Emily Dunn is a certified Executive Function coach, with a degree in health sciences.  She has broad experience in retail, graphic design, as a managing editor for a major New York City publishing company, and as a personal and group athletic coach. All of these positions require careful planning and organization, attention to detail, and an ability to motivate others.  As an Executive Function coach, Emily has supported high school and college students in their academic work, and young adults in making a transition to college or the workforce.  She collaborated in developing a teaching planner system to educate those with executive function challenges in short- and long-term planning, as well as in balancing all the activities of life.

 

Emily directs, FOLLOW THROUGH ON YOU, the arm of the program which employs coaching to support the use of skills and coping strategies to execute a plan in real life.  Direct support is provided in setting attainable goals, organization, planning, and prioritizing, initiating, time management, flexibility of thought, self-regulation and perseverance through challenges, metacognition, self-advocacy, and self-care.  The coach practices with and helps the client implement effective social skills, social communication, and independent living skills at school, at work, and at home.

Dr. Michelle Dunn is a psychologist, therapist, and Professor of Neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She is director of the Montefiore-Einstein Center for Autism and Communication Disorders, where children, adolescents, and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder, communication disorders, attention deficit disorder, social anxiety disorder and related disorders, receive individual and group therapies.

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Dr. Dunn's interest in developmental disabilities, and how children learn most effectively began at Boston University, from which she graduated with a degree in special education. She then worked as a teacher in the NYC public schools.  Following her doctoral work in cognitive neuroscience at the City University of New York, she began her research career in brain behavior relationships in children with developmental disabilities and established the center. She has published numerous journal articles, chapters, books and even a game called The Conversation Game. She has provided staff training to many local New York suburban schools, in the New York City Public Schools, and throughout the world, including in Thailand and Guam.Her current work involves developing, implementing, and empirically assessing innovative treatments. Her great joy is in translating what she learns through research into clinical practice.  

 

Dr Dunn directs CAAPABLE (Comprehensive Adolescent/Adult Preparation for a Better Life Experience), the therapeutic arm of the program, which addresses development of: 1) insight through exploration of strengths, weaknesses, values, and ways in which one can make a living and a contribution, to support self-determination, and educational and job-related decision making,

2) foundational skills including social communication, knowledge of social rules, executive function strategies, and independent living skills, and

3) coping skills, developed through Cognitive Behavioral, Acceptance and Commitment as well as Narrative therapies.