Carrie Alvarado, PhD, OTR

Carrie Alvarado, PhD, OTR, Profectum ™ Assistant Faculty Member, serves as the Chief Operating Officer for Autism Community Network (ACN), located in San Antonio, Texas. ACN is a non-profit focused on provision of both interdisciplinary diagnosis and innovative intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder. ACN also serves as a hub of education and empowerment for impacted families and the professional communities that support them. ACN is scheduled to serve as the anchor of autism services for the The Multi-Assistance Center at Morgan’s Wonderland, or The MAC™, in San Antonio, which is being touted as a one-stop-shop model which will provide medical and non-medical services for individuals with special needs of all ages in one setting and platform (slated to open in 2022).

Carrie is also the creator and director of two clinical programs at ACN. One of these is the Earliest Connections Clinic, a diagnostic program geared toward early identification and therapeutic intervention for high-risk infants and toddlers (prematurity, trauma/neglect, siblings of children on the spectrum).Additionally, Carrie leads the DIRFloortime/ PACT (Pediatric Autism Communication Therapy) Hands-on Family Empowerment program- an intensive intervention program supporting families impacted by autism through dyadic coaching using both in-vivo and reflective video feedback modalities.

Dr. Alvarado’s primary research interests are in Sensoriaffective Integration and attachment, clinical use of reflective video feedback, optimizing parent-mediated interventions and scale development. She completed her dissertation on establishing preliminary validity of a new clinical assessment and coaching tool, the Sensoriaffective Interactional Attunement Scale (SAIAS) geared toward promoting enhanced use of sensoriaffective signaling between caregivers and their children. Carrie is also currently engaged in development of another scale, (not yet named), focused on evaluating the presence, sophistication and sequencing of themes of emotional intelligence in child-led symbolic dyadic play.