Sally J. Rogers, Ph.D.

Professor Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute 2825 50th St. Sacramento, CA 95817 Office Phone:(916) 703-0264 E-Mail:sally.rogers@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu

Sally J. Rogers is a developmental psychologist, licensed to practice psychology in California and Colorado, and a Professor of Psychiatry at the M.I.N.D. Institute, University of California Davis. She is the principal investigator of several autism research projects, including one of the ten NIH/NICHD funded Collaborative Programs of Autism Research (CPEA): "Definition and Development of the Phenotype in Autism" and an interdisciplinary postdoctoral training grant for autism researchers. She is a recipient of a newly funded ACE Network project examining effects of early intervention in toddlers with autism. She is on the executive board of the International Society for Autism Research and recently completed her two year term as president. She is one of the editors of a new journal, Autism Research.

She received her Ph.D. from Ohio State University, with a specialization in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. She has spent her career studying cognitive and social development in young children with disabilities. She has published papers on cognitive development in children with profound mental retardation and on cognitive and social development of blind infants, as well as numerous papers on clinical and developmental aspects of autism; over 90 peer-reviewed papers in all. She has been very interested in imitation problems in autism for many years and has made seminal contributions to this line of autism research, including a recent book.

In addition to research, she is also a clinician, providing evaluation, treatment, and consultation to children and adults with autism and their families. The intervention model that she developed with her colleagues at University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; the Denver Model - is internationally known. In the last ten years she has worked closely with public school districts to incorporate best practices in autism into inclusive educational programs for children with autism. She is currently working on projects that examine the infant autism phenotype with Dr. Sally Ozonoff and Dr. Marian Sigman, and on testing the Early Start Denver Model as an effective infant/toddler treatments in collaboration with Dr. Geraldine Dawson, Dr. Annette Estes at the University of Washington, and Dr. Catherine Lord at University of Michigan. She is also involved in several projects involving personnel training, including the National Center for Professional Development in Autism with Dr. Sam Odom and Dr. Deborah Hatton of University North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Dr. Len Abbedutto at University of Wisconsin. Finally, she and Dr. Laurie Vismara are carrying out a study of personnel training in the Early Start Denver Model via telehealth technology, with Dr. Elixabeth Griffith at the University of Alabama, and Dr. Aubyn Stahmer at San Diego Children’s Hospital.

In addition to having a job that she loves, she has a full life outside of work with family; two adult daughters Sara and Amy, parents and sisters; and numerous interests, including her dogs, hiking and backpacking, cycling, kayaking, reading, cooking, gardening, yoga, and music, and, especially, laid back time with friends and family.