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Advisory Committee

Pati King-DeBaun, SLP

Pati is a speech language pathologist who has specialized in communication for children with severe physical and cognitive disabilities for the past nineteen years. She has worked extensively with infant/toddlers and their parents, preschool special needs population in the classroom setting and school age children with a wide range of physical and cognitive disabilities. She has written and continues to write and publish numerous articles, books and software (Storytime Series). She speaks throughout the world on the topics of interactive communication, augmentative communication, emergent literacy, and creativity for children with disabilities. She consults in a variety of classrooms with children who have a wide range of physical and cognitive disabilities. She is owner of the company Creative Communicating which develops and distributes materials that promote communication, creativity and emergent literacy in classrooms.

Karen Erickson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of North Carolina

Karen is the current Director of the Center for Literacy and Disability Studies. She holds a Ph.D. in Special Education and Literacy and is a former teacher of children with significant disabilities. Knowledgeable in literacy, assistive technologies, augmentative communication, and the learning characteristics of persons with significant disabilities, she is in great demand as a presenter, consultant, and program developer. Her assessment and intervention strategies are described in numerous journal articles and book chapters.

Dr. Linda Cameron

Dr. Cameron is Professor of Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. She holds a doctorate in applied psychology and is an expert in educational psychology, early childhood education, language and literacy development, parenting, theory of play, and play therapy. She is widely known for her media work on the TV show, Romper Room, as well as a daily Parenting Show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., and many guest appearances on television and radio. She has eight published books on the development of language and literacy, and has written numerous academic and professional papers on play, parenting, ESL issues, teacher education, music and literacy connections, and special education concerns. Dr. Cameron has consulted on education across Canada, the United States, Pakistan, South Africa, and England, and is currently in charge of major national Early Childhood Education projects for UNESCO in the middle east including the United Arab Emirates, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. She has had her own private practice specializing in learning assessment, play therapy, learning problems, and child management for over 20 years. An experienced and loved teacher, Dr. Cameron has taught at all levels of schooling from early childhood, preschool, primary, junior, secondary school, and university. She is the mother of three grown children.

Janice Light, Ph.D.

Janice is a Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the Pennsylvania State University. She is actively involved in research, personnel preparation, and service delivery in the area of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Her primary interest has been furthering understanding of the development of communicative competence, language, and literacy skills by individuals who require AAC. Dr. Light is the principal investigator on several federally-funded research grants to improve outcomes for individuals who use AAC. She is one of the project directors of the Augmentative and Alternative Communication Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center (AAC-RERC), a virtual research consortium funded by the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research. In 1996, Dr. Light was recognized as the Don Johnston Distinguished Lecturer by the International Society of Augmentative and Alternative Communication for her leadership in the AAC field. In 1999, she received the Dorothy Jones Barnes Outstanding Teaching Award and in 2002, she received the Helen G. and Evan G. Patishall Outstanding Research Achievement Award at Penn State University. Janice is a board member of ACCPC.