Our people

Evelyn Blanck, LCSW, is the Executive Director of the New York Center for Child Development, Executive Vice President of the New York Center for Infants and Toddlers and Director of the NYC Early Childhood Mental Health Training and Technical Assistance Center (TTAC). She has served on numerous boards and committees throughout the State focused on early childhood mental health including a gubernatorial appointment to the NYS Early Childhood Advisory Council and is Chair of the NYC Early Childhood Mental Health Strategic Work Group. She is the President of the Stella and Charles Guttman Foundation and serves on the boards of the Coalition of Behavioral Health, the New York Zero To Three Network (past president) and the New York State Association for Infant Mental Health( founding member). A major focus of her work has been on promoting the integration of mental health in education, primary care and all child serving systems and promoting policies to support this work.

Dr. Connie Kasari is a professor of Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a leading international expert in developing interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder and their families. Her research focuses on targeted interventions for early social communication development in at-risk infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with autism, and peer relationships for school-aged children with autism, leading to the recognition of her therapy JASPER as an established evidence-based ASD treatment. Much of this work involves populations that have traditionally been understudied and underrepresented in research, including low-resourced children and minimally verbal children. Her work is often conducted in schools. She has published widely on topics related to social, emotional, and communication development and intervention in autism. Dr. Kasari has been the primary advisor to more than 60 UCLA Ph.D. students, is on the science advisory boards of Autism Speaks and the Mount Sinai Seaver Autism Center, and regularly presents to both academic and practitioner audiences locally, nationally, and internationally.

As founder of the first comprehensive Sensory Processing Disorder research program nationwide and author of groundbreaking Sensational Kids: Hope and Help for Children with Sensory Processing Disorder and No Longer A SECRET: Unique Common Sense Strategies for Children with Sensory or Motor Challenges, Dr. Lucy Jane Miller’s name is synonymous with sensory research, education, and treatment.

Dr. Miller has been investigating, analyzing, and explaining SPD to other scientists, professionals, and parents since she studied under sensory integration pioneer A. Jean Ayres, Ph.D., more than thirty years ago. Since then, studies by Dr. Miller and her colleagues have helped bring SPD widespread recognition, and her work with families has improved countless lives. Thanks specifically to Dr. Miller’s mobilization of the research community, SPD now appears in two diagnostic manuals: the ICDL’s Diagnostic Manual for Infancy and Early Childhood and The Diagnostic Classification: Zero to Three. Her application has led to consideration of SPD for inclusion in the 2013 revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V). Dr. Miller has also developed seven nationally standardized tests for use worldwide to assess and diagnose SPD and other developmental disorders and delays. Dr. Miller’s widespread recognition and enormous credibility within the professional community are part of the reason that advanced clinicians travel from all over the United States and other countries to be mentored by Dr. Miller and team at STAR Institute, which she founded three decades ago.

The prominence of Dr. Miller’s research, her compassion and connection with sensational families, and her ability to explain the science of SPD clearly and empathetically make her a natural interview subject. She has been featured on NBC’s Today Show and ABC’s 20/20, in The New York Times and numerous other popular and professional publications. She is the author of more than sixty articles and/or chapters in scientific and professional journals, magazines, and textbooks and is a frequent presenter or speaker at conferences and workshops worldwide. She has received more than thirty funded awards and grants to further research on SPD and other childhood disabilities.

In 2004, Dr. Miller received the Award of Merit from the American Occupational Therapy Association, the profession’s highest honor, reserved for those therapists who have made an outstanding global contribution to the field. In 2005, she was awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian award by the state of Colorado for her three decades of work with children who have Sensory Processing Disorder.

I am a Developmental Psychologist with a primary interest in parent-child relationships during early childhood and their impact on children’s socioemotional development. I am interested in parenting of Typically Developing children but also those with Atypical development, such as children with Autism. I see parental insightfulness – the capacity to see and feel things from the child’s point of view as a powerful factor that underlies sensitive parenting and provides children a deep feeling of being understood and secure. As children develop, their dialogues with their parents about emotional experiences assume increasing importance and are an additional focus of my research. I believe that all parents, with very few exceptions, are doing their utmost to promote their children’s development. However, for various reasons related to the parent, the child, or the context, some face significant barriers in their capacity to fulfill this goal. It is the job of psychologists and other child development professionals to support parents’ efforts to overcome these barriers, and I hope and believe that the research I have been working on over the last three decades can help in achieving this goal.

Sally J. Rogers, PhD, is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the MIND Institute at the University of California, Davis. She has served as president of the International Society for Autism Research and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the International Society for Autism Research. With Geraldine Dawson, Dr. Rogers developed the Early Start Denver Model, the first empirically validated comprehensive intervention for toddlers with autism, now used by parents and professionals around the world. She is coauthor of books including An Early Start for Your Child with Autism (for parents) and Early Start Denver Model for Young Children with Autism and Coaching Parents of Young Children with Autism (for professionals). Dr. Rogers has published over 200 papers, chapters, and books, and ranks in the top 1% of Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers.