dr. Lord was honored with the 2019 International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding commitment to autism research. Dr. Lord is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Association of Arts and Sciences, as well as a former chair of a National Academy of Sciences committee on the effectiveness of early intervention in ASD, a co-chair of the New York Board of Health committee on ASD, and a member of the DSM 5 American Psychiatry Association’s neurodevelopmental disorders committee. Her research has been funded by NIH, Autism Speaks, and the Simons Foundation.

Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky was the former Chief Medical Officer of the US Medicaid program. He is the Managing Partner at Social Innovation Ventures where he invests in and advises companies and nonprofits dedicated to eliminating disparities in care delivery. He also advises federal and state regulators on how to incorporate human centered design into policy making. 

Dr. Ostrovsky’s experience spans clinical care delivery, health system design, policymaking, health technology, as well as clinical operations. He worked on the front line of the opioid use disorder crisis operating a series of methadone clinics in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to that,  he served as the Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, the nation’s largest health insurer, where he advocated to protect the program against several legislative efforts to significantly dismantle the program. He also led efforts to streamline Medicaid and make it more customer-centric. Before leading the Medicaid program, he co-founded the software company, Care at Hand, an evidence-based predictive analytics platform that used insights of non-medical staff to prevent aging people from being hospitalized. Care at Hand was acquired in 2016 by Mindoula Health. And prior to that, Dr. Ostrovsky led teams at the World Health Organization, United States Senate, and San Francisco Health Department to strengthen our health system. 

Dr. Ostrovsky holds a Medical Doctorate and undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Psychology Magna cum Laude from Boston University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Andrey completed his pediatrics residency training in the Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital where he was a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. He is currently teaching faculty and attending physician at Children’s National Medical Center.

Dr. Janet S. Twyman is the founder and Chief Learning Scientist at blast: A Learning Sciences Company and also holds a faculty appointment as Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Twyman earned her PhD at Columbia University.

Throughout her career as a preschool and elementary teacher; a school principal and administrator; a university professor; an instructional designer; and an educational consultant, Dr. Twyman has been a proponent of effective learning technologies that produce individual and system change. She has published and presented widely on instructional design, evidence-based innovations in education, and systems that produce meaningful differences in learners’ lives. In honor of her distinguished contributions to educational research and practice Dr. Twyman has received the 2015 Wing Award for Evidence-based Education and the 2017 American Psychological Association Division 25 Fred S. Keller Behavioral Education Award.

A sought-after speaker nationally and internationally, Dr. Twyman has presented on leveraging new technologies for diverse learners and settings at the United Nations. She has served on the boards of organizations including the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies and PEER International. In 2007-08 she served as President of the Association for Behavior Analysis International and in 2014 was named an ABAI Fellow. Formerly, she served as the Vice President of Instructional Development, Research, & Implementation at Headsprout and the Director of Innovation & Technology for the U.S. Dept. of Education funded Center on Innovations in Learning.

Dr. Fred R. Volkmar divides his time between two academic roles: He is the Goodwin Endowed chair of Special Education at Southern Connecticut State University and the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology at the Yale University Child Study Center. He has served as Director of the Child Study Center and as Chief of Child Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, CT. Dr. Volkmar earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Illinois in 1972 and earned his Master’s degree in psychology and his MD from Stanford University in 1976.

Dr. Volkmar was the primary author of the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV autism and pervasive developmental disorders section. He is the author of several hundred scientific papers and chapters, as well as a number of books, including Asperger’s Syndrome (Guilford Press), Health Care for Children on the Autism Spectrum (Woodbine Publishing), the Handbook of Autism (Wiley Publishing) and the 3rd edition of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (Cambridge University press). He is currently the Editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and the Encyclopedia of Autism. He has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and the American Journal of Psychiatry.

He has served as co-chairperson of the autism/intellectual disabilities committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Volkmar has been the principal investigator of three program project grants, including a CPEA (Collaborative Program of Excellence in Autism) grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and a STAART (Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment) Autism Center Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.