Leslie Bross Editor

Kaye Otten has a doctorate from The University of Kansas in special education with an emphasis in emotional, behavioral, and autism spectrum disorders and is a board certified behavior analyst with Summit Behavioral Services specializing in school based services.  She provides collaborative coaching to school districts in developing evidence based multi-tiered systems of behavioral support and serves as adjunct faculty with The Mandt System, an international leader in crisis prevention and intervention.  Kaye has over thirty years of experience in public and private schools as a general and special educator and behavioral consultant and has experience working with all ages, ability levels, and disability categories.  She is the co-author of the book How to Reach and Teach Children with Challenging Behavior:  Practical Ready-To-Use Strategies that Work  and the online professional development courses Managing Challenging Behavior: Part 1-Antecedent Strategies and Part 2-Consequence Strategies  provided by Exceptional Child of Vector Solutions. Sonja R. de Boer is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral (BCBA-D) and obtained her Ph.D. in special education and psychology and research in education at the University of Kansas, with an emphasis on early intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Richard Simpson was her advisor through her doctorate program. She has approximately 30 years of experience working in early childhood special education, early intervention services, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), with students with disabilities, and specifically children with ASD. For children with ASD, she has designed and supervised in-home intervention programs (ages 0-10), preschool programs (ages 3-6; both intensive ABA and inclusive preschools), as well as elementary school educational and behavioral programs (ages 5-12). For more than half of her career, she has focused on serving students with ASD and their families and educators in rural communities. She is currently a faculty member for Tufts University Medical Center in Child Psychiatry and provides training and consultation around the nation regarding interventions for children with ASD. Besides the United States, she has worked with professionals, universities, non-profit organizations and families with children with ASD and other disabilities in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Russia, Nigeria, China, Chile, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. She is the author of the book Successful Inclusion Practices for Children with Autism: Creating a Complete, Effective, ASD Inclusion Program (currently being revised and updated for publication); Discrete Trial Training, 2nd edition (part of the How To Series on Autism Spectrum Disorders); and is one of the original co-authors of the first edition of Autism Spectrum Disorders: Interventions and Treatments for Children and Youth written with Richard Simpson in 2005. Leslie Bross is an Assistant Professor of Special Education in the Department of Special Education and Child Development at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. She serves as the director of the Graduate Certificate in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) program at UNC Charlotte. Leslie earned her doctoral degree from the University of Kansas in 2019 with an emphasis in evidence-based practices and ASD. Her primary research interest is examining ways to support individuals with ASD during their transition to adulthood in the areas of postsecondary education, competitive employment, and community integration. Prior to her experiences in higher education, Leslie was a special education teacher for six years in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. She taught social skills for secondary students with ASD and established a community-based employment program. She also taught English as a second language in Nagasaki, Japan and Barcelona, Spain.