Web Intervention for Parents of Youth with Genetic Syndromes (WINGS)
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MEET OUR TEAM
Leadership Team
Latha V. Soorya, PhD, BCBA, is a licensed clinical psychologist, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Rush and Director of the AARTS Center. Dr. Soorya has been providing clinical care to individuals with ASD and related neurodevelopmental conditions for over two decades. She brings expertise in clinical evaluations and is a trainer on gold standard autism diagnostic instruments. Dr. Soorya’s research seeks to develop and disseminate evidence-informed therapies for social and mental health needs of individuals with ASD across the lifespan. Her current research includes studies of novel social skills groups model and digital health tools to advance diagnostics and therapy monitoring.
Principal Investigator
Allie Wainer, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Rush, and the Research Director of the AARTS (Autism Assessment, Research, Treatment & Services) Center at Rush. Dr. Wainer has extensive experience with assessment, behavioral intervention, and parent training for individuals with ASD. Her program of research focuses on ways to increase access to intervention for young children with ASD and related neurodevelopmental conditions. She also provides training and consultation in ASD Early Intervention and Parent Coaching for community-based providers in the United States and Internationally.
Principal Investigator
Elizabeth Berry-Kravis, MD, PhD, Dr. Berry-Kravis established the Fragile X Clinic and Research Program at Rush University Medical Center in 1992 and has provided care to over 800 patients with fragile X syndrome (FXS). She conducts research on FXS, including genotypephenotype, molecular, biomarker, outcome measure, and natural history studies, and clinical trials. She has expanded this clinical and translational work to other neurogenetic diseases in the past 10 years, including work on PMS, NPC, Angelman syndrome, Rett syndrome, Battens disease, PKAN, and creatine transport deficiency. She has led the effort to develop new targeted treatments for FXS and other genetic neurological diseases, and has implemented novel trial designs, including Nof1 trials.
Co-Investigator
Lauren A. Bush, PhD, Dr. Bush received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She completed an internship in pediatric neuropsychology at the University of Chicago followed by a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at the AARTS Center at Rush University Medical Center where she specialized in the intersection of pediatric neuropsychology and neurodevelopmental disorders. Dr. Bush’s clinical work and research focus on understanding neurocognitive and developmental factors associated with complex medical, genetic, and neurodevelopmental disorders. She is focused on understanding brain-behavior relationships and helping children and their families make sense of these complex interrelationships in ways they can understand and put to practical use.
Co-Investigator
Joanna Lomas, PhD, BCBA, is the current Clinical Director at Marcus Autism Center, overseeing all clinical activities throughout the center's programs. Clinically, Dr. Lomas Mevers is a licensed psychologist and board-certified behavior analyst, with expertise in the assessment and treatment of severe problem behavior in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Dr. Lomas Mevers’ current research interests include development of effective toileting interventions for urine and bowel training, increasing the social validity of behavioral interventions, increasing efficiencies in caregiver training, and identifying treatment components that are essential to maintaining positive long-term treatment outcomes.
Co-Investigator
Nathan Call, PhD, BCBA, Dr. Call received his doctorate in school psychology from the University of Iowa in 2003. He has been at Marcus Autism Center since 2006, where he has held many positions as a clinician and as a leader of treatment programs. Dr. Call has an active research agenda that includes publishing in and serving on the editorial board for several journals, including as an associate editor for Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice. Dr. Call’s current research interests include the assessment and treatment of severe behavior disorders. He is a strong proponent of disseminating behavioral treatments to broader audiences, which has led him to serve as principal investigator on several federally funded randomized clinical trials. Dr. Call has also conducted translational research in behavioral economics and measure development.
Co-Investigator
Lawrence Scahill, MSN, PhD, Dr. Scahill is Professor at the Marcus Autism Center and Emory University. Dr. Scahill recently held the position of Director of the Research Unit on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) at Yale. In addition to his work in autism, Dr. Scahill is also involved in psychopharmacological and behavioral interventions for children and adults with Tourette syndrome. He serves on the Medical Advisory Board of the Tourette Syndrome Association and is a principal investigator on two multisite studies evaluating the efficacy of a behavioral intervention for tics in children and adults with Tourette syndrome. Dr. Scahill is an active clinician specializing in the care of children with Tourette syndrome and children with autism. He is the author of over 130 journal articles and numerous book chapters.
Independent Evaluator Trainer
Jennifer Hodnett, PhD, BCBA is the Program Manager for the Complex Behavior Support Program at the Marcus Autism Center in Atlanta, Georgia. She received her PhD in School Psychology at the University of South Florida and completed her clinical internship training at the Marcus Autism Center through Emory School of Medicine. Since 2008, Jennifer has provided clinical services to individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities across school, community, clinical, and hospital settings. She specializes in behavioral assessment and treatment of complex and severe challenging behavior, consultation, and parent-mediated interventions. Jennifer also serves on the FBT study as a study clinician guiding parents through recommended behavioral interventions. Additionally, she collaborates closely with our team, providing training and supervision to clinicians and contributing to material development.
