2008-2009 CHADD
Officers and Board of Directors
 Marie S. Paxson
Pennsylvania
President
Marie Paxson assumed the role of president of CHADD in July
2008. The coordinator for Chester County CHADD in Pennsylvania,
Paxson runs three support groups in her area. Her work for people
with AD/HD extends beyond her local accomplishments. Paxson serves
on the membership committee for CHADD and has presented at its
international conference. She also played a prominent role in
influencing federal policy when she testified at a hearing held by the
U.S. Department of Education to determine the best methods for
implementing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the law
governing the nation's special education
system. Paxson is also the mother of children with AD/HD
and co-occurring disorders.
 Steven Peer
Minnesota
President-Elect
Steven Peer, the chapter coordinator of CHADD Twin Cities in
the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, is president of Emotional Mastery, Inc.,
a company delivering anger and emotional-management programs to
professionals within the judicial system. As a pastoral
counselor, Peer has worked closely with teens and adults with
AD/HD. In 1982, he co-founded a men's group that continues to provide
community-support to individuals with anger-management issues. In
addition to his enormous work on behalf of those living with
AD/HD, Peer is working on a book entitled, Why Is My Child
Always Angry? He is also the father of children with
AD/HD.
 Anne Teeter Ellison, Ed.D.
Wisconsin
Immediate Past President
Anne Teeter Ellison, professor of Educational Psychology at the
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), has served on the CHADD Board
of Directors since 2002. During the course of her service to CHADD, she
has served as the Board secretary, chair of the Professional Advisory
Board, chair of the Editorial Advisory Board for Attention!
magazine, and chair of the Conference Planning Committee for three of
CHADD's International Conferences. Prior to service on the national
level, Ellison was a professional advisor to the Wisconsin ADHD
Project, and a member of the State of Wisconsin ADD Council. Currently
the training director of the School Psychology Doctoral Program at
UWM, Ellison has published numerous scientific articles and books
and is the co-editor of the CHADD Educator's Manual on Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: An In-depth Look from an Educational
Perspective.
Brenda Johnson, LCSW
Florida
Secretary
Brenda Johnson, working closely with CHADD, organized 12
community forums over the past four years, helping to reach a large
number of African American and Hispanic/Latino families across the
country with the facts about AD/HD. She is also the vice-chair of an
advisory board for Hillsborough County Health and Social Services in
Tampa, Florida. Ms. Johnson co-chairs the committee on physical and
mental health for the Tampa Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta
Sorority. She is an employee of the Veterans Administration and formerly
worked for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
Carter McDowell, J.D., LL.M.
Washington, D.C.
Finance Committee Chair
Carter McDowell, J.D., LL.M. is the current chief legislative
counsel for the American Bankers Association and general counsel of the
Bankers Association for Finance and Trade. He is the former chief
counsel and policy advisor for the Committee on Financial Services for
the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. He has previously
served on CHADD’s Public Policy Committee.
Barbara Hawkins
Maryland
Barbara Hawkins is chair of the Children’s Mental Health
Conference in Baltimore, Md., and former coordinator of CHADD of Greater
Baltimore. She presently is a member of CHADD’s National Finance
Committee and the CHADD of Baltimore Advisory Board. She is a recipient
of the CHADD Volunteer of the Year Award. Hawkins is assistant dean of
Villa Julie College in Stevenson, Maryland.
 Terry Illes, Ph.D.
Utah
Terry Illes is a school psychologist based near Salt Lake City,
Utah. He specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of AD/HD and has
written two manuals for classes that he teaches about the management of
the disorder at home and at school. Illes serves on the Utah
Collaboration for AD/HD, a taskforce dedicated to facilitating
partnerships between the school, home and primary care
physician. Illes is also a certified teacher and contributor to
CHADD's Parent to Parent: Family Training on AD/HD.
Harvey C. Parker, Ph.D.
Florida
Harvey Parker, a licensed clinical psychologist, is a co-founder and
a former executive director of CHADD. He played an instrumental
role in encouraging the U.S Department of Education to clarify the
responsibility schools must assume in providing appropriate educational
services to students with AD/HD. Parker has authored and
co-authored a number of publications on AD/HD. Because of all of his
contributions to making the country a better place for people
affected by the disorder, Parker was inducted into the CHADD Hall
of Fame in 1994.
Catherine Salva
Puerto Rico
Catherine Salva, recognized in 2001 with the CHADD Volunteer of
the Year Award, is the founding member of the Caguas Chapter of CHADD in
Puerto Rico and serves as its coordinator. Her work in reaching the
public through television and radio and her success in bringing
internationally-recognized speakers to her area are credited with
raising awareness about AD/HD in Puerto Rico. Salva has also been
effective in reaching and educating policymakers, including the mayor of
Caguas. She is also the mother of children with AD/HD.
 Robert M. Tudisco, Esq.
New York
Robert Tudisco is a partner in the New York law firm of Marino &
Tudisco, LLP, a criminal and civil litigation-based firm with a
growing practice dedicated to representing children and adults with
special needs. Tudisco has also served four years as an assistant
district attorney. He chairs CHADD's public policy committee and is
a member of the editorial advisory board of Attention!
magazine. Tudisco also speaks and educates the public about AD/HD
through presentations across the country.
Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia, M.D.
Pennsylvania
Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia, M.D., is a practicing clinical psychiatrist.
She founded and operates an independent mental health clinic in Western
Pennsylvania. She is a clinical assistant professor at Western
Psychiatric Institute and serves on the faculty of two community
hospitals. Vogel-Scibilia is a consultant for psychopharmacology
projects at the National Institute of Mental Health. As well as being
chair of The Child-Adolescent Policy Subcommittee, she oversees projects
involving support and education for young families. She established a
Roman Catholic mental health nonprofit organization that provides seed
money for programs and undertakes projects in the United States.
Vogel-Scibilia resides in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, with her husband,
Jim, and their five children. Vogel-Scibilia is the outgoing national
president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).
 Sharon Weiss, M.Ed.
Virginia
Sharon Weiss is a behavioral consultant in private practice in Northern
Virginia. She also consults with private and public schools in the
Washington, D.C., area. Weiss's areas of expertise include parent
and staff training in behavior management, specific skill training and
crisis intervention. In addition to her extensive experience in special
education, Weiss has also been on the faculty of the American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and taught college level courses on behavior
management. She is the co-author of From Chaos to Calm: Effective
Parenting of Challenging Children with ADHD and Other Behavioral
Problems; Angry Children, Worried Parents: Seven Steps to Help
Families Manage Anger; and the video Managing Oppositional
Behavior.
Elliott Portnoy
Washington D.C.
CHADD General Counsel
Elliott Portnoy is a Partner with the Washington, D.C.
office of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal. He has represented CHADD
for over a decade, and has extensive experience in matters involving
not-for-profit organizations, education law, and disability
policy. Portnoy is the chair of Sonnenschein's national Public Law
& Policy Strategies Group, and represents clients on a variety of
public policy matters. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Portnoy is
a former Rhodes Scholar and holds a Ph.D. from Oxford University. He is
admitted to the District of Columbia and Maryland bar associations.
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