Giftedness Advisors
Meet Our Giftedness Advisors
No school is an island, and we are fortunate to have the support of many leaders in the gifted education community. The following people endorse our teaching methodology and advise us in our mission to provide a child-centered community where gifted children are seen for their strengths, and to actualize their advanced potential.
Linda Silverman, Ph.D.
Director, Institute for the Study of Advanced Development
Dr. Silverman is the director of the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development, and its subsidiary, the Gifted Development Center, the nation’s leading organization for supporting gifted education. She has been studying the assessment, psychology and education of the gifted since 1961 and has written over 300 articles, chapters and books, including the textbook, Counseling the Gifted and Talented, adopted at 50 colleges. (See full bio.)
Angela Tanner, Ph.D.
Founder & Executive Director, The Knox School
Dr. Tanner is the founder and executive director of The Knox School, a gifted school that “incorporates both the intellectual, academic needs of gifted students, as well as the equally important, and often overlooked, social and emotional needs of this unique population. (See full bio.)
Tina Harlow, M.S.W., LCSW
Founder, Guiding Bright
Ms. Harlow is the founder of Guiding Bright, which provides child and family therapy to gifted children who are struggling with the various challenges that often arise alongside high intuition, sensitivity, anxiety, perfectionism, empathy, and cognitive hyperactivity. (See full bio.)
Barbara Mitchell Hutton, M.A.
Head of School, Nova Middle School
Ms. Hutton is the Head of School of Nova Middle School, a school with the goal of delivering the most innovative and effective academic, social, and emotional learning experiences for highly capable middle schoolers. (See full bio.)
Christiane Wells, Ph.D.
Director of Qualitative Research, Institute for the Study of Advanced Development
Dr. Wells serves as the Director of Qualitative Research at the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development where she studies Dabrowski’s theory of positive disintegration and the inner experience of giftedness. Her current research focuses on the origins and evolution of Dabrowski’s construct of overexcitability and its relationship with modern developmental and psychiatric conditions. (See full bio.)
Stephanie S. Tolan, M.A.
Author, Newbery Honor winner
Ms. Tolan is a well-known author of young adult and children’s fiction, as well as an author and speaker on her topic of passion: exceptionally gifted children. Is It a Cheetah? Is a metaphor for gifted children everywhere, and Surviving the Applewhites won the Newbery Honor Medal in 2003. (See full bio.)
Sandi Wollum, B.A.E.
Head of School, Seabury School for the Gifted
Ms. Wollum is the Head of School of Seabury School for the Gifted, the only independent school in the South Puget Sound marketed towards individually advanced children. (See full bio.)
Helen Dudeney, M.Ed.
Principal Consultant, Australian Gifted Support Centre
Ms. Dudeney is the Principal Consultant at the Australian Gifted Support Centre. She has designed and run hundreds of programs for 3 – 16 year old children and their families and conducted seminars, workshops and in service training for families and teachers about understanding and meeting the needs of gifted children and young people. (See full bio.)
Patty Gatto-Walden, Ph.D.
Nationally-recognized psychologist
Dr. Gatto-Walden is a nationally-recognized licensed psychologist, who has provided counseling services to over a thousand moderately, highly and profoundly gifted children, adolescents, adults and families for decades. (See full bio.)
Janneke Frank, Ph.D.
Principal Consultant, Gifted and Beyond
Dr. Frank is the Principal Consultant for Gifted and Beyond and served as Director of the Centre of Gifted Education at the University of Calgary. Her passionate advocacy for gifted students inspired her work as Principal at Westmount Charter School. (See full bio.)
Michele Kane, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita in Special Education, Northeastern Illinois University
Dr. Kane is Professor Emerita in Special Education from Northeastern Illinois University, where she coordinated the Master of Arts in Gifted Education program for over a decade. Her most recent book, Planting Seeds of Mindfulness, co-authored with Dorothy Sisk, was released in 2018. (See full bio.)
Joe Frank, M.A.
Superintendent, Westmount Charter School for Gifted Learners
Mr. Frank is the Superintendent of Westmount Charter School for Gifted Learners in Calgary. With over 1200 gifted students enrolled, Westmount Charter School is one of the largest gifted schools in the world. (See full bio.)
Rosemary Cathcart, Ph.D.
Founder & Director, REACH Education
Dr. Cathcart has spent nearly three decades writing, teaching and advocating throughout New Zealand for better provision for gifted learners. She developed the REACH model in the 1980s, founded New Zealand’s first gifted education centre in 1995, oversaw development of the One Day School, and now heads REACH Education, specialising in professional development in this field. In 2004 she was awarded the QSM for her contribution to gifted education nationwide. (See full bio.)
Ellen D. Fiedler, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita of Gifted Education at Northeastern Illinois University
Dr. Fiedler is Professor Emerita of Gifted Education at Northeastern Illinois University and is the author of Bright Adults: Uniqueness and Belonging Across the Lifespan. She has published chapters on gifted adults in Off the Charts: Asynchrony and the Gifted Child and in Living with Intensity, as well as numerous articles in professional journals. (See full bio.)
Grith Tschorn
President, Gifted Children Denmark
Ms. Tschorn is long-standing chairman of and co-founder of the association Gifted Children Denmark and co-founder of Gifted Institute. Her professional life is spent helping gifted children and their families to better well-being. Ms. Tschorn has tested thousands of children and adolescents and has developed scoring tools, which are used worldwide in identifying giftedness. (See full bio.)
Linda Powers-Leviton, M.A., MFT
Director, Gifted Development Center-West (California)
Ms. Powers-Leviton is the Director of Gifted Development Center-West in California. She specializes in counseling for the gifted, providing a psychotherapy and coaching program for individuals, couples, and families. (See full bio.)
Dan Tichenor, M.A.
Yunasa Fellow at the Institute for Educational Achievement
Mr. Tichenor is a journalist, editor, storyteller, and teacher of gifted and special needs students. A Yunasa Fellow at the Institute for Educational Advancement, he is a firm believer in the notion of “taking it outside”, and his activities are firmly rooted in being outdoors and in learning from the environment. (See full bio.)
Shelagh A. Gallagher, Ph.D.
Recipient: National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Curriculum Division Award
Dr. Gallagher is an internationally recognized and award-winning expert in gifted education and problem-based learning. She has received the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Curriculum Division award for her PBL units multiple times, has served two terms on the NAGC Board of Directors, and continues to serve in leadership roles for NAGC. (See full bio.)