2020-2021 ESP Section Executive
Chair:
Maria Rogers, Ph.D., C. Psych.
Associate Professor, University of Ottawa
Dr. Maria Rogers is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Rogers holds a Ph.D. in School and Clinical-Child Psychology from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto and completed her postdoctoral training at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children and McGill University.Dr. Rogers has broad interests in how adult-child relationships affect children’s learning and social-emotional development across various contexts. She has published extensively about the social-emotional and academic development of youth with ADHD across the childhood and adolescent period. Dr. Rogers is also interested in how community mental health agencies work with families and schools to meet the educational needs of vulnerable children and youth.
Dr. Rogers has received several federal and provincial awards and honours for her research, including grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Ontario’s Ministry of Research Innovation. She is also a Registered Psychologist with the College of Psychologists of Ontario and the Ordre des psychologues du Québec and has worked clinically with children, teachers, and families in several school districts, clinics, and hospitals in Ontario and Québec. Dr. Rogers is also a member of the NunatuKavut community of Southern Labrador and currently works with Indigenous youth in both urban and rural settings near Ottawa.
Past Chair:
Laurie Ford, Ph.D.
Director of Early Childhood Education
Director of Training, UBC School and Applied Child Psychology Program
Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education
University of British Columbia
Laurie is on faculty at UBC where she is currently the Director of Training for the Ph.D. Program in School and Applied Child Psychology and Director of the Early Childhood Education program. Her early professional background is in psychology and special education and she worked as a special educator, school psychologist, and pediatric psychologist before becoming an academic. She received a Ph.D. in School Psychology with a minor in Child Clinical Psychology from the University of Kansas (APA accredited), and completed her internship with the Nebraska Consortium in Professional Psychology (APA accredited) and a doctoral fellowship at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Pediatric Psychology. Prior to her move to Canada, Laurie was on faculty at Texas A & M University and the University of South Carolina. Her research and teaching have a strong focus on the ecological context of children and youth, diversity, cross-disciplinary work, and the importance of relationships in a wide array of contexts. She has particular interest in the assessment of young children, community-based services, and family-school-community relationships, especially the supporting newcomer families in Canada. An active participant in work and committees with CPA in recent years, she has served on the CPA Accreditation Panel and is currently an elected member of the CPA Board as Chair of the Council of Sections and a member of the Knowledge Sharing Group. Laurie looks forward to continued work with others in the ESP section to engage more and diverse school and educational professionals from across Canada in our section to make sure the strongest section we can be. When she is not working she enjoys spending time with friends outdoors in beautiful British Columbia, sitting in the sun (when they have it), cooking, gardening, good cider and wine, and hanging with her dogs Cooper and Gracie Belle.
Chair Elect:
Maria Kokai, Ph.D., C. Psych.
Private Practice
Toronto, Ontario
Dr. Maria Kokai is a registered psychologist with over 35 years of experience that includes work in school board and private practice settings. She obtained specialized experience in Scandinavia related to psychological services for deaf and hard of hearing children. She earned her PhD at the E. Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary, and has been practicing in the field of school psychology (initially in Europe, then in Canada) since 1980. As a school psychologist, she worked with a wide range of populations, including students with LD, Giftedness, as well as deaf and hard of hearing students. She was the Chief Psychologist at the Toronto Catholic District School Board for 14 years, overseeing and directing psychological services for the 90,000 students of this board, as well as participating in the selection, implementation and evaluation of various system-wide intervention programs in the areas of LD, resilience and mental health. She supported and facilitated collaboration in research, service delivery and training with other organizations (e.g. SickKids Hospital LD Research Program, Integra, Learning Disabilities Association of Ontario – LDAO, Psychology Foundation of Canada, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Friends Resilience), and helped establish and obtain CPA accreditation for the Toronto Area Residency Program with rotations in school psychology. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Psychological Association and the Psychology Foundation of Canada, and the former President of the Association of Chief Psychologists with Ontario School Boards. She is a current advisory member of the LDAO’s LD@School project, as well as a member of the Ontario Psychological Association’s Section on Psychology in Education Council. She is co-chair of the Cross-sectoral Psychology Working Group creating Guidelines for Diagnosis and Assessment of Children, Adolescents and Adults with Learning Disabilities. Consensus Statement and Supporting Documents (currently available as a CPA CE workshop).
