Thomas Brown - October 2005

Dr. Brown is a clinical psychologist specializing in assessment and treatment of high-IQ children, adolescents and adults with AD/HD and related problems. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and is Associate Director of the Yale Clinic for Attention and Related Disorders.

Dr. Brown has presented papers, workshops and symposia internationally as well as at national meetings of the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the National Attention Deficit Disorder Association and CHADD.

Dr. Brown is author of the Brown Attention Deficit Disorder Scales for Children, Adolescents and Adults published by The Psychological Corporation and the authoritative Attention Deficit Disorder. He is editor of Attention Deficit Disorders and Co-morbidities in Children, Adolescents and Adults, a major text and reference work published by American Psychiatric Press.

Richard Lavoie - January 2005

Dr. Lavoie has served as an administrator of residential programs for children with special needs since 1972. He holds three degrees in Special Education and has served as an adjunct professor or visiting lecturer at numerous universities including Syracuse, Harvard, Gallaudet, Manhattanville College, University of Alabama and Georgetown. His numerous national television appearances include CBS Morning Show, Good Morning America and ABC Evening News.

Rick serves as a consultant on Learning Disabilities to several agencies and organizations including Public Broadcasting Service, New York Times, National Center for Learning Disabilities, Girl Scouts of America, Child Magazine and WETA. He is a member of the Professional Advisory Board of the Learning Disabilities Association.

Rick is probably best known for his videos How Difficult Can This Be?, The F.A.T. City Workshop and Last One Picked, First One Picked On: The Social Implications of Learning Disabilities. These award-winning films have brought Rick's sensitive and compelling message to countless thousands throughout the world.

Edward Hallowell - November 2003

Dr. Hallowell is a graduate of Harvard College, Tulane Medical School, and Harvard Residency Program in Adult and Child Psychiatry. He is the author of the national best sellers, Driven to Distraction, Worry and Connect in addition to many other publications.

Dr. Hallowell is also the founder of the Hallowell Centre which specializes in the treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Worry/Anxiety, and Child Learning Disabilities. The centre is dedicated to promoting cognitive and emotional health in both children and adults and combines the latest knowledge about the brain, learning, human behavior, and emotion with a personal, patient-centered approach to diagnosis and treatment.

Dr. Hallowell has been featured on national television's"20/20", "Dateline", "The Today Show" and "Good Morning America". He lectures around the country while maintaining a private practice at the Hallowell Center. Dr. Hallowell's recent book, The Childhood Roots of Adult Happiness, focuses on how to prepare children for a more productive, happy life.

Geoffrey Kewley - October 2002
AD/ HD - Recognition. Reality and Resolution

Dr. Kewley is an International Speaker and Consultant Pediatrician in the field of AD/HD and Specific Learning Disabilities. He is the founder and Director of the Learning Assessment and Neurocare Centre (LANC) in West Sussex, U.K.

His book ADHD: Recognition, Reality and Resolution, is a comprehensive and authoritative text for professionals and parents. Dr. Kewley has also written many articles for professional journals on a wide range of disciplines.

Dr. Kewley is regularly invited to lecture on AD/HD nationally and internationally. He is particularly interested in the development of appropriate service provision and interdisciplinary liaison in ADHD management and is actively involved in encouraging professional awareness of the facts and reality of AD/HD.

Howard Gardner - January 2002 
Multiple Intelligences - What Does It Really Mean?

Dr. Gardner is the John H. and Elisabeth A. Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He also holds positions as Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and Senior Director of Harvard Project Zero.

The author of over twenty books translated into twenty-four languages, and several hundred articles, Gardner is best known in educational circles for his theory of multiple intelligences, a critique of the notion that there exists but a single human intelligence that can be assessed by standard psychometric instruments.

During the past two decades, he and colleagues at Project Zero have been working on the design of performance-based assessments; education for understanding; the use of multiple intelligences to achieve more personalized curriculum, instruction, and assessment; and the nature of interdisciplinary efforts in education.

Mel Levine - November 2000
Brains Begging to Differ: A Model for Understanding and Managing a Child's Ways of Learning

Dr. Levine is retired Professor of Pediatrics (University of North Carolina Medical School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina) and was the Director of the University's Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning.

Dr. Levine is also the co-founder of All Kinds of Minds, a non-profit Institute for the study of differences in learning, with financier Charles R. Schwab.Over the past thirty years Dr. Levine has pioneered programs for the evaluation of children and young adults with learning, development and/or behavioral problems. In 1995, Dr. Levine received the C. Anderson Aldrich Award for outstanding contribution to the field of child development, putting him in the company of Dr. Benjamin Spock, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton and Dr. Jerome Kagan, recipients of this prestigious award in other years.

