Presenters

Dr. Robin Brewer

Dr. Robin Brewer is an Associate Professor in the Division of Special Education at the University of Northern Colorado. She was formerly a Principal Consultant at the Colorado Department of Education, where she coordinated the Behavior Support Teams for the state of Colorado and the Colorado Autism Task Force.

Dr. Brewer teaches undergraduate and graduate level classes at the university, including a class on Strategies for Teaching Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. She has taught special and general education classes K-12 in Oklahoma and Colorado, and worked with adults with developmental disabilities in vocational and residential settings. She has presented at national conferences and throughout Colorado on autism, behavioral strategies, and accommodations for students in general education settings.

Dr. Brewer completed her Doctorate at the University of Northern Colorado focusing on behavioral support for students with multiple needs.

Tracy Mueller

Tracy Gershwin Mueller is an assistant professor in the School of Special Education. Her bachelors degree is in Inclusive Elementary and Special Education, masters degree in Special Education, Disabilities, and Risk Studies from the University of California, and an additional masters degree in Educational Curriculum and Instruction from Chapman University. Tracy's doctorate is in Special Education, Disabilities, and Risk Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Prior to receiveing her doctorate, she worked as a special education teacher in California and as a behavior analyst for children and adults who exhibited problem behaviors. Tracy's area of expertise includes working with students who have emotional and behavioral disorders, postive behavioral support, promoting the parent-school partnership, and special education law.

Areas of Specialization and Interests: Positive Behavioral Support; Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities; Curriculum and Instruction for students in inclusive settings; Conflict Prevention and Alternative Dispute Resolution; Special Education Law; Parent-School Collaboration.

Harvey Rude

Harvey Rude is Professor of Special Education and Director of the School of Special Education at the University of Northern Colorado. Dr. Rude coordinates the Special Education Leadership Program that prepares special education administrators. He is the Chairperson of the Navajo Nation Teacher Education Consortium based in Window Rock, Arizona. Dr. Rude's research interests include leadership/management effectiveness, multicultural education, systems of accountability, and systems change.

Areas of Specialization and Interests: Leadership/Management Effectiveness; Systems of Accountability; Multicultural Education; Systems Change, Program Evaluation; Professional Development.

Randi Hagerman

Professor Randi Hagerman is a Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician and the Medical Director of the M.I.N.D. Institute at UC Davis.  She is internationally recognized as both a clinician and researcher in the fragile X field and she is the director of the Fragile X Research and Treatment Center at the MIND Institute.  She sees many families affected by fragile X syndrome in addition to premutation involvement, such as the fragile X-associated tremor ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) and  primary ovarian insufficiency (POI), every week and she is an optimal mentor for students.

Professor Hagerman received her M.D. from Stanford University where she also carried out her Pediatric residency.  She completed a Fellowship in Learning and Disabilities and in Ambulatory Pediatrics at UC San Diego and, subsequently, spent the next 20 years from 1980 to 2000 at the University of Colorado where she headed Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.  She co-founded the National Fragile X Foundation in 1984 in Colorado and developed a world-renowned fragile X research and treatment center.  In 2000, Professor Hagerman moved to UC Davis to be the Medical Director of the M.I.N.D. Institute.  Dr. Hagerman and her team discovered FXTAS which is a neurological disorder that affects older carriers of fragile X. 

Dr. Hagerman’s research involves genotype-phenotype correlations in fragile X and the association of fragile X and autism. She is currently focused on targeted treatments for children and adults with fragile X syndrome and autism. Professor Randi Hagerman has written over 200 peer-reviewed articles and numerous book chapters on neurodevelopmental disorders.  She has written several books on fragile X including a 3rd Edition of Fragile X Syndrome: Diagnosis, Treatment, and Research which was published in 2002 by Johns Hopkins University Press. 

Brooke Young

Brooke Young has been in the field of autism spectrum disorders for over 20 years and was a classroom teacher in Hawaii and in Missouri for children with autism and related disabilities for 7 years.  She left the classroom to become a full time graduate student at the University of Kansas, specializing in the area of autism and behavior disorders.  While at the University of Kansas she served as a diagnostician on an Autism Assessment Team for the University.  Following graduate school she worked as an autism consultant for school districts in Northeast Kansas for 8 years.  While working as an autism consultant Ms Young focused on staff development, team and family training, demonstration teaching and systems development.  While working for the school districts she also worked on an autism grant for the University of Kansas and wrote online autism training modules. She then went back to the University of Kansas to get her PhD in Special Education, specializing in autism.  While working on her degree she served as the project coordinator for a national autism study funded by OSEP and consulted and presented in states throughout the country.  She is currently writing her dissertation while serving as the project coordinator on a multi-site longitudinal treatment outcome study funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, consulting for the Professional Development Center in Autism and teaches graduate courses in child development and autism spectrum disorders at the University of Colorado Denver.

Winnie Dunn

Dr. Winnie Dunn is Professor and Chair of the Department of Occupational Therapy Education at the University of Kansas.  Dr. Dunn's work on sensory processing is world renowned; she is the author of the Sensory Profile measures, which cover the life span, and provide evidence-based information about children and adult sensory processing patterns during everyday life. These measures are used by interdisciplinary researchers and practitioners worldwide.  She has received the Kemper Fellowship for Teaching, the Eleanor Clarke Slagle Lectureship for her contributions to evidence-based neuroscience research and practice, the A. Jean Ayres Research Award, and the Award of Merit, the highest honor in occupational therapy.  Most recently, she wrote a book for the public based on her research; Living Sensationally: Understanding Your Senses has appeared in Time Magazine, the London Times Newspaper, and on Canadian public radio, and she was voted the 'Favorite Author' by the Pitch Newspaper, among many others.