Experts

Amanda M. VanDerHeyden, Ph.D., is a private consultant and researcher living in Fairhope, Alabama. Dr. VanDerHeyden has worked as a researcher and consultant in a number of states and school districts. In Vail Unified School District, Dr. VanDerHeyden led a district effort to implement the STEEP RTI model from 2002 to 2005. In this district, identification of children as having specific learning disabilities was reduced by half within two years, test scores increased, and the district was nationally recognized as a success story related to No Child Left Behind by the US Department of Education. Dr. VanDerHeyden has authored over 40 related articles and book chapters and has worked as a national trainer and consultant to assist districts to implement RTI models. In 2006, Dr. VanDerHeyden was named to an advisory panel for the National Center for Learning Disabilities to provide guidance related to RTI and the diagnosis of specific learning diability.

She is associate editor of Journal of Behavioral Education and Assessment for Effective Intervention and serves on the editorial boards for School Psychology Review, School Psychology Quarterly, Journal of School Psychology, Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, Journal of Early Intervention, and Journal of Learning Disabilities. Dr. VanDerHeyden is co-editor of Handbook of Response to Intervention: The Science and Practice of Assessment and Intervention (published by Springer), and special issues of Assessment for Effective Intervention and School Psychology Review, each focusing on RTI.

In 2006, Dr. VanDerHeyden received the Lightner Witmer Early Career Contributions Award from Division 16 (School Psychology) of the American Psychological Association in recognition of her scholarship on early intervention, RTI, and models of data-based decision-making in schools.