Secretary/Treasurer:
Steven Shaw, Ph.D.
McGill University
School and Applied Child Psychology Program
Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology
Steven R. Shaw has been a school psychologist for 30 years after graduating from the University of Florida (MEd/EdS 1988; PhD 1991). The first 16 years were in service to children and families through clinical practice. He worked in schools, hospitals, and private practice. For 9 years, Steve was the lead psychologist at The Children’s Hospital in Greenville, SC, US. While there, he learned complex clinical skills (e.g., neonatal intensive care unit follow up, diagnosing rare genetic disorders, pain management for children with sickle cell anemia, neuropsychological assessment for children undergoing CNS radiation), financial management of a large department, supervision of professional staff, and development of internship and residency programs. He has received awards for his work in decreasing minority overrepresentation in special education in South Carolina and efforts to eliminate corporal punishment in schools in Florida. The second 14 years have been as a staff member at McGill University. For 7 years he was program director of the School and Applied Child Psychology program and Counselling Psychology programs. His research involves building skills for students with intellectual disabilities and narrowing the gap between research and clinical practice. Steve has published 84 refereed articles and book chapters, presented or authored over 245 other articles and reviews, provided over 100 workshops to teachers and other professionals, edited four books, and authored one book. He is on the editorial board of 7 international professional journals. He is former editor of School Psychology Forum and current editor of the Canadian Journal of School Psychology. He has served as an CPA program accreditation site visitor. His professional focus continues to be on expanding the capability of educational and school psychologists to provide mental health and academic supports to all students in Canada.
Member at Large:
Adam McCrimmon, Ph.D., R.Psych.
Director, Autism Spectrum Education, Research, and Training (ASERT)
School and Applied Cdild Psychology, Werklund School of Education
University of Calgary
Adam completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Calgary and his M.A. in Clinical-Developmental Psychology at York University. He then went back home to Calgary to complete his doctorate in School and Applied Child Psychology. A Registered Psychologist in Alberta since 2010, Adam has focused his research and clinical work on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). He currently directs the Autism Spectrum Education, Research, and Training (ASERT) lab at the University of Calgary where he oversees research on ASD and trains students in assessment of and intervention for individuals with ASD. He is a Certified Trainer for the ADOS-2 and ADI-R, considered “gold-standard” measures in the assessment of ASD and regularly conducts trainings to clinicians and researchers interested in using these measures. He was elected as a Member-at-Large of the School and Educational Psychology section of CPA in 2013 and also serves as an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of School Psychology. He is the father of two young boys and enjoys spending time with them and his family.
Member at Large:
Debra Lean, Ph.D.
School and Clinical Psychologist
Chief Psychologist, Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board
Dr. Debra Lean is a School and Clinical Psychologist with over 30 years of experience in school boards and hospital mental health departments, as well as private practice. She received her Master’s and Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Concordia University in Montreal. Dr. Lean has been registered with the College of Psychologists of Ontario since 1988, and serves periodically as an examiner for the College’s oral exams. She is the Chief Psychologist of the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, in the Greater Toronto Area, since 2002. Dr. Lean provided school psychology services for the Board for 13 years previous to her appointment as Chief. She has been the Chair of the Ontario Psychological Association’s Section on Psychology in Education since 2011 and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Canadian Journal of School Psychology. Dr. Lean is the co-author of two books on integrating school-based mental health services, Barriers to Learning: The Case for Integrated Mental Health Services in Schools (2010) and School-based Mental Health: A Framework for Intervention (2013). Her previous research activities include school-based mental health service models, a play-based mental health prevention program for primary age children with school adjustment difficulties, cognitive behavioral intervention for anxious students, and currently, alternative school psychology delivery models.
