University of Arizona LEND Changes in Leadership
October 14, 2022
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Eileen R. McGrath, Ph.D. is the new Program Director and Principal Investigator for the University of Arizona LEND MCH Training Program (ArizonaLEND). For the past 12 years, she has been the LEND Co-Director and Training Director. Dr. McGrath is an Associate Professor in the College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, and has a joint faculty appointment in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at UArizona. Her research focuses on neurodevelopmental outcomes of extremely preterm and very preterm infants, and she is Co-Investigator on the NIH, Spectacle Prescribing in Early Childhood (SPEC) study through the department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science. She served as the team director of UMC Banner Neonatal Developmental Follow-up Clinic through March 2020 and developed and taught the online course, Applied Leadership, and Interdisciplinary Management of NDD/ASD (CPH 582) for the College of Public Health through 2019. Dr. McGrath has over thirty-five years’ experience teaching university students in early childhood special education, training early intervention practitioners, providing home-based early intervention services, and teaching young children with severe and multiple neurodevelopmental disabilities, including autism spectrum disorders. Dr. McGrath has considerable experience in grant writing, curriculum and program development and implementation. She is the Principal Investigator for 15 grants and contracts with a total funding of more than $8.5 million and Co-PI on Grants with a total funding of more than $10.1 million dollars. Contact Information: [email protected]
Andrew W Gardner, PhD, BCBA-D is the new Training Director for the University of Arizona LEND MCH Training Program (ArizonaLEND). Dr. Gardner has been serving families of children with behavioral challenges over the past 25+ years across clinic, home, school, and public settings in both English and Spanish. Dr. Gardner completed his BA undergraduate degree and MS graduate training in Psychology/School Psychology at Utah State University, completed an internship through the Fred S. Keller School (CABAS), his PhD through the University of Iowa, a pre-doctoral internship at the Kennedy Krieger Institute (NBU OP), and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Gardner has also participated in various Maternal and Child Health Bureau funded Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and other Related Disabilities (LEND) programs. He is currently an Associate Professor at The University of Arizona in the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, as well as clinical faculty in the Arizona LEND program. Dr. Gardner supervises a Behavioral Pediatrics Clinic, participates with the clinical team through The Children's Postinfectious Autoimmune Encephalopathy (CPAE) Center of Excellence at the UA Steele Center in Pediatrics, as well as serves children and families as the co-director of the Autism Center of Excellence at Children’s Clinics for Rehabilitative Services. He has peer-reviewed publications and professional presentations in the areas of evidence-based practices, as well as in the assessment and treatment of childhood problem behavior. Dr. Gardner’s research interests include functional analytic assessment of childhood challenging behavior, qualities of attention in Parent Management Training (PMT), parenting and cross-cultural treatment acceptability, and therapeutic strategies for challenging behavior based in the science of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for diverse diagnoses.
Contact Information: [email protected]
