Eileen R. McGrath, PhD

Dr. McGrath teaches the online course, Applied Leadership and Interdisciplinary Management of NDD/ASD (CPH 582) and is the Interdisciplinary Team Lead of the Neurodevelopmental Follow-up Clinic at The University of Arizona.  Dr. McGrath has extensive experience teaching university students in early childhood special education, training early intervention practitioners, providing home-based early intervention services, and teaching young children with low incidence neurodevelopmental disabilities including children with autism spectrum disorders. She has conducted research on the effects of systems change on the field (early childhood special education), service recipients, and service providers, as well as the effects of implementing family-centered services on families, early intervention service coordinators, practitioners and the service delivery systems. Her current research focuses on the effects of implementing the Reach Out and Read in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. Dr. McGrath owned and operated The Center for the Family, an agency in Tucson that provided service coordination and early childhood special education services to families who have infants and toddlers eligible for Part C services under IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act). Throughout this time, she held contracts with the Arizona Early Intervention Program (AzEIP), the Department of Economic Security, Division of Developmental Disabilities (DES, DDD) and the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). She trained hundreds of early intervention practitioners and sub-contracted with occupational and physical therapists, speech language pathologists, dieticians and feeding specialists; and monitored public and charter school compliance with federal special education law. She was the principal investigator for 13 grants and contracts with a total funding of more than $6.5 million dollars.