Dr. Levine's groundbreaking framework for understanding why children struggle in school provides a straightforward, practical system for recognizing variations in the way children learn and uses their strengths to become more successful students. Properly executed, this model can change lives by radically improving prospects for success in and out of school.

Loretta Giorcelli - October 1999
Learning Difficulties: Attitudes, Accomodations and Advocacy

Dr. Giorcelli is a highly valued friend of the organization and returning Guest Speaker. She has been to Hong Kong several times engaging both parents and teachers alike with her dynamic and practical workshops.

Dr Loretta Giorcelli has a Bachelor's degree in Education, a Master's degree in Special Education and a PhD (Linguistics and Communication Disabilities) from the University of Illinios (USA). Early in her career, Loretta worked as a teacher, consultant and school principal in Queensland and London schools, before accepting a position in the New South Wales Department of School Education in 1984. She was appointed the NSW Director of Special Education and Equity Program with the Department of School Education and remained in that post until April 1993. Since that time Dr. Giorcelli has worked as a consultant for the United Nations in China and for the Australian Government on overseas development projects in Papua New Guinea.

Currently, she heads her own educational consultancy company working extensively in Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK as well as throughout Australia. Loretta works extensively as a specialist consultant with schools as well as with government, NGOs, private agencies and parent groups as a keynote speaker, in staff development and long-range educational planning.

Christopher Green - November 1998
AD/HD - What's Fact and What's Fiction

Dr. Green is a specialist paediatrician who has been influential in introducing modern attitudes toward the treatment of AD/HD worldwide. Dr. Green worked for many years as Head of the Child Development Unit at the New Children's Hospital, Westmead, Sydney and now serves as their honorary consultant.

Dr. Green is one of Australia's foremost authors of parenting advice. First noted for his widely popular Toddler Taming and Babies!, he is renowned for his work in the management of AD/HD. Dr. Green co-authored the acclaimed Understanding ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and most recently, the New Pocket Survival Guide to AD/HD.

Mark Griffin - November 1997
Learning Disabilities in the Classroom - Smart Children with School Difficulties

Dr. Griffin is the founding Headmaster of the Eagle Hill School (Greenwich, Connecticut),one of the finest schools in the United States to provide remedial and compensatory educational programs for children with Specific Learning Disabilities and Attentional Disorders. Dr. Griffin is a noted authority on learning disabilities, particularly those seen in high intellect children.

Dr. Griffin has served on the Board of Directors of the Learning Disabilities Association of America and as Chairman of the Professional Advisory Board of the National Center for Learning Disabilities. He has presented regularly and extensively on the national level and internationally on a variety of issues pertaining to children and adults with learning differences at CHADD, the Orton Dyslexia Society National Conference, The National Center for Learning Disabilities, and the Learning Disabilities Association International Conference.

Dr. Paul Hutchins

Dr. Paul Hutchins is a developmental pediatrician and one of Australia's AD/HD experts.  Dr. Haul Hutchins has considerable experience in how problems in development, behavior and social interaction overlap when compounded by disorders that cause communication difficulties.  In Australia, he vigorously pursues evidence-based practice, collaborative management between children, parents, school and health professionals, and promotes paretn support groups.

Dr. Bennett Shaywitz

Dr Bennett A. Shaywitz, M.D. is a Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, Chief of Pediatric Neurology and Co-Director of the newly formed Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity at the Yale University School of Medicine.

Dr. Shaywitz has a long-standing interest in disorders of learning and attention in children and young adults. He has devoted his career to better understanding and elucidating the neurobiological basis of reading and dyslexia and to ensuring that his knowledge is translated into the better care and treatment of children and adults who are dyslexic. Dr. Shaywitz recognized the great potential of functional brain imaging and led a national effort to apply functional imaging, especially, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to the study of reading and dyslexia in children and adults.

The author of over three hundred scientific papers, Dr. Shaywitz has received many honors for his contributions to the understanding of the basic neurobiology of reading and dyslexia. Dr. Shaywitz currently serves on the editorial board of Pediatrics in Review, Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, and Child Neuropsychology.

Dr. Sally Shaywitz

Dr. Sally E Shaywitz, MD is the the Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at the Yale Univeristy School of Medicine and Co-Director of the newly formed Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity.

She has devoted her career to better understanding and helping children and adults who are dyslexic.  Together with her husband, Dr. Bennett Shaywitz, she originated and championed the ‘Sea of Strengths’ model of dyslexia which emphasizes a sea of strengths of higher critical thinking and creativity surrounding the encapsulated weakness found in children and adults who are dyslexic.

Dr. Sally Shaywitz is the author of over 200 scientific articles, chapters and books, including the widely acclaimed national bestseller, Overcoming Dyslexia:  A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at any Level which received the Margo Marek Book Award and the NAMI Book Award.