Principal Investigator:
Hala Annabi, PhD
Associate Professor, UW Information School
Hala Annabi, joined the UW iSchool in 2015. She is an expert in the design, deployment, and assessment of diversity and inclusion initiatives in organizational settings. Dr. Annabi’s research and consulting focus on creating work environments conducive to learning and innovation. Key to this work is the inclusion of diverse viewpoints and diverse cognitive styles. Her work thus far focused on inclusion strategies for women and autistic software developers in the tech industry. Dr. Annabi has investigated and consulted with open source software developers, technology firms, and transportation engineering firms in the past. Dr. Annabi earned her Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology at Syracuse University in 2005.
Principal Investigator:
Jill Locke, PhD
Assistant Professor, UW Speech & Hearing Sciences
Jill Locke, PhD, joined the UW Speech and Hearing Sciences faculty as a Research Assistant Professor in 2015. She completed her doctoral training in Educational Psychology at UCLA in 2010 and her postdoctoral training in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania in 2013.
Dr. Locke’s research has focused on the implementation and sustainment of a social engagement intervention for children with ASD in school settings. Her research has highlighted the importance of the context in the successful implementation of evidence-based interventions and laid the foundation for her current work. She is now the principal investigator on a NIMH Career Development Award that uses quantitative and qualitative methods to examine individual- and organizational-level factors (i.e., culture, climate, and leadership) as predictors of implementation of an autism evidence-based intervention in public schools. The goal of this study is to develop a school-level implementation intervention to support schools in their use and sustainment of autism evidence-based interventions. Her experiences have emphasized the importance of collaborating with public schools and the reality of working within the constraints of publicly funded systems, their timeline (e.g. school calendar year), and with their personnel.
Co-I
Gary Stobbe, MD
Clinical Associate Professor, UW School of Medicine, UW Medicine Adult Autism Clinic
Dr. Stobbe is a Board Certified Neurologist sub-specializing in the field of cognitive and behavioral neurology. Dr. Stobbe completed his neurology residency at UCLA in 1993 and is Clinical Associate Professor of both Psychiatry and Neurology at University of Washington. Dr. Stobbe helped establish the Seattle Children’s Autism Center where he serves as Director of Adolescent and Adult Services. He also helped establish the UW Medicine Adult Autism Clinic and is currently serving as Medical Director, as well as Director of the Adults and Elders Program at the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at UW.
Co-I:
Ilene Schwartz, PhD
Professor, UW College of Education; Director, Haring Center
Dr. Schwartz’s research interests are in the area of applied behavior analysis and early childhood special education. Specifically, she is interested in understanding what instructional strategies and environmental arrangements are most effective in facilitating the learning of young children with autism and related disabilities. Her research involves identifying and validating instructional strategies for children with autism and other significant disabilities and in understanding how to teach teachers and others to implement these strategies with high fidelity. She is also interested in issues related to social relationships of young children with disabilities, inclusion, applied behavior analysis, and social validity. In 1997, she and her colleagues started Project DATA, a school-based early intervention program for children with autism. Research about Project DATA integrates her interests in program effectiveness, implementation, and inclusive education.
Research Assistant:
Abbey Lawrence, MEd
Associate Director, UW Employment Program
Abbey joined the UW’s Center for Technology and Disability Studies team in the Spring of 2015. She graduated with her M.Ed. from University of Washington in 2014, and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). She currently is the Associate Director of UWEP, and is involved in the ADA-KT project. She is a Doctoral Candidate through UW College of Education. Her research interests include working with young adults with autism and other developmental disabilities, transition services, and using ABA to promote meaningful outcomes for all learners.
Graduate Research Assistant:
Annuska Perkins
PhD Student, UW Information School
Annuska Perkis is pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of Washington Information School. is a Ph.D. student. She researches and designs technology to be inclusive, with a specialty in designing technology-mediated solutions for individuals with autism and their communities. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D., Annuska worked at Microsoft on accessible user experiences across products, online services, and hardware devices.