Meet the experts

Esther Clervaud, EdS, is an author and educational consultant in South Carolina. She has taught in both primary and secondary education in Florida and South Carolina. As a former educator, she created and implemented several events to increase cultural awareness, self-esteem, student learning, and engagement. As a result, community support improved and student achievement flourished.

In addition to being trained through Cornell University's Diversity and Inclusion program, Esther has gained experience through working with diverse populations and data-driven research. She currently uses her knowledge to facilitate professional development around the nation educating professionals in various fields and expertise. Esther has published over 15 cultural resources - including, but not limited to, books and curricula - and consults organizations on strategies for increasing cultural awareness and sensitivity in their workplace. Her printed resources are presently utilized in several organizations and school districts across the nation.

Janice Osborne-Dowdy, MS, CCC-SLP, CBIS, is the lead speech-language pathologist at NeuroRestorative Ashland, Kentucky. Janice is a Certified Brain Injury Specialist, through the Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists. She is a graduate of Eastern Kentucky University and East Tennessee State University. Janice has been a practicing SLP for 19 years treating individuals with cognitive/communication/swallowing deficits as the result of CVA, brain injury, head and neck cancer, progressive neurological diseases, as well as other disease processes. She has worked in acute care, long term acute care, skilled nursing, and acute rehabilitation in inpatient, outpatient, and day treatment programs both as a staff therapist, and in various management roles prior to coming to NeuroRestorative. Janice also worked for Chattanooga Group/EMPI as Clinical Specialist for Vital Stim Therapy, traveling the USA providing education and consulting services to physicians and therapists in the management and treatment of dysphagia utilizing the modality of neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES). Janice has worked in the Ashland program since 2013.

Dr. Diane Treadwell-Deering has been the Medical Director of the Swank Autism Center at Nemours duPont Pediatrics for the past two and a half years. Formerly, she was an Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the Department of Pediatrics and the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy.  She worked at Texas Children’s Hospital in a variety of positions through her almost 30-year tenure there.  She has focused her work on autism spectrum disorder, Fragile X syndrome, and other developmental disorders.