 Elizabeth Watson is a practicing speech pathologist, specialising in the treatment of children with learning difficulties and autism and is the Clinical Director and Program Supervisor at the Lizard Centre.
Elizabeth is an associate member of The Association for Behaviour Analysis and was a consultant in ABA to the ACT Department of Education and Community Services from 1998 to 2002.
Liz holds a Licentiate of Australian College of Speech Therapists (1968 Sydney) and has been a member of Speech Pathology Australia since that time. Liz has a Post-graduate Diploma (Distinction) in treating adults and children with Specific Learning Difficulties from the Royal Society of the Arts—London (1997).
In 2006, after many years of work and dedication, Elizabeth had the satisfaction of opening Woodbury a school for children with autism which uses ABA methodologies. Liz is the Clinical Director and a founding Director of Woodbury Autism Education and Research.
Elizabeth has qualifications in psycho therapy and also life membership of the NSW Private Speech Pathologists Association –awarded for service to private practice. Elizabeth sits on the Autism Spectrum Disorder Speech Pathology Advisory Group and is a Media Spokesperson for Speech Pathology Australia in NSW on Autism.
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Nicole is the Managing Director of the Lizard Children’s Centre. She lives in Sydney with her husband and 2 sons. Nicole left a career in Marketing and Public Relations in 1999 when her son was diagnosed with autism. In 2003 she joined with Speech Pathologist and Behavioural Clinician, Elizabeth Watson, to establish the Lizard Children's Centre, which provides evidence-based intensive early intervention programs for children with autism and developmental delays.
Nicole is the founding Director and CEO of Autism Awareness, which she set up in 2007 in order to increase awareness of autism in the wider Australian community. Nicole is a frequent public speaker on ASD and facilitates a number of educational seminars around the country. She sat on the Federal Government's Autism Advisory Board prior to the introduction of the Helping Children with Autism funding package, and continues to work for better access to and government support for evidence-based intensive early intervention programs for children with autism. Nicole and her colleague, Dr James Morton, were the instigators of the 1000hours campaign in 2009 and this year, Nicole hosted the inaugural Australian National Autism Summit.
In June 2011 Nicole was asked to present on the work of Autism Awareness at the United Nations in New York.
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Gail is a Board Certified Assistant Behaviour Analyst (BCaBA). After completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Minnesota, Gail spent the early part of her career working in the Human Resources and Health sectors. However, since relocating to Australia in 1999 Gail has worked and studied in ABA, forming an integral part of Lizard in its early years.
In 2006 Gail returned to the United States to take up a position as Senior Behaviour Therapist at the prestigious Lovaas Institute. Gail lead home-based teams of ABA therapists and a significant part of her work focussed on training parents to generalise their children's acquired skills and manage their challenging behaviours at home.
Lizard was very excited to have Gail return to us in January 2011 in the role of Associate Director/Program Supervisor. Gail plays a central role in supporting both the Clinical and Administrative Directors in procedural and clinical development at Lizard.
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 Michelle Furminger is a Program Supervisor at Lizard Children's Centre and started working in Behaviour Analysis in 1998.
Michelle has a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) from the University of Tasmania and has attended many professional development training courses since that time. In 2007, Michelle was registered internationally as a Board Certified Associate Behaviour Analyst (BCABA) after completing a post graduate degree in Applied Behaviour Analysis from the University of North Texas U.S.A.
Michelle regularly attends ABA International Conferences (Chicago 2005 and 2008, Sydney 2007, Denver 2011) and presented two research papers related to autism (toilet training and expressive language) at the ABA International Conference in Phoenix in 2009.
As well as Program Supervision, Michelle consults on the toilet training and feeding elements of many ABA programs.
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 Alayna came to us from California, USA, with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Spanish from the University of Nevada, Reno, a Masters in Psychology in Applied Behaviour Analysis from the University of the Pacific, and a Ph.D in Special Education/Applied Behaviour Analysis from the Ohio State University. She was the Clinic Coordinator at Buckeye Behaviour Analysis Services, at the Ohio State University. Alayna is also a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA), licenced special education teacher, and has a wealth of clinical experience along with her years as a researcher, educator and presenter.
Alayna's areas of interest include the practical application of evidence-based practices to address challenging behaviour and the maintenance of treatment integrity within programs and beyond. She has also been involved numerous research projects including managing vocal stereotypy, generalization of PECS and staff training.
