Special Education Program Faculty

Sarah Irvine Belson, Ph.D., Dean, Associate Professor, American University School of Education teaches EDU-502 Methods of Managing Pupils with Behavior Disorders, EDU-541 Foundations of Special Education for Exceptional Children, and EDU-545 Overview of All Exceptionalities: The Arts in Special Education. Dr. Irvine Belson received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from Arizona State University and specializes in technology in special education. Her research activities focus on infusing effective components of instructional design with emerging technology across the field of education, particularly for students with exceptionalities. Dr. Irvine has trained pre-service and in-service special education teachers in the area of electronic communication and technology integration. Through field-based research, she has successfully worked to integrate Internet-based activities into educational programs for rural and at-risk K-12 students. Her background in special education provides a knowledge-base for development of the types of support that assist educators to adaptively respond to a variety of individual differences in learning strategies among students.

Luanne Adams, Ph.D., teaches EDU-605 Methods of Psychoeducational Assessment for Learning Disabilities and Emotional Disturbance. She has worked at The Lab School of Washington for 18 years and directs the staff of 10 psychologists and three social workers providing psychotherapy, consultation, and diagnostic evaluations for Lab students and the community. Dr. Adams received her doctorate in clinical psychology from Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, specializing in learning disabilities and developmental psychopathology. From 1989 to 1992, she continued to develop and broaden her assessment skills by treating psychiatric inpatients at St. Frances Medical Center in Pittsburgh. She also worked with college students with learning disabilities at University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Adams worked as a diagnostician and therapist at The Lab School from 1985-1989 and for the past 14 years has been the Director of Psychological Services. She not only brings vast knowledge of mental health to her job, but enthusiasm, warmth and solid support to the staff as well as to students and parents. Also skilled as a researcher, she is leading with Roya Rassai some investigations of student achievement and outcomes in the next year.

Mary Allen Edgerton, Ph.D., teaches EDU-671 Foundations of Reading: Diagnosis and Remediation and is the Classroom Curriculum Coordinator for The Lab School of Washington. Dr. Edgerton also supervises The Lab School internships for graduate students. After receiving her BA from Drew University in 1991, Dr. Edgerton became a student in the MA program in Special Education: Learning Disabilities at American University, at The Lab School. After five years as a classroom teacher at The Lab School, Dr. Edgerton left to pursue her doctorate in Special Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. There she concentrated her Ph.D. on reading disabilities. Dr. Edgerton returned to The Lab School to direct the Summer School Tutoring program in 1997 and 1998 and became the Director of the Tutoring Training Program in 1999. She is beginning her 14th year at The Lab School developing new curriculum with and for the Lower School classroom teachers and assisting Junior High and High School reading and English. She is doing direct, daily supervision of the American University Interns in Lab School classrooms.

Lindy Rosen, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, teaches EDU-644 Language Development and Remediation and is the Director of the Speech-Language Pathology Department. Dr. Rosen has been with The Lab School for 15 years. She graduated as a Speech-Language Pathologist from the University of Cape Town, South Africa. Dr. Rosen obtained all the class medals for Speech-Language Pathology and received an award for achieving the highest standard of clinical ability in her years of study. The South African Speech And Therapy Association also honored Dr. Rosen with an award for maintaining the best academic standard in her university. She worked as a Speech/Language Pathologist at a Development Assessment Clinic and Children’s Hospital for a year after graduation. Dr. Rosen relocated to England where she worked at a school that mainstreamed children with learning disabilities. While living in London, Dr. Rosen completed a post-graduate degree for Speech-Language pathologists and others who wished to specialize in Dyslexia. Dr. Rosen then moved to the United States, and has been at The Lab School since. In addition to working full-time, Dr. Rosen completed her Ph.D. in Language and Communication. She is looking forward to publishing the results of her research and sharing her findings. Dr. Rosen works with a department of highly skilled and experienced Speech-Language pathologists. She continues to provide the high quality of service for which the department is renowned.

Cathy Crocker
Assistant Professor
Ed.D., University of Virginia
crocker@american.edu

Fiona James
Adjunct Professor
Special Education Resource Teacher
Montgomery County Public Schools
Ed.S., Special Education: Policy and Leadership
MA, Special Education: Learning Handicapped
fiona_c_james@mcpsmd.org

Leela Kramer
Adjunct Professor
Leila.kramer@labschool.org
Donna Pavluk
Adjunct Professor
pavluk@american.edu

Kimberly Palombo
Instructor & SELD Coordinator
MA, Special Education: Learning Disabilities
palombo@american.edu

Ellie Zartman
Adjunct Professor
MA, Special Education: Learning Disabilities
zartman@american.edu