Sally J. Rogers is professor of

MIND Institute The UC Davis MIND Institute (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) is a research and treatment center affiliated with the University of California, Davis, with facilities located on the UC Davis Medical Center campus in Sacramento, ...

and department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

. She is a scientist working on early diagnosis and interventions methods for

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

and other

neurodevelopmental disorder Neurodevelopmental disorders are a group of disorders that affect the development of the nervous system, leading to abnormal brain function which may affect emotion, learning ability, self-control, and memory. The effects of neurodevelopmental ...

s. She is a pioneer in the field of autism treatment and pioneered the development of The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM). She has published nearly two-hundred papers on the field of autism, early diagnosis and treatments.

Early life

Rogers was born in Akron, Ohio in 1948.

Education

Rogers attended

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philanthr ...

in Waterville, Maine from 1965 to 1967 and

Ashland College Ashland University is a private university in Ashland, Ohio. The university consists of a main campus and several off-campus centers throughout central and northern Ohio. Ashland was founded in 1878 as Ashland College. It is affiliated with The ...

in Ashland, Ohio, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in June 1969. Rogers then attended The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio to study

developmental psychology Developmental psychology is the science, scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult deve ...

, earning her Master of Arts in June 1973 and her Doctor of Philosophy in March 1975. During this time, Rogers completed an internship in psychological assessment and treatment from September 1972 to August 1973 at Orient State Institute in Orient, Ohio. Rogers was supervised by Henry Leland.

Research and career

Rogers acted as staff psychologist and acting director in the psychology department at Orient State Institute from September 1973 to May 1974. In the 1980s, Rogers began working on the Early Start Denver Model alongside clinical psychologist and autism researcher Geraldine Dawson. The EDSM is representative of

applied behavior analysis Applied behavior analysis (ABA), also called behavioral engineering, is a psychological intervention that applies empirical approaches based upon the principles of respondent and operant conditioning to change behavior of social significance. ...

(ABA), which has faced criticism from some autistic individuals and autism scholars. In 2022, Rogers received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society for Autism Research.

References

Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) University of California, Davis faculty 21st-century American women scientists American scientists {{US-scientist-stub