We are very happy to have Alayna's considerable experience and expertise here at Lizard in the roles of Program Supervisor, Behaviour Consultant and Trainer.
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 Cassie le Fevre is a Program Supervisor at Lizard. She is also a registered Psychologist, completing a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology through the University of Tasmania in 2009.
Cassie joined the Lizard Centre team with 10 years experience in the area of Applied Behavioural Analysis. After receiving initial training in Australia, she completed an internship in verbal behaviour/ behavioural analysis with Dr Jim Partington and Dr Mark Sundberg in San Francisco, USA. Cassie is also completing units for a graduate certificate in Applied Behavioural Analysis through the University of North Texas in order to receive certification as a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA). Cassie previously worked as a Child Protection Case Worker in Tasmania.
Cassie has worked with children and adolescents on the autism spectrum in Centre, home and school settings. Cassie has been contracted as an Autism Consultant for various schools in Tasmania more recently to several schools in Sydney.
Cassie is also a Coordinator of our Social Skills Group Program. She presented a paper on using the observations of typical peers in order to teach play skills to children with autism at the Association for Behaviour Analysis International Convention in Phoenix in 2009.
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 Nicole Williams is a Program Supervisor at Lizard as well as providing in home and in-school behaviour management services.
Nicole achieved a Postgraduate Diploma in Psychology from Macquarie University in 2004 following on from her Bachelor of Arts (Psychology) which she also completed at Macquarie Universisty
Nicole has been an autism-specific Educator and ABA Therapist for over 14 years. She has worked with children with Autism ranging in age from 18 months to 20 years in Australia and in the United States.
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 Sibel Tenish is a Program Supervisor at Lizard. Sibel completed a Master of Health Science (Behavioural Science) at the University of Sydney and has a Bachelor of Arts degree (Psychology) from Macquarie University. Sibel also completed a training internship in Precision Teaching at the acclaimed Morningside Teachers’ Academy in Seattle, USA. Sibel is currently completing her Psychology internship.
Sibel began working at Lizard in 2003 in our Educational Solutions academic remedial programs, coordinating and overseeing these programs. She continues to provide consultation and training for these programs.
Sibel has also worked for many years as a Senior Behaviour Therapist, and more recently as a Program Supervisor and Behaviour Consultant.
Sibel’s skills are highly valued in introducing children to their ABA programs and quickly developing their attending skills as well as overcoming any challenging behaviours, to provide the child with a positive and motivating therapy experience.
Sibel also assists the training of new ABA therapists by teaching
and demonstrating practical therapy techniques to new junior therapists.
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 Kerri McDonnell is a program supervisor at Lizard Centre. Kerri began her training in ABA in 2005 after receiving an Honours degree in Applied Psychology from the University of Ulster.
While visiting Australia in 2006 she was introduced to the Lizard Centre and began working on home programs under Lizard supervision. Following this, Kerri returned to her native Ireland to take up a position at the internationally acclaimed Red Door ABA School in Dublin where she became proficient in the methodologies of Precision Teaching and Verbal Behaviour. On her return to Australia Lizard was delighted to sponsor her Australian work visa.
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 Maria Carlson is a Program Supervisor as well as Group Coordinator at the Lizard Centre. Maria comes from the United states with a Bachelor of Science Child Psychology from the University of Minnesota and is nearing the completion of her BCaBA.
Maria has worked with children with disabilities since 2001, specialising in ABA and autism since 2006 at the renowned Lovaas Institute Midwest, Minneapolis. She has worked with individuals on the spectrum ranging in ages from 24 months to adulthood. Her past experience has focused on both program writing as well as staff and parent training.
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 Jana Noorland moved from New Zealand to Sydney to take up the role of Program Supervisor at Lizard. She studied at the university of Waikato and completed a Bachelor of Social Sciences with Honours (Psychology), Master of Applied Psychology in Applied Behaviour Analysis and a Postgraduate Diploma in the Practice of Psychology in Applied Behaviour Analysis.
Jana has over 6 years experience in the field of Applied Behaviour Analysis, working as an in-home ABA therapist, completing her psychology internship at a Special Education School and moving on to become a Behaviour Support for children and adults with autism and / or disabilities.
Jana is a Registered Psychologist (General Scope) in New Zealand and a Registered Psychologist in NSW. She is also preparing to sit the exam to become a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA).
