2008 Annual Conference - Friday Schedule

Keynotes • Presentations and Downloads • Directions

Both Thursday and Friday sessions of the 23rd Annual Conference for Professionals in Brain Injury will feature Keynote Addresses.

Thursday Keynote Address: Positive Behavior Supports for Individuals with Challenging Behavior: Common Sense Systematically Applies

Tim Feeney, Executive Director and President of School and Community Support Services in Schenectady, New York, will be presenting the Thursday Keynote Address which will provide a framework for the development of behavioral supports for individuals with challenging behaviors that focuses on assessment that is context-sensitive and collaborative and intervention plans that are pro-active and developed to prevent problems from emerging. In addition, positive behavior supports integrate cognitive and communicative approaches, focus on the integration of meaningful activities in an individual's daily routine, and most importantly, are developed in collaboration with the individual and his or her natural network of support.

Tim Feeney has assisted numerous school districts and state offices in the development of system-wide changes in order to provide sustainable, high quality, and cost-effective special education and rehabilitation services. For the past 10 years he has also been the Project Director of the New York Neurobehavioral Resource Project, a New York State Department of Health grant-funded program developed to support individuals with brain injury and significant behavioral challenges to live successfully in their home communities.

Over the course of the past 15+ years, Dr. Feeney worked in a variety of capacities in human services including: special education teacher, program director of a state program for individuals with autism, coordinator of educational services, coordinator of behavioral services, staff psychologist, consulting behavior specialist, and an Assistant Professor of Special Education at the Sage Colleges in Troy, New York. In addition to his experiences working with people with brain injury, he has extensive experience developing services for individuals on the autism spectrum, including work with school districts to support students with autism, Asperger Syndrome, and pervasive developmental disorders. He has been responsible for the procurement and coordination of over $3,000,000 in grant-funded programs serving individuals with developmental disabilities and challenging behaviors, autism, and persons with brain injury and challenging behaviors.

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Friday Keynote Address:The Person's Subjective Experience in Neuropsychological Rehabilitation After Brain Injury

George Prigatano, from the Department of Clinical Neuropsychology, Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, will be presenting the Friday Keynote Address, where he will discuss the patient's phenomenological state will determine their willingness to engage in rehabilitation, as well as the clinician's ability to identify areas that need to be focused on. The issue of impaired self-awareness versus denial of disability will be briefly discussed and guidelines for approaching patients with these complicated sets of disorders will be considered.

George P. Prigatano, Ph.D. graduated from Bowling Green State University, and then joined the faculty at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, directing the Neuropsychology Laboratory (1972-1978). In 1979 he was a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University. In 1980 he established a neuropsychological rehabilitation program at Presbyterian Hospital in Oklahoma City, which resulted in the book, Neuropsychological Rehabilitation after Brain Injury (1986). In May of 1985 he established the Section of Clinical Neuropsychology at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, and in 2001 was named the Newsome Chair of Clinical Neuropsychology. He has worked on the problem of impaired awareness after various forms of brain injury. This resulted in the edited text with Daniel Schacter entitled: Awareness of Deficit after Brain Injury: Theoretical and Clinical Issues (1991). In 1999, he published Principles of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.

The thrust of his clinical and research work has been to study both cognitive and affective disturbances associated with brain injury, and to apply that information to the rehabilitation of brain-injured adults and children. In 2003 he received the Jim Thorpe Award for Excellence in Rehabilitation Services and Research, and was designated Distinguished Lecturer of the Year by the Swedish Neuropsychological Society. Dr. Prigatano is board-certified in clinical neuropsychology by the American Board of Professional Psychology and holds fellowship status in Division 40 (Clinical Neuropsychology) and Division 22 (Rehabilitation Psychology) of the American Psychological Association.

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Thursday Afternoon Special Presentation and Reception: The Central Park Jogger: A TBI Survivor's Perspective on Healing to Wholeness

Trisha Meili, author of I Am the Central Park Jogger, will be speaking at a special Thursday afternoon presentation, with a reception following. Ms. Meili will share lessons of healing from her journey of recovery that allowed her to move beyond being a victim, reclaim her life and become whole. She will provide the audience/participants with a patient's perspective of the non-clinical aspects of recovery, or the "art" of recovery. This includes care, support, hope and trust. Ms. Meili will discuss the possibility of attaining a full life despite the restrictive parameters of a traumatic brain injury.

Ms. Meili's presentation will begin at 4:15 p.m. with a book signing immediately following, approximately at 5 p.m. Ms. Meili's presentation and reception is open to all Annual Conference attendees.

On April 19, 1989, Ms. Meili went for a run in New York's Central Park shortly after 9 p.m. Hours later, two men wandering the park found her near death from a brutal beating and rape. In a coma, with 80 percent blood loss, a fierce blow to the head and severe exposure, doctors at Metropolitan Hospital worried that this young woman might not survive. The story seized the headlines, not only in New York, but also around the world as people contemplated what the savagery of the attack said about our society.

Ms. Meili, known to the world as The Central Park Jogger, revealed her amazing story of survival and recovery fourteen years later in her best-selling memoir I AM THE CENTRAL PARK JOGGER: A Story of Hope and Possibility.

Ms. Meili gives her time to organizations vital to her healing: As an advocate trainer for the Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention Program (SAVI) at Mount Sinai Hospital, as an officer on the Board of Directors of Gaylord Hospital where she did much of her rehabilitation, and as Chairman of the Board of the Achilles Track Club that helped her run the New York City Marathon in 1995.

Recently, Ms. Meili was the recipient of the Leadership Award from the National Center for Victims of Crime, the National Courage Award from the Courage Center, the Pacesetter Award from New York Hospital Queens, the Spirit of Achievement Award from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, the Courage Award from Boston's Magic 106.7 Exceptional Women Program and an Olympic Torchbearer in New York City.

Today, Ms. Meili speaks to groups, including businesses, universities, brain injury associations, sexual assault centers and hospitals, about her journey of recovery and healing. With her work, book and lectures, she offers lessons on how to manage through unpredictable change, whether personal, professional economic or spiritual. Her story has encouraged people worldwide to overcome life's obstacles - regardless of what they might be - and get back on the road to life.

The cost for this presentation is $25 for the general public. To register, please call 1-800-669-6442. This presentation is open to all Annual Conference attendees.

Keynotes • Presentations and Downloads • Directions