Kathy R. Doody, Ph.D.

Dr. Kathy Doody is a graduate of Buffalo State and joined the Exceptional Education Department in 2012, after several years of teaching as an adjunct instructor. Her professional areas of interest include autism spectrum disorders, early childhood education, behavior management, educational collaboration, and low incidence disabilities.

Doody was an early childhood general education teacher for several years before pursuing her graduate and doctoral degrees in special education with an emphasis in early childhood education and autism spectrum disorders. She worked for several years as a teacher at The Summit Center, teaching infants and preschoolers on the autism spectrum. She has also worked for Erie and Niagara County Early Intervention programs providing services to children with autism.

Doody provides consultation and teacher in-service training to schools and agencies servicing children of all ages with autism. She served as a member of the New York State Commissioner’s Advisory Panel (CAP) for Special Education for over ten years, functioning in an advisory capacity to the Office of Special Education and advises the Governor, Legislature and Commissioner on matters relating to educating students with disabilities in New York State. Doody is also a specialized autism consultant to The Children’s Guild Foundation Autism Spectrum Disorder Center at Women & Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, providing training to hospital staff in how to best meet the needs of patients with autism. 

Doody is passionate about her work in the field of autism spectrum disorders, and collaborating with educators, administrators, parents, medical professionals, and related service providers to assist individuals with autism in reaching their full potential in home, community, and educational settings. 

EDUCATION         

• Ph.D. Learning and Instruction: Special Education (Autism Concentration), SUNY University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY
• M.S. Education, Exceptional Education, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo, NY
• B.A. English, SUNY University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY

COURSES TAUGHT

• EXE 100: Nature and Needs of Individuals with Special Needs
• EXE 324: Sign language for students with disabilities
• EXE 364: Behavior Management
• EXE 371: Foundations of Teaching Children with Disabilities in General Education Settings
• EXE 502: Contingency Management
• EXE 510: Cognition/Emergent Literacy (service learning)
• EXE 530: Parent /Family Involvement in Special Education Programs (service learning)
• EXE 612: Managing Behavior in Young Children with Special Needs (service learning)
• EXE 645: Concepts and principles of working with individuals with autism spectrum disorder and related disorders
• EXE 650: Assessment of Young Children with Special Needs (service learning)
• EXE 652: Interventions for Young Children with Special Needs (service learning)
• EXE 682: Field Practicum – Early Childhood Exceptional Education                                               

TEACHING & RESEARCH INTERESTS & EXPERTISE

• Autism Spectrum Disorders
• Early Childhood Special Education
• Behavior Management
• Family Involvement
• Service Learning/Community Engagement as components of teacher preparatory programs   

CURRENT COLLABORATIVE SERVICE & INVOLVEMENT (selected)

• Co-Director and Founder,  Au-Some Evenings at Explore & More Children’s Museum, Canalside, Buffalo, NY.
• Board Member, Opportunities Collaborative for Students with Special Needs (not-for-profit support for charter, parochial, and Catholic schools who serve students with disabilities)
• Member, Board of Directors, The Summit Center, Operating Board, and Internal Affairs Committee.
• First Chair and Board Member, Buffalo State’s Child Care Center
• Collaborator, and community partner, Help Me Grow of WNY, and Say Yes Buffalo
• PDS School of Education liaison, Gigi’s Playhouse Buffalo
• Reviewer, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities (JADD)
• Reviewer, International Journal of Developmental Disabilities

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

(see also Readership and Visibility Analytics: Google Scholar Profile, Orchid ID Profile, Bepress Profile)

Geffen, S., Swirsky, J.M., Coyle, E., Doody, K.R., Schuetz, P., Timmons, L., & Weisgram, E. (2023) Can you tell me how to get started: Using Sesame Street as an example for developing a themed course? Professors @ Play Playbook: Playful teaching techniques in higher education. In Forbes & Thomas (editors). Carnegie Mellon University ETC Press.

Doody, K.R. & Colon, G. (2022).  Special Education Programs and Practices For Young Children.  Chapter 4: Positive behavioral supports and strategies for young children (ages 4-8). In Fisher & Zimmerman (editors). Slack Publishers. https://www.slackbooks.com/early-childhood-special-education-programs-and-practices/

Doody, K.R., Schuetze, P., & Fulcher-Rood, K. (2021). COVID-19 modifications to a service-learning project designed to prepare Special Education students to be effective participants in transdisciplinary collaborations. Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning, 13(2), 160-178. 

Doody, K.R., Schuetze, P., & Fulcher-Rood, K. (2020). Service learning in the time of COVID-19.  Experiential Learning & Teaching in Higher Education. 3(1), 12-17.