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 Emily came to us from Co. Cork in Ireland. Her involvement in ABA started in 2004 when she began working as a junior therapist on home based programmes. Since then she trained as an Early Childhood Teacher (0-8 years) attaining a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Early Childhood Studies from University College of Cork, Ireland. On graduating Emily commenced work in one of Ireland's biggest charity organisations, St. Josephs Foundation in the early intervention pre-school which focused strongly on ABA.
Due to her interest in Autism and Augmentative Alternative Communication she pursued a Postgraduate Diploma in Speech and Language Therapy from University of Greenwich, UK. During the course of her studies Emily got the opportunity to work with the UK's leading Augmentative, Alternative Communication (AAC) team on the 'Find a Voice project' and on complex needs teams that focused on clinic, home based and ABA school based environments for 0-18 year olds on the autistic spectrum. She is trained in Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and Makaton.
Emily has worked as a Senior Behavioural Therapist and Speech and Language Therapist since 2009 working jointly with B.C.B.A programmers on home based programmes. Her other professional interests include family/school based training, evidence based practise, AAC-generalization of PECS, social skills and school readiness groups.
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 Bec Middeldorp formally joined the Lizard Centre in 2008 after years working as a junior ABA therapist whilst completing her studies at the University of Sydney in Occupational Therapy.
In addition Bec has worked for 4 years at the renowned Holdsworth Community Centre in Sydney’s East as a Support worker/team leader Children/Adult Disability services. Bec’s unique blend of skills in both areas of Occupational Therapy and Behaviour Analysis makes her a valuable addition
to the Lizard team.
Bec provides OT assessments and input into our early intervention programs assessments.
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 Tiffany Erler is a speech-language pathologist from Baltimore, MD in the United States. She holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Speech-Language Pathology/Audiology and a Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology from Loyola College in Maryland. Tiffany completed a clinical fellowship at the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Center for Autism and Related Disorders, where she continued to work as a speech-language pathologist for 4 years.
Tiffany has a strong background and significant experience in the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders from 3 to 18 years of age. Her other professional interests include apraxia and augmentative-alternative communication. Tiffany enjoys participating in a wide range of continuing education opportunities to broaden her knowledge in the fields of ASD and speech-language pathology. She is trained in the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and Prompts for Restructuring Oral Muscular Phonetic Targets (PROMPT).
She holds the Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) and is a Certified Practicing Speech Pathologist with Speech Pathology Australia (SPA).
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 Ryan trained as a Junior ABA Therapist in 2006 and since that time has worked in ABA and autism full time. Ryan has worked with many children and families over that time as a therapist and school shadow.
Ryan has worked with children across the Autism Spectrum and as a Group Therapist. Ryan was recruited through our Talent Identification Scheme and currently works in the role of Senior Behaviour Therapist.
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 Annika Radia moved to Sydney from London where she completed a Bachelor of Science (Honors) in Cognitive Science (Psychology Pathway) and a Masters of Education in Special Education, specializing in Autism in Children.
Annika began working with children in mainstream schools, school play schemes, special units in mainstream schools and as a learning support assistant with children with special needs, in England, as well as India, South Africa and Dubai.
She began working in the area of Applied Behavior Analysis in 1998 , training at the UK Young Autism Project – part of the UCLA Multi Site Project – where along with working with children with autism was also involved in replicating Dr. Lovaas’ 1987 research paper.
Since leaving the UK Young Autism Project in 2006, Annika worked as a private therapist, with a number of service providers in the London area before joining the Lizard team in Australia.
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 Maureen first trained as a Junior ABA Therapist in Ireland in 2005. On moving to Australia in 2009 Maureen worked on various home programmes supervised by the Lizard Centre. She has completed a Bachelor of Social Science (University College Cork) and before moving to Australia completed her Masters in Health Promotion (National University of Ireland, Galway).
Maureen joined the Lizard Centre in 2010 and currently works in the role of Senior Behavioural Therapist.
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 Cathy completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychoanalysis/Philosophy in Ireland and has been working in ABA schools in Dublin, including the famous Saplings school. Cathy also spent almost 2 years at Woodbury in Baulkham Hills in 2008 and 2009 and we are very happy that she now returned to Australia to work at Lizard. She is currently sitting the exams to become a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA).