Member at Large:
Erica Makarenko, Psy.D., R.Psych.
Director, Integrated Services in Education (ISE) Clinic
Senior Instructor, School & Applied Child Psychology
Werklund School of Education
University of Calgary
Erica Makarenko grew up in southern New Jersey and completed her BSc degree in Psychology from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. She completed an MA degree in School Psychology and an Educational Specialist (EdS) degree from Rowan University in New Jersey. She completed her PsyD degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2012 with a specialization in School Neuropsychology. Before moving to Canada, Erica worked as a School Psychologist in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Erica came to the University of Calgary in 2012 to complete a postdoctoral fellowship in School Neuropsychology with the Werklund School of Education. Upon completing her postdoc in 2013, Erica continued to teach in the School & Applied Child Psychology program as an instructor. From 2013 until 2016, Erica worked as the Director of Instructional Impact for the James Chaput Centre for Educational Research Applications in Calgary, where she collaborated with a team of professionals to develop and pilot 21st century learning tools and academic programming. In 2016, Erica joined the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary as an Instructor and the Academic Coordinator of both the Master of Education in School & Applied Child Psychology program and the Master of Counselling program. Erica has been the Co-Academic Coordinator of the graduate certificate program in Educational Neuroscience: Applications for Teaching & Learning. In 2018, Erica assumed the role of Director of the Integrated Services in Education (ISE) Training Clinic at the University of Calgary, the outward-facing training facility for graduate students in Educational Psychology. Since 2017, Erica has served on the School Psychology Subcommittee of the Psychological Association of Alberta, is a Registered Psychologist in Alberta, and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist in the United States. She is married and lives in Calgary.
Student Representative:
Tasmia Hai, Ph.D. Student
School and Clinical Child Psychology Program
University of Alberta
Tasmia is entering her third year of doctoral studies in the School and Clinical Child Psychology at the University of Alberta. She previously completed her Masters at the University of Calgary in the School and Applied Child Psychology Program and an Honours Bachelors of Science in Human Biology and Psychology at the University of Toronto. Her research interests lie in understanding the behavioural and neurobiological underpinnings of ADHD. In the future, she hopes to work as a school/clinical psychologist in Ontario and advocate for school-based mental health, especially for new immigrant and ELL students.
Student Representative:
Alexandra Ruddy, Ph.D. Student
School and Applied Child Psychology Program
University of British Columbia
Alexandra is a second year PhD student in the School and Applied Child Psychology program at the University of British Columbia. She grew up in Ottawa and graduated from Queen’s University with a BA in Psychology. At Queen’s, she completed an Honours thesis in her final year that examined the relationship between adolescent depressive symptoms, risk-taking frequency and perception, and emotion regulation difficulties. Following her undergraduate degree, she completed a Master’s degree in Child Development at University College London. Her dissertation examined how socioeconomic disadvantage, parenting, and household chaos contributed to the developmental trajectories of emotional and behavioural problems of children with ADHD. Together, her previous education, research, and work in schools led her to pursue the MA in School Psychology at UBC. Her MA thesis, titled Secondary School Students’ Perceptions and Experiences of School Mental Health Climate, involved semi-structured interviews with high school students to explore the mental health climate of secondary schools in the Lower Mainland. She intends to continue her research in the area of school-based mental health as she continues her studies in the SACP doctoral program. Her main research interests involve youth and school-based mental health, including the mental health climates of high schools.
Student Representative
Paige Walker, M.A. Student
Paige Walker is a second-year MA School Psychology student at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She grew up in London, Ontario, where she completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at Western University. Her Master’s research aims to understand how students with various mental disorders perceive, experience, and navigate post-secondary education. Specifically, Paige is interested in exploring factors impacting access to Accessibility Services and accommodations for students with mental disorders. More broadly, Paige is interested in understanding what barriers these students face during their post-secondary education. She is passionate about supporting students and recognizes the importance of listening to student voices and using this data to inform policies and practices. Outside of the classroom, Paige enjoys hiking, biking, swimming, and spending time with family and friends.
