Debra Kamps
University of Kansas
Debra Kamps currently hold appointments in the Departments of Applied Behavioral Science and Special Education at the University of Kansas (KU), and is a senior scientist with the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies. She serves as associate director of Juniper Gardens Children's Project at the Children's Campus in Kansas City, and as director of the recently established Kansas Center for Autism Research and Training. In 2009, she was awarded the KU Research Achievement Award from the KU Office of Research and Graduate Studies. She has served as principal investigator of 11 projects receiving federal research grants in the areas of autism and emotional and behavioral disorders/risk, and has been publishing her research since 1983. Kamps's work in the areas of small group instruction and peer-mediated interventions for children with autism has been cited in Educating Children with Autism (National Research Council, 2001), and by the National Autism Standards Project (Luiselli, Christian, Russo, & Wilczynski, 2008). She has conducted three randomized studies including the current project, Peer Networks Project: Improving Social Communication, Literacy, and Adaptive Behaviors for Young Children With ASD, and two investigating multi-tiered interventions for students with behavior problems. Other accomplishments include publications in peer-reviewed journals addressing intervention and education-based research, e.g., Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders; terms as associate editor of four peer-reviewed journals; and national and international requests for training and information regarding social skills and peer networks for children with disabilities.