About
Debbie Perry has been practicing since 2006 and owns a private practice in Northern Virginia. She is an AAC specialist with extensive experience supporting children, families, caregivers, and professionals across school, private practice, and community settings. She has a strong focus on working with people with multiple and complex disabilities, with special focus in Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) and deafblindness, and how these learners can access AAC and other assistive technologies.
In addition to her clinical work, Debbie teaches courses on AAC and CVI and provides coaching to caregivers and professionals on integrating AAC use across environments including schools, homes, and community. She is passionate about building inclusive, functional communication systems that empower children and their families and loves collaborating with everyone on a child's team.
Dr. Sandra Newcomb retired from the University of Maryland, College Park as an Assistant Research Professor. She has 30+ years of experience teaching infants and toddlers with disabilities, including 12 years providing technical assistance to young children with deaf-blindness, their families and service providers. In addition, she has taught a number of college courses including courses on assessment and intervention for children with CVI. Dr. Newcomb earned her Ph.D. at the University of Maryland in 2009 and holds certification in Early Childhood Special Education and in Visual Impairment. Her dissertation topic was reliability of The CVI Range. In addition to her work with children and families, Dr. Newcomb coordinated a number of grants at the University of Maryland including family support projects focused on young children with disabilities and their families and personnel preparation grants in early intervention. Dr. Newcomb is currently self-employed.