FBT Therapist Trainer
Clinical Team
Cynthia Pierre, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist at the AARTS Center. Pierre has provided a number of clinical services at AARTS since 2017, including diagnostic evaluations and individual, group and family therapy. She is committed to providing these clinical services to English and Spanish-speaking families. In addition to serving youth and adults with autism, she also has extensive experience with behavioral intervention for individuals with anxiety, ADHD and disruptive behaviors. Dr. Pierre also serves on the WINGS study as a study clinician guiding parents through recommended behavioral interventions.
Heather Lacey PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist and a nationally certified school psychologist at Rush University Medical Center. She received her PhD in School Psychology at Illinois State University and completed her post-doctoral training at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Dr. Lacey has provided clinical services to children, adolescents, and young adults with neurodevelopmental differences across a range of settings while incorporating their family and school contexts in treatment. Dr. Lacey’s clinical specialties are working with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder through the provision of evaluation and treatment services. Dr. Lacey also serves on the WINGS study as a study clinician guiding parents through recommended behavioral interventions.
Holly Wiese, LCSW, is the outreach director for the AARTS Center and leads the clinical training program for master's in social work candidates. Wiese has been providing clinical care to individuals with ASD and related neurodevelopmental conditions for nearly 15 years across school, clinic and hospital settings. She brings expertise in clinical care for managing challenging behaviors through parent-mediated intervention, training and direct intervention. Wiese provides professional development training and autism consultation for individual students and programs across the Chicagoland area. She co-leads the Midwest Autism Consortium and serves on the advisory council for the University of Illinois Chicago’s Center for Literacy and the Illinois Act Early Task Force. Wiese also serves on the WINGS study as a study clinician guiding parents through recommended behavioral interventions.
Taylor Dorlack, PhD, BCBA, is a postdoctoral psychology fellow at Rush University Medical Center. She received her PhD in School Psychology/Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed her clinical internship training at the Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Taylor has provided clinical services to individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities across school, community, clinical, and hospital settings for over a decade. She specializes in diagnostic assessment, behavioral treatment, consultation, and parent-mediated interventions. Taylor serves as an assessment clinician for the WINGS study, and she conducts baseline behavioral assessments with families to determine eligibility for research participation.
Kritika Nayar, PhD, is a pediatric neuropsychology postdoctoral fellow at Rush University Medical Center. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology and MS in Biostatistics from Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine and completed her clinical neuropsychology internship at Texas Children's Hospital/Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Nayar conducts comprehensive neuropsychological assessments and early childhood neurodevelopmental evaluations of pediatric populations in inpatient and outpatient medical settings. Her areas of specialty involve the diagnosis of neurodevelopmental disorders in the context of complex medical/neurological conditions as well as providing diagnostic evaluations for autism and intellectual disability. Dr. Nayar serves as an independent evaluator for the FBT study, to assess neuropsychological and behavioral areas of strenghts and areas of growth for targeting in intervention, as well as to assess their change over time. ​
Ashlee Taylor, LCSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker on the Building Early Connections (BEC) team at Rush University Medical Center. They received their Master’s of Social Work at Loyola University Chicago and completed their clinical internship training via the Rush Emergency Department and Girl Forward, a non-profit organization serving refugee and asylee teens and their families within the Chicago area. Prior to completing their MSW, Ashlee had over 10 years of experience in the behavioral health field as a mental health counselor in inpatient, outpatient, and therapeutic school settings, working with children and adult populations. They specialize in behavioral health consultation and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) based parent-mediated and school-based classroom intervention. They are currently in the process of obtaining an Infant Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) specialization certificate through the Erikson Institute. Ashlee serves as a study clinician guiding parents through recommended behavioral interventions.
Megan Donahue, LCSW, serves as a licensed social worker for the AARTS Building Early Connections Program. She received her bachelor’s degree from Smith College in Northampton, MA and her master’s in Social Work from The School of Social Service Administration at The University of Chicago. Megan has experience working with clients ranging in age from school-age to early adulthood in a variety of settings. Her area of clinical interests include family systems therapy and the impact of trauma on childhood development. Megan also serves on the WINGS study as a clinician guiding parents through recommended behavioral interventions.
Kiana Suhling, LCSW, is a licensed Clinical Social Worker with 5 years of experience working as a pediatric social worker. Kiana currently works as a social worker on the Building Early Connections team at RUSH and will serve on WINGS as a study clinician guiding parents through recommended behavioral interventions.
Research Team
Madison Nava, BA, is the Research Operations Manager at the AARTS Center. She received her bachelor’s degree from DePaul University and is completing her Masters in Clinical Research at Rush University. She supports the research coordinator team on all ongoing research efforts at the AARTS center including clinical trials, genetic studies, as well as behavioral and medical intervention research.
Alexandra Lopez Hernandez, BA, is a Clinical Research Coordinator at the AARTS Center. Alex has a background in program management, and education, particularly serving children in underrepresented communities. At Rush University, she coordinates research in neurodevelopmental and rare genetic disorders, working closely with the pediatric specialty clinic for individuals with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome. As a coordinator for the WINGS study, she is actively supporting study staff and families.
Edith Ocampo, MS, is a program coordinator at Rush University Medical Center. She received her Master of Science in Clinical Research at Rush University. Edith has extensive data management experience that spans over 15 years. She will be leading all database management and monitoring all data quality throughout the trial.