Curricula for Learners with Autism - Faculty

Fawn Anderson, MA, is an autism specialist with the Northwest Regional ESD. Ms. Anderson develops and implements intensive behavioral programs and provides consultation to teachers, parents, and other professionals working with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Ms. Anderson has worked as an early childhood special education teacher and consultant. She has presented numerous autism trainings to teachers and other professionals in Oregon, Alabama, Minnesota, and Arkansas.

Laura Anderson, MEd, is an autism specialist with Northwest Regional Educational Service District (NWRESD) and serves as a consultant to school district staff and families supporting ASD students. She has presented numerous trainings on ASD related topics for classroom and school-wide staff and is skilled in consultation and instruction on autism spectrum disorders for educators, families and children. As a former special education teacher, Ms. Anderson coordinated the development of a new self-contained grade 6-12 program, supervised and trained educational assistants, and has expertise in a variety of assistive technologies and programs for students with special needs.

Tamra Hass, MS, is a licensed speech pathologist and has worked with children with communication delays in school districts and in private practice. She has worked for the Columbia Regional Program as an autism specialist/speech pathologist, and is currently the Columbia Regional Program’s autism program chair, where she trains and mentors new autism specialists and collaborates with school administration on issues of policy and procedures. Ms. Hass has authored two computer-based assessments and curricula for autism spectrum disorders, developed and presented regional workshops on the subject of autism, and has extensive experience applying and individualizing positive behavioral intervention strategies.

Mika Borbon, MS, CCC-SLP, is a certified speech-language pathologist (SLP) and autism consultant specializing in students of all ages with autism spectrum disorders. She is experienced in a variety of interventions including discrete trial, pivotal response training, structured teaching, social stories, and PECS. With over 10 years experience in providing consultation to staff working with students with autism, Ms. Borbon is particularly interested in social cognition, as well as the use of video modeling for teaching functional routines, work and play skills, and appropriate social interaction skills. Her recent presentations include: social cognition for high-functioning autism and Asperger’s syndrome, autism spectrum disorders for the general educator, and visual supports for the home.

Dianne Gollhofer, MS, is currently an autism specialist with Columbia Regional Programs (CRP).  She serves school district staff and families as a consultant as well as doing educational eligibilities and functional behavioral assessments for ASD. She has presented numerous trainings on ASD related topics for classroom and school-wide staff including numerous STAR trainings. She worked in conjunction with PSU and Portland Public Schools for three years as a STAR facilitator and trainer in a training classroom. She taught in an elementary self contained Regional Programs Autism Training Site (RPATS) classroom for one year where the STAR curriculum was implemented daily with students of varying eligibilities.

April Gouldsbrough, MS, is an autism consultant for the Beaverton School District providing training, assessment, and consultation services to school age teams in order to support them in teaching students with autism spectrum disorder and Asperger’s syndrome. She has over five years’ experience teaching kindergarten students in a self-contained classroom with a intensive autism program that uses applied behavior analysis (ABA), routines, pivotal response training and discrete trial through the application of the STAR curriculum.

Emily Forest, MS, is an Autism Specialist serving North Clackamas School District. She has been working with students on the autism spectrum in classrooms that use discrete trial, functional routines and pivotal response training, the components of STAR/FACTER, for 15 years. Ms. Forest is particularly interested in helping staff  to understand how to create and implement plans for students that increase student's ability to manage their own behavior.