Claire D. Coles, Ph.D. is Director of the Maternal Substance Abuse and Child Development Project and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia, with a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics. The MSACD project carries out research on the effects of maternal substance abuse and cognitive and emotional/social development of offspring from birth through adulthood. Recent work has focused on the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on brain structure and function in adulthood as well as the relationship between neuroimaging results and cognitive and adaptive functioning. She is also Director of the Fetal Alcohol Center at the Marcus Autism Center, a Division of Children’s Health Care of Atlanta which provides services to families and children with developmental, learning and behavior problems. Through the FAS Clinic at Marcus, Dr. Coles and her team provide diagnostic and clinical services to children prenatally exposed to alcohol, cocaