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Alice Carter, PhD, is a Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Broadly, Dr. Carter’s work focuses on young children’s development in the context of family relationships. Her recent work focuses on: 1) early identification and evaluation of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers experiencing and/or at risk for later psychopathology; and 2) addressing health disparities by improving early identification, evaluation, and treatment of infants and toddlers with social communication and autism spectrum disorders.

Principal Investigator

Abbey Eisenhower, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Dr. Eisenhower is a licensed clinical psychologist whose research and clinical interests involve the early school experiences of children with autism and other developmental disabilities and the role of positive relationships with teachers, parents and peers during this period. Her areas of expertise are in Child Clinical Psychology, Developmental Psychopathology, Early School Adjustment, and Treatment Outcome Research. 
Project Investigator

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Yael Dai, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Psychology Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Connecticut and completed her predoctoral internship at Kennedy Krieger Institute. Dr. Dai is interested in the development, evaluation, and implementation of interventions for children with autism and their families. Her research also focuses on promoting early identification of autism, increasing access to interventions, and treating anxiety. 
Postdoctoral Research Fellow

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Caitlin Boyd, BA, is a Research Assistant with Dr. Carter in the Psychology Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. As a provider liaison for the RISE study, Caitlin supports providers through all stages of participation and facilitates strong connections between providers and the research team. Her interests include language development, and the ways children use nonverbal communication. In the future, Caitlin intends to work with children with autism in an occupational therapy setting

Research Assistant / Provider Liaison

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Lara Cunningham, BA, is a Research Assistant with Dr. Carter in the Psychology Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. For RISE, Lara assists with the provider liaison role and data management. With a dual degree in psychology and economics, her research interests include the ways in which the income distribution affects development in children and how this can influence future opportunities and decision making throughout their lifetime. She intends to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology.

Research Assistant / Assistant Provider Liaison

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Sarah Heath, BA, is a Research Assistant in the Psychology Department at the University of Massachusetts Boston. As the caregiver liaison, she works with and supports families throughout their participation in the RISE study. Her interests include clinical assessments and the development of emotion regulation skills in children. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and work closely with children and their families. Research Assistant / Caregiver Liaison

Consultants 

Paul Yoder, PhD, brings to the project expertise in treatment research, autism spectrum disorders, mediation, moderation, communication, language, parent-child engagement states, parent linguistic input, and treatment efficacy studies in young children with autism.

 

Shannon Stirman, PhD, researches how to facilitate the high-quality delivery of evidence-based practices for psychosocial interventions in public sector mental health settings. Dr. Stirman’s framework, used in our project, evaluates fidelity consistent and inconsistent intervention adaptations.

 

Thomas Mackie, PhD, specializes in mixed methods studies that seek to expedite the translation of evidence into policy and practice to improve access and quality of pediatric behavioral healthcare.

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