Scientific Advisory Board

Deborah C. Beidel, Ph.D., ABPP

Professor, Clinical Ph.D. Program
Ph.D. (Clinical Psychology), University of Pittsburgh, 1986
Editor in Chief, Journal of Anxiety Disorders
Member, Board of Directors, Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP)
Member, NIMH Institutional Review Group, Children and Families Intervention Group

In January of 2009 Deborah C. Beidel was appointed as an Advisor to the Childhood Anxiety Disorders Workgroup for the upcoming revision of the American Psychiatirc Associations’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fifth Edition.”

Dr. Beidel joined the faculty at UCF in 2007 as professor and director of the doctoral program in clinical psychology. Dr. Beidel received her Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of Pittsburgh and completed her internship and post-doctoral clinical research fellowship at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh. She was a member of the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh, the Medical University of South Carolina, the University of Maryland, and Penn State College of Medicine. She was the 1990 recipient of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy’s New Researcher Award, the 1995 recipient of the Distinguished Educator Award from the Association of Medical School Psychologists, and the 2007 recipient of the APA Division 12 Samuel M. Turner Clinical Research Award. Dr. Beidel holds the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) Diplomate in Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Psychology and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and a past-president of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology.

She is a past Chair of the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Accreditation. She serves on the editorial board of a number of scientific journals. Her academic, research, and clinical interests focus on child and adult anxiety disorders, including their etiology, psychopathology and behavioral treatment. Her research is characterized by a developmental focus, and includes high risk and longitudinal designs, psychophysiological assessment, treatment outcome and treatment development. She is the recipient of NIMH grants addressing the development and efficacy of behavioral interventions for adults and children with anxiety disorders.

Steven Kurtz, Ph.D., ABPP

Steven Kurtz, PhD, ABPP is a Board Certified clinical child psychologist specializing in treating children with selective mutism, other anxiety disorders, and behavioral disorders. Dr. Kurtz is active as a clinician treating families, a researcher, and as a trainer of other professionals. He is also one of only 21Certified Master Trainers of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy – PCIT. Dr. Kurtz adapted PCIT and created the PCIT-SM treatment for children with SM, which has become an empirically-supported treatment for SM. Dr. Kurtz is the creator and founder of the Brave Buddies model, started at NYU in 2009. Now called Mighty Mouth Kids, this is an intensive SM group treatment for children 3-9 years old, being done in 11 sites, in 3 countries, on 2 continents. His team also developed WeSpeak, a group intensive for 10-14 year olds with SM. Dr. Kurtz runs Kurtz Psychology Consulting, is an adjunct supervisor for Yeshiva University, and former faculty at the NYU School of Medicine and the Child Mind Institute.

Dr. Kurtz is a tireless advocate for children with special needs and aside from professional publications and conference presentations his work has been featured on NBC Today Show, ABC Nightline, CBS Early Show, PBS Keeping Kids Healthy, TLN Shalom in the Home, and in the NY Times and Huffington Post. Dr. Kurtz is excited to return to the SMA Board in 2018.

Dr. Kurtz Treating Professional Page
Kurtz Psychology Website

Evelyn R. Klein, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-CL

Dr. Evelyn R. Klein is Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at La Salle University and a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist and licensed psychologist with post-doctoral training in neuropsychology from Drexel University. She holds Board Specialty Recognition in Child Language from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) and became an ASHA Fellow in 2009. Dr. Klein also holds Supervisory Certification in Special Education from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. In 2011 she received the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award from La Salle University and in 2012 she was awarded the Pennsylvania Clinical Achievement Award from the Pennsylvania Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Dr. Klein teaches, supervises, and advises undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a degree in speech-language pathology. Her areas of specialization include selective mutism, autism spectrum disorders, language-learning disabilities, acquired language disorders, stuttering, and counseling for communicative disorders. Recent research includes assessment practices and treatment efficacy for selective mutism, working memory and early literacy, and cognitive behavioral therapy as a treatment modality for people who stutter. She is also a reviewer for Contemporary Issues in Communication Sciences and Disorders and Buros Mental Measurement Yearbook.

As a practicing clinician, Dr. Klein continues to evaluate and treat children, teens, and adults with communication disorders. Active in research, she has been a principal investigator of a grant-funded research program investigating speech and language skills in children with selective mutism in connection with the Selective Mutism Research Institute (SMRI) and Selective Mutism Anxiety Research and Treatment (SMart) Center. As part of her research agenda, she mentors undergraduate and graduate students, presenting at annual conventions, regionally and nationally. Recent publications include Focus on Function (2nd ed.) and Focus On Transition (two therapeutic programs for individuals with aphasia and cognitive-linguistic deficits), Hear It, Say It, Learn It (a children’s program for developing language and literacy), and co-author of a best-selling textbook Acquired Language Disorders: A Case-based Approach, in its 2nd edition.

Evelyn Klein selective mutism treating professional profile