About Dr. Lorna Catford: CATS Program Director

In the early 1970s I worked with children with autism in a hospital in Scotland, and later in an agency in Berkeley. I fell in love with these children and their unusual ways of meeting the world. At that point I had no idea that in 1993 my youngest child would be born with major disabilities; I diagnosed her with autism at 6 weeks of age (theoretically impossible), and later she was diagnosed with Rett syndrome, a severe manifestation of autism with multiple other disabilities.

Plunged into the autism/disability community as a parent, therapist and educator, my personal and professional life immediately started changing course towards a path of advocacy, support and education in this area of psychology. It began with an informal support and advocacy group for families of children with disabilities, started by my husband and myself, which continues in a modified form to this day. As director of SSU's undergraduate Psychology Internship program, I began receiving calls from parents desperate for trained individuals to work with their children. Hence the Collaborative Autism Training & Support Program was born. This is my passion.

In addition to creating and directing the Collaborative Autism Training and Support (CATS) Program, here is a synopsis of my other disability support and education work:

Disability Education Research & Action Project (since 2006)
Co-creating an organization at SSU that will serve as a center supports activities concerning disability in SSU and wider community. Current focus is the design of a Disability Studies interdisciplinary major and minor, and an autism certification.

Kids on Wheels Journal (since 2005)
Contribute articles about resources for families and caring for the caregiver.

Collaborative Autism Training and Support (CATS) Program (since 2005)
Direct an inter-agency project to train SSU students to work with children with autism, provide services to families, and offer autism seminars to the community.

Jewish Family Camp (since 2002)
Supervise SSU student counselors and provide parent support workshops at a camp for families of children with disabilities.

Developmental Disabilities Inc., Advisory Board (1999–2005)
Served as a parent representative on the advisory board for North Bay Regional Center, a state agency providing services to individuals with developmental disabilities in three counties.

SSU Undergraduate Psychology Internship Coordinator (since 1998)
Identify and collaborate with local agencies to provide field placement for about 60 students per semester, and provide on-campus supervision groups for those students.

Dushkin Publishers Special Education Advisory Board (since 1997)
Serve on editorial board to select articles from journals for annual monograph.

Co-director, Tuesday Night Special (since 1995)
Facilitate family support activities, write/disseminate newsletter of resources for families of children with special needs.

Disability Awareness & Community Service (1996)
Collaboratively taught a service-learning course in SSU's psychology department that included lecture, experiential activities, texts and guest speakers on the subject of disability.

Director, Special Parents Project (1995–1997)
Supervised 12 student research assistants in grant writing, survey preparation and analysis, data entry, and preparation of associated materials in a project to identify the experiences of parents of special needs children. Findings were presented at the international PHP conference.

Camp Me & My Family (1994–1996)
Supervised SSU student counselors and provided the parent support strand at a camp for families of children with disabilities.

Student Research and Teaching Assistant Supervisor (since 1990)
Consistently mentor 3–10 student assistants per semester in research, course support and independent projects. Conduct an ongoing TA/RA mentoring program.