After receiving her A.B. from the College of William and Mary and M.Ed. from the University of Florida, Pam began her career in education as a teacher working with special needs students for nearly ten years. She then received her Ed.S. degree in School Psychology from the University of Central Florida (UCF) and began her work as a school psychologist in 1984. Pam worked for the Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) until her retirement in 2008; at that time she was able to focus solely on her private practice which had been established several years previously. Pam has experience working with students from preschool through college as well as those having special needs such as language and learning disabilities, AD/HD, autism spectrum disorders, and emotional or behavioral problems. Pam has had the opportunity to participate in a number of special experiences during her career. She has served as a book reviewer for the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) and Florida Association of School Psychologists (FASP). She also worked on the development of the OCPS handbook for school psychologists from its initiation and during its yearly revision. Pam chaired the OCPS Standards of Practice Committee and participated in the mentoring program for new school psychologists for a number of years. She taught the assessment classes in the UCF School Psychology program for two years. In addition, Pam worked on a number of special projects with her colleagues in the past. These included: a diagnostic reading assessment leading to an individualized intervention plan, research about what works in reading intervention, an assessment model for Attention-Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD), and curriculum-based assessment (CBA) procedures and related interventions for reading, math, and written language. Pam and her colleagues did numerous presentations and training sessions associated with these projects within the OCPS, for other Florida school systems, and at FASP and NASP conferences.
Pam has been fortunate to receive a number of awards and honors during the course of her career. She was named School Psychologist of the Year by the Orange County Association of School Psychologists (OCASP) in 2008 and received the same award from FASP in 2009. She was a nominee for the NASP School Psychologist of the Year award in 2010. Pam earlier was the co-recipient of a FASP research award for reading and a service award from the Orange County Reading Council.
Pam believes very strongly that the purpose of any evaluation she conducts with a student is to identify what factors are contributing to his or her difficulties and what strengths he or she possesses. In addition, it is imperative that the evaluation lead to an intervention and accommodation plan which will allow the student to be more successful. Pam believes that an evaluation must be comprehensive and include several critical components. The first is a discussion of parental and school concerns about the student in order to identify the specific questions that the evaluation will answer and to determine what assessment activities should be completed to answer those questions. Assessment activities typically consist of a parent history and teacher information forms, a review of school records, rating scales completed by parents, teachers, and the student depending on his or her age, and the administration of a wide range of tests to the student. When assessment is completed, Pam writes a detailed evaluation report which includes results and, most importantly, recommendations. Finally, Pam holds a post-evaluation conference with the parents and older students to ensure that they thoroughly understand the evaluation results and her recommendations.