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 Susie has a Bachelor of Psychology with Honours from Macquarie University. Prior to commencing her university studies, Susie spent two years employed as a preschool childcare assistant, and also taught gymnastics to primary school aged children for several years. Susie has completed the therapist training for the Cool Kids Anxiety Program at Macquarie University and is currently studying and undergoing Supervision for registration as a Board Certified Associate Behaviour Analyst. Susie began working as a junior therapist on Lizard programs in 2008 and now also fills the roles of Group therapist, a tutor in our academic remedial programs and senior ABA therapist.
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 Kate has a Bachelor of Arts-Psychology with a diploma of Education (Primary) Degree at Macquarie University. She received her ABA training at Lizard in 2008 and has experience working on In-home Programs as well as Pre-School Shadowing.
In June 2008, Kate joined the Lizard team working on ABA programs as well as tutoring for our Educational Solutions Programs. Prior to her work at Lizard, Kate volunteered with English and Mathematics programs for learning disabled children
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 Madhura is a Senior Behaviour Therapist at Lizard Centre. Madhura completed her diplomas in Remedial Education and in Early Childhood Care and Education in Mumbai, India. She has been actively involved in CAER (Centre for Ability Enhancement and Recreation), a therapy and support centre for children and adolescents and young adults with disabilities in Mumbai founded by her mother. Madhura has travelled throughout India providing training for the parents and carers of children with disabilities. She completed a Bachelor of Applied Social Science from the Australian College of Applied Psychology (ACAP) in 2009. Madhura is currently studying and undergoing Supervision for registration as a Board Certified Associate Behaviour Analyst
After coming to Australia, Madhura worked as a junior therapist on Lizard in-home programs until being recruited through our talent identification scheme into the role of Senior Behaviour Therapist. Madhura also works as a groups therapist and tutor for our academic remedial programs.
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 After completing a Bachelor of Psychology and Education at the University of Auckland Jackie started work as a Junior ABA Therapist in Auckland New Zealand for the Centre for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) for a period of two years. Following this time she worked as a Senior Therapist in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates for a year and a short placement at the CARD office in San Jose California. Taking a few years out to travel and see the world Jackie then worked as the Autism Advisor in Brisbane before returning to ABA and joining the Lizard Team.
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 Claire first started working as a junior therapist on ABA home programmes whilst she was studying abroad in the UK at Sussex University and quickly developed an interest in working and teaching children with Autism.
When she graduated in 2008 with a bachelor in Sociology with Social Psychology she went on to work at a small independent ABA school called Step by Step in East Sussex. Here she received ongoing training in the principles of ABA and worked intensively with a number of children across the spectrum in a small classroom setting with the aim of making learning as reinforcing and enjoyable as possible.
In 2009 Claire moved back home to Australia to be closer to her family and started working at the Lizard Centre as a Senior Behaviour Therapist.
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 Sarah is in her final semester of a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology and Anthropology) degree at the University of Sydney.
Sarah joined the Lizard Centre team in 2008 and currently works as a Senior Behaviour Therapist and Educational Solutions tutor. Prior to this, Sarah worked as a therapist on home programs and a preschool shadow. She has also worked as an in-home respite carer for children with ASD
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 Claudia MedeirosClaudia moved to Sydney from Canada where she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology (Honours) from McMaster University. Upon completing her studies, she took two years off to teach English in Mexico and Spain working with children and adults. She then completed a Masters in Child Psychology (from Instituto Tecnico de Estudios Aplicados). Soon after arriving in Sydney, she trained as a junior ABA therapist at Lizard Centre in 2009. She has been working full time on various in-home programs and as a preschool shadow supervised by Lizard Centre since then. Claudia joined the Lizard team in 2011 to work as a Senior Behaviour Therapist. She also works as a group therapist and as a tutor in our Educational Solutions programs.
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 Hayley completed her Bachelor of Biomedical Science from the University of Newcastle as well as a Graduate Diploma in Psychology from the University of Sydney. Hayley trained as a junior therapist through Lizard and has worked with many families on their in-home programs. Hayley has worked as a group therapist in Lizard's social skills program and was since selected through our talent identification scheme into the role of Senior Behaviour Therapist.
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 Charmaine Fraser has co-ordinated and facilitated training courses at Lizard for the last seven years. She studied for a Bachelor of Behaviour Studies (Psychology) and holds a Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment.
Prior to studying and working in early intervention Charmaine worked for many years in financial services. She has two children the eldest has an Autism Spectrum Disorder.
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