Meet the Research Team

Robin McWilliam, Ph.D.
Director of the Siskin Center for Child and Family Research
The Siskin Endowed Chair of Research in Early Childhood Education, Development and Intervention

Dr. McWilliam is one of the nation's leading researchers in early intervention/early childhood special education (EI/ECSE). As director of our research center, he serves as the new Siskin Endowed Chair of Research in Early Childhood Education, Intervention and Development. Most recently, he was the director of the Center for Child Development at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville. Before that, he was a Senior Scientist and Professor at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was the founder and director of the National Individualizing Preschool Inclusion Project, working in 15 states. He is the foremost investigator of engagement in children with disabilities and is the author, with Amy Casey, of the only book on child engagement, Engagement of Every Child in the Preschool Classroom. Dr. McWilliam is the Past President of the CEC Division for Research and is on the steering committee for CEC’s efforts to define and identify evidence-based practices in special education. Dr. McWilliam’s workshops are highly interactive and applied, and he is in constant demand as a speaker and consultant, throughout the U.S. and in Europe. View Dr. McWilliam's vita.

Tom Buggey, Ph.D.
Siskin Endowed Chair of Excellence in Early Childhood Special Education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Arriving in 2007, Dr. Buggey became the Institute’s first researcher on staff. As one of the world's leading researchers in a specific intervention for children with autism — video self-modeling — he serves as the Siskin Endowed Chair of Excellence in Early Childhood Special Education at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. In addition to conducting research at the Institute, Dr. Buggey also teaches courses as a faculty member in UTC’s College of Health, Education and Professional Studies. Before moving to Chattanooga, he was a professor at the University of Memphis for 14 years serving as the project director of RISE, Make a Difference and Project Memphis. For the past six years, Dr. Buggey has worked as a consultant on the School Improvement Grant with the state Department of Education, which has been spearheading the Response to Intervention initiative in Tennessee. He received his Ph.D. in Early Intervention from Pennsylvania State University. View Dr. Buggey's vita.

Amy Casey, Ph.D., BCBA
Research Scientist

Dr. Casey is the Institute’s first Research Scientist, joining the Institute in October 2008. She completed her doctoral work at Vanderbilt University in 2008, studying early childhood special education. Her areas of interest include children’s engagement, incidental teaching, and performance feedback to change teachers’ behavior. Dr. Casey is the newsletter editor for CEC's Division for Research and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Special Education. As a doctoral student, she co-authored research articles in prominent journals, co-authored a book about child engagement, received a Head Start Graduate Student Research Grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and served as a student representative on the executive board of CEC's Division for Research. These activities were accomplished while completing a pre-doctoral traineeship in behavioral research and developmental disabilities funded by an NIH National Research Scientist Award. In addition to completing the doctoral program, Dr. Casey also completed the behavior analysis certification program and is credentialed as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. View Dr. Casey's vita.