Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators Award

In addition to receiving the Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award, I am also a recipient of their Top Educators Award. Although such awards are often considered “vanity” accolades, Marquis Who’s Who is the original Who’s Who and the biographies they publish are often useful for a variety of purposes. For example, genealogy has long been a hobby of mine and Who’s Who listings can be an excellent resource for obtaining information.

Marquis Who’s Who Lifetime Achievement Award

I was nominated to appear in Who’s Who in America and then Who’s Who in the World many years ago by someone who had served as the President of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association (AOSA) as a result my own work with the organization, as well as my advocacy for music education. As the “real/original” Who’s Who, it still serves as a reference for people who have done “stuff.” Anyway, they recently informed me that I was going to be recognized with their Albert Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award (that makes me feel very old)! Click here for their blurb on me. Kinda fun!

Catching Up: My Second Article This Year Was Published

My schedule is so full that I simply don’t have time to keep up with this blog. My second article this year appeared in print over the summer: Evaluation of artifact-corrected electroencephalographic (EEG) training: A pilot study

As the new academic year is also now well underway, I am currently attending the 2018 International Conference on ADHD in St. Louis, MO. I presented a poster session last night on my research findings – the Contribution of Artifact Correction for Enhancing the Efficacy of Neurofeedback in Addressing Symptoms of Attention Deficits.

Boycott the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)

ACTION ALERT: Do you or a loved one have ADD/ADHD? Are you aware that the world’s biggest special education “advocacy’ group is AGAIN ignoring the largest population of exceptional children in our schools – those with ADD/ADHD? Please join the boycott against the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). Please spread the word! Full details may be found here: Click here and join the boycott against the Council for Exceptional Children.

A Lot Has Happened Since the Last Post

This blog nearly disappeared into the ether, nearly three years ago when I last noted that a lot of wonderful things happened. My feelings haven’t changed since then! Of greatest note is that I had alluded to my new job; however, I hadn’t yet made the formal announcement as I wanted to wait until a bit later to provide the great news. Well, that was a long time again and the word has long been out; I accepted a position as an assistant professor at Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ.

The move was, obviously, an enormous one for me; however, I never thought twice about it. Although I’m a native Californian, over the years, I’ve come to despise that state for many very good reasons. Although I did not know where I would eventually end up, I had three separate positions for which I was in the running at the time I accepted the offer from Seton Hall – one in Boston, another in Texas, and Seton Hall. Following my interview with Seton Hall, I was immediately offered a position and gladly accepted. The Boston position looked intriguing and while I like Texas, I did not want that position there as it was in a terrible location (albeit with a prestigious university).

Nearly three years later, I have never regretted making the move to NJ. While I had never been here before (except I may have caught a flight out of Newark, once), I absolutely love the state. NJ has an astonishingly bad reputation but I found those criticisms to be completely unfounded. Furthermore, I really enjoy my position and have made many, many friends. The cultural offerings are no less than spectacular – I live just 30 miles from NYC and a mere 75 miles from Philadelphia.

My scholarly pursuits have flourished – I’ve taught graduate and undergraduate courses, completed data collection for my first research project last spring, have presented at several conferences, and have already had two articles published, with a third one under review now (more on those later).

Equally important is that I have found enormous happiness in my personal life. It’s been more than two decades since I’ve been this content with my life and am very, very involved with music, as well as with philanthropic organizations. I’ll post more highlights of the past three years in coming posts.

After a Very Long Hiatus, this Blog has been Resurrected

This blog was originally designed to document my journey through a Ph.D. program and has been inactive for nearly three years. Additionally, I had used another hosting company for many, many years and they were suddenly bought out by another company about a year and a half ago. At that point, my sites disappeared and I had an extremely difficult time getting backups. Even then, I found it was nearly impossible to resurrect all that I had written and thought I’d try again tonight. I was just about to give up when I somehow managed to not only find the sql file but also, after spending a considerable time tweaking the database, was able to get the blog back up. I’ll probably post more in the coming days and weeks as many, many positive things have occurred since I last wrote.

So Many Wonderful Things!

To state that many wonderful events have taken place since I last posted on this blog would be an understatement. For starters, I have been very busy interviewing for positions with multiple universities around the country. While I’ll save the big news for a moment, I’ve done a lot of traveling since December, I’ve been to Boston, New Jersey, and Texas (on two occasions), in addition to participating in numerous phone interviews.

My dissertation has appeared on ProQuest’s “list of the top 25 Most-Accessed Dissertations and Theses across all subjects, based upon total PDF downloads” for a THIRD time (January 2015). This time, it appeared as the 23rd most accessed dissertation in their database! I’m extremely surprised (and delighted) that there appears to be such an interest in it.

My speaking schedule has also been quite busy. Since my two presentations at the CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) Conference last November, I recently presented at the 46th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback (AAPB) in Austin, Texas (on March 14, 2015).

Just to keep me busy, I’m also teaching a course this quarter at UCR. It’s a course for individuals who are becoming special education teachers. So far, it’s been great fun.

The most exciting news, however, is that I’ve just received the final signed contract for an appointment as an assistant professor at a very highly respected (and highly ranked) university near Manhattan (NYC)!!! Although I won’t reveal the name of the university until I actually begin work, I’m absolutely thrilled. In brief, I applied in early February, received a phone interview in early March, and accepted an offer to fly to the university a few weeks later for a series of interviews and a teaching demonstration. From the moment of my initial contact with the university, I was very impressed with all of the interactions and, upon meeting with faculty and administration in person, I was beyond delighted! Indeed, I was struck by the professionalism and knowledge of everyone I met! The faculty seems very cohesive and the administration very supportive, with all expressing a very high level of concern for addressing the needs of students and the university’s programs. I also had the pleasure of meeting with many students (who attended my teaching demonstration). Again, I was very impressed with their astuteness, enthusiasm, and eagerness to learn. Needless to say, my search for a position has ended and I’m looking forward to joining the faculty at a highly esteemed university!

Is My Doctoral Dissertation a Best Seller?

I’ve previously mentioned that my doctoral dissertation appeared as #12 on ProQuest’s for the month of July 2014. Well, it’s happened again! This time, it appears as the 24th most downloaded dissertation for the month of October 2014 (the latest month available)! I’m extremely flattered and honored that so many people are actually interested in it.

Keeping Busy

I’ve been very busy lately. About two weeks ago, I gave a presentation at this year’s International Conference of the International Society for Neurofeedback and Research in San Diego, CA. Around the same time, my dissertation was published by ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), the online library of education research and information, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education.

I have also been honored with an invitation to speak at the 2014 International Conference on ADHD by CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder). My oral presentation is entitled, A copy of my PowerPoint slides are available online. Here’s a video blurb I had to submit when I applied:

My research poster session is entitled, “Neurofeedback and Reading Comprehension: Implications as an Intervention Strategy for Students with ADHD in Public Schools” and will also be presented next week in Chicago.