Professional Development

Debra Voll - Scottsdale, Arizona
Debra Voll is a Primary Communication Disorders teacher at Desert Shadows Elementary School in Scottsdale, Arizona. Since 1990, she has taught a self-contained kindergarten and first grade communication disorders class, through a team approach with two teachers, a speech-language pathologist and three instructional aides. The classroom population includes twelve children with severe language learning disabilities, autism and other pervasive developmental disorders, as well as emotional and behavioral challenges.

Ms. Voll received a B.S. in Education in 1973 from Illinois State University and obtained a Masters of Education in Educational Leadership with Distinction from Northern Arizona University in 1996. She was nominated in 1992 for the National PTA's Phoebe Apperson Hearst Outstanding Educator Award, and has been awarded numerous venture grants for innovative projects, including the involvement of therapy dogs in the classroom.

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Jane Murphy - New York City
Jane Murphy is a classroom teacher for District 75 CityWide Special Education in New York City. She is currently working with a team of teachers to launch a pilot inclusive education program to adapt two community classrooms for children with and without identified special needs representing a range of emotional, social and cognitive functioning, as well as physical and learning disabilities. Prior to this new project, she spent ten years in the district working in a program designed for children with severe emotional disturbances.

Ms Murphy received her B.A. from Rutgers University in 1984 and received her Masters in Special Education from Long Island University in 1992. She was a MetLife Booth-Ferris Fellow for the Impact II National Teacher Policy Institute in 1998-99, and attained Early Childhood Generalist status through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification in 1998.

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Connie Foster - Wichita, Kansas
Connie Foster has been a classroom teacher at Levy Special Education Center in Wichita, Kansas since 1992. Connie is the vocational educator and transition coordinator for the building. She works with all students over the age of 14 and their families to develop the necessary skills and supports needed to be successful as adults. Connie also supervises all of the community experiences for this group of students. Her students are profoundly mentally retarded, physically disabled, or have sensory impairments or deficits in social skills. All are language delayed.

Ms. Foster received her B.A. from Wichita State University in 1974, as well as her Masters of Education/Special Education in 1998. In 1997, she was named Distinguished High School Classroom Teacher of the Year in the Wichita Public School District and has received two Kansas CEC mini-grants.

Connie is a member of the Kansas Deaf Blind Advisory Council, the New Frontiers Transition Council and the Kansas Alternate Assessment Advisory Council. During the summer of 2004 she will be teaching an academy to special education teachers in the state of Kansas on Standards Based Instruction.

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Jeannine Perez - New Mexico
Jeannine Perez has been a cross-categorical special education teacher for the Los Lunas School District in New Mexico since 1994. At Katherine Gallegos Elementary School, her class of eleven students includes children with dyslexia, seizure disorders, learning disabilities, autism, physical disabilities and severe emotional and behavioral disabilities.

Ms. Perez received her B.S. in elementary education and her Masters in Special Education from Illinois State University. She received her Ed.D. in Art Education from the same university in 1996. She has been awarded numerous research grants and in 1998 was awarded the First Place Quality of Education Award in New Mexico, as well as the Fulbright Memorial Award to Japan.

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Susan McGilvray -
Susan McGilvray is currently the Learning Strategist on a collaborative team, which includes two general education instructors and a speech-language pathologist. She co-teaches 20 students in this environment, in addition to providing a resource center for students who need it. The disabilities of her students range from mild to moderately learning disabled, emotionally disturbed and other health impaired.

Ms. McGilvray received her B.A. in 1997 from the College of Wooster and received her Masters of Education from the College of William and Mary in 1997. In 1989, she was recognized as Exceptional Student Education Teacher of the Year in Duval County, as well as Teacher of the Year in Central Riverside Elementary. In 1998, Sparrow Road Intermediate School voted her Teacher of the Year and that same year, she became certified as Master Teacher in Middle Childhood through the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

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Evelyne Noel - Fairfax County, Virginia
Evelyne Noel is currently Resource Teacher at Glasgow Middle School, the most diverse school socio-economically and ethnically in Fairfax County, Virginia. She works with 6th, 7th and 8th graders and supports staff in a variety of ways. She previously was a special educator at Phillips Programs in Annandale, Virginia, a day placement for severely emotionally disabled youth, ages ranging from 9 to 15. There, she implemented the Circle of Courage, a program for at-risk youth based on Native American traditional values and presented it to participants at the Metropolitan Consortium of Special Education Schools conference. She uses her extensive traveling and teaching experience in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean to bring an awareness of the larger world to the classroom.

Ms. Noel-Sayenga received a B.A. in psychology from Hunter College in 1973 and received a Masters in Special Education from George Mason University in 1989.

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Kris Bujold - Albuquerque, New Mexico
Kris Bujold is currently a special education teacher in the Grant Middle School Behavior Intervention Program in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The program provides district-wide service to middle school students who are seriously emotionally and/or behaviorally disordered. She designed, developed, and trained staff in a successful token economy system in the classroom to enhance and support the vocational component of the existing Crane Reynolds Behavior Management Program.

Ms. Bujold received her B.A. in Special Education from the University of New Mexico in 1990 and in 1998 was recognized as Special Educator of the Year by the New Mexico Council for Exceptional Children.

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Vickie Shufton - Pahrump, Nevada
Vickie Shufton is currently lead teacher in a specialized self-contained program she created in 1996 for seriously disturbed high school students. The Ground Zero Program is a part of the Nye County School District in Pahrump, Nevada and was created in response to a growing need for an alternative setting for students with emotional disturbances. She has also served as Department Chair for Special Education, as well as Transition Coordinator in Pahrump High School.

Ms. Shufton received a B.A. from Portland State University in 1992 and received a Masters of Education in 1994 from the same university. In 1993 she was awarded a focus scholarship for advanced studies in serious emotional disturbance and in 1997 was a recipient of the Parvin Foundation Grant, which is awarded for innovation in special education classroom enterprise.

2001: Received another Parvin Foundation Grant to fund the Ground Zero Behavior Bank Project, a transition-based token economy.

2003: Ed.S. in School Psychology

Current: Program Specialist for Behavior, Kern County Superintendent of Schools, Kern County California. Provide information and training to teachers, administrators, paraeducators and parents throughout Kern County to improve educational and behavioral outcomes for students.

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Ann Greiner -
Ann Greiner has worked with moderately to mildly mentally challenged students with emotional and behavioral disabilities for twenty-two years. Currently, she works as an Interrelated teacher for students whose exceptionalities include learning and mental disabilities, emotional and behavioral disorders, ADHD, and other health impairments. The goal of the program is to integrate and include the exceptional student into the regular classroom and serve as a part of a departmentalized model for students that are self-contained.

Ms. Greiner received a B.A. in 1962 from LaGrange College and received her Masters in Mental Retardation from George Peabody College in 1966. Recognition she has received includes the Walt Disney Salutes the American Teacher Award in 1994, the CEC Outstanding Achievers Award in 1995, the United Way/JC Penney Golden Rule Award in 1996, and the State Farm Good Neighbor Award for May 1999.