Doody, K.R., & George, P. D. (2020). Family Fun Night: An Event for Children, Families, and Teacher Candidates.  In del Prado Hill, P. & Garas-York, K. (Eds).,The Impact of PDS partnerships in challenging times.  Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Fulcher, K., Schuetze, P., & Doody, K.R. (2020).  Transdisciplinary Collaborations: Relying on colleagues with various expertise to benefit teaching pedagogy and the student experience. In del Prado Hill, P. & Garas-York, K. (Eds)., The Impact of PDS partnerships in challenging times.  Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Schuetze, P. & Doody, K. R. (2020).  Implementing a peer teaching model to develop professional skills for working with young children at diverse PDS sites. In del Prado Hill, P. & Garas-York, K. (Eds)., The Impact of PDS partnerships in challenging times. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Fulcher-Rood, K., Schuetze, P., & Doody, K.R. (2020). Using applied learning to teach transdisciplinary collaboration for students in speech-language pathology, special education, and psychology. In J. Friberg, C. Visconti & S. Ginsberg (Eds). Case Studies in Evidence-based Education: A resource for teaching in clinical professions. Slack Publishing.

Schuetze, P., Doody, K. R., Fulcher-Rood, K. (2019).  Using Service Learning to Promote Transdisciplinary Collaborations among Undergraduate and Graduate Students.  Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education. 8, 9-27.

Doody, K.R. (2018).  Training pre-service and in-service teachers to work with students with ASD: Au-Some experiences in community-based learning.  International Journal of Research in Education and Psychology, 4(1), 1-17.

Doody, K.R. (2018). PDS in Exceptional Education teacher prep programs: Everyone wins! In Ferrara & Nath (Senior editors), Doing PDS: Stories and strategies from successful clinically rich practice. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Doody, K.R. (2017).  It’s not just child’s play: How to creatively promote learning for children with ASD.  International Journal of Teaching and Education, 5(2), 94-104.

Doody, K. R., & Patti, A. L. (2017). Community-based opportunities for parents and families of students with autism spectrum disorders. Rural Special Education Quarterly, 36(3), 128-135.

del Prado Hill, P., McMillen, S., & Doody, K.R. (2017). Extending PDS to all: Successes and challenges at a large comprehensive public institution. In Ferrara, Nath, Guadarrama, & Beebe (Eds.), Expanding opportunities to link research and clinical practice: A volume in Professional Development School research, Volume VII. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing (by invitation).

Song, C., Wang, A., Doody, K.R., Hartley-McAndrew, M, Mertz, J., Lin, F., & Xu, W. (2016).  A Comparative Study of Social Scene Parsing Strategies Between Children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder. North American Journal of Medicine and Science, 9(3), 96-103 (by invitation).

Doody, K.R. (2015). GrAPPling with how to teach social skills?  Try tapping into digital technology.  Journal of Special Education Technology, Technology in Action. 30(2), 122-127.

Hartley-McAndrew, M., Doody, K.R., & Mertz, J. (2014).  Knowledge of autism spectrum disorders in potential first-contact professionals.  North American Journal of Medicine and Science, Special Issue of Autism, 7(3), 97-102 (by invitation).

Doody, K.R., & Mertz, J. (2013).  Preferred play activities of children with autism spectrum disorder in naturalistic settings.  North American Journal of Medicine and Science, Special Issue of Autism, 6(3), 128-133.

DIGITAL COMMONS AND OTHER WORKS

Doody, Kathy R. Ph.D., "Sesame Street Seminar – Autism Spectrum Disorder" (2022). Sample module-themed coursework with Sesame Street examples.

Doody, Kathy R. Ph.D., "Sesame Street Seminar – Academic Readiness" (2022). Sample module-themed coursework with Sesame Street examples.

Doody, Kathy R. Ph.D., "Sesame Street Seminar – School Readiness and Behavior" (2022). Sample module-themed coursework with Sesame Street examples.

Doody, Kathy R. Ph.D., "Sesame Street Seminar – Fine and Gross Motor (physical domain)” (2022). Sample module-themed coursework with Sesame Street examples.

Fulcher-Rood, K., Schuetze, P., & Doody, K. R. (September 2019).  Teaching students to work collaboratively across disciplines. The Umbrella: The SUNY Applied Learning Newsletter, Issue 9, pp. 6-7.

Doody, Kathy R. Ph.D., "How to Use Play as a Teaching Tool for Children with ASD” (2015). Foster/Adoptive Parent Training Projects.

Doody, K.R. (2013).  Can’t we all just get along? Tips for Teaching

Social Skills to Individuals with ASD.  ExpertBeacon. 

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

Vu, T., Tran, H., Cho, K.W., Song, C., Lin, F., Chen, C.W., McAndrew, M.H., Doody, K.R., & Xu, W. (2017, February).  Effective and efficient visual stimuli design for quantitative autism screening: An exploratory study.  Conference proceeding at the International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI), Orlando, Florida.

Cho, K.W., Lin, F., Song, C., Xu, X., McAndrew, M.H., Doody, K.R., & Xu, W. (2016, October).  Gaze-Wasserstein: Exploring A Quantitative Screening Approach to Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Conference proceeding at IEEE Annual Wireless Health Conference, Washington, D.C.

Song, C., Wang, A., Doody, K.R., McAndrew, M.H., Mertz, J., Lin, F., & Xu, W. (2016, February).  Analyzing dynamic components of social scene parsing strategy in autism spectrum disorder.  Conference proceeding at IEEE-EMBX International Conference on Biomedical and Health Informatics (BHI), Las Vegas, Nevada.