The second annual meeting of The New England Center for Children’s (NECC®) Board of Advisors (BOA) took place on Wednesday, May 17, 2007 at the Downtown Harvard Club in Boston, MA.  Over 60 BOA members attended this annual meeting to learn more about the work being done at The New England Center for Children and in the field of autism.

The two-hour gathering included a welcome by Thomas J. Hollister, COO and CFO of Global Partners, LP and Co-Chair of NECC’s Capital Campaign Steering Committee, and a welcome and introduction by State Senator Edward Augustus, Jr., who emphasized the value of programs like those offered at The New England Center for Children in Massachusetts.  Senator Augustus was followed by keynote speaker, Dr. Judith Favell, the CEO of AdvoServ and former President of the Association for Behavior Analysis.  Dr. Favell spoke of the challenges of understanding and treating individuals with serious behavioral challenges such as autism and of her role working with NECC.  Following Dr. Favell, Vincent Strully, Jr., Chief Executive Officer & Founder of NECC, welcomed the group with an update on NECC’s first Capital Campaign for an Aquatic Center and on the ways in which NECC is disseminating expertise and research in the community.  Mr. Strully was followed by two panels of speakers moderated by Chief Operating Officer of NECC, Katherine E. Foster, each of which discussed these areas further.

The first panel was themed “Partnering with the Community” and included a presentation by Amy Geckeler, NECC’s Director of Consulting Services, about the role of the Partner Classroom program at NECC.  Frank Gagliardi, the Out of District Coordinator at Westwood Public Schools attested to the value of this program from the public school system’s perspective.  The final presenter of this panel was Anne Yas, the parent of a student currently being taught in a Partner Classroom.  Anne discussed the benefits of the program for her son and for her family.

The second panel encompassed “Research” and included presentations detailing NECC’s research and how we are disseminating our curriculum.  The first presenter was Rebecca MacDonald, Director of The New England Center for Children’s Intensive Instructional Preschool Program, who spoke about video modeling and joint attention. Next, Renee Mansfield, Director of NECC’s Autism Curriculum Encyclopedia (ACE®) presented on the ACE® and the role it could play outside of NECC.  The final panelist was William V. Dube, Associate Professor in Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Schriver Center, who spoke about the Schriver Center’s collaboration with NECC.

The meeting concluded with a touching personal tribute by Sharon Ruatto-Steadman who is the grandmother of a former NECC student and currently serves on NECC’s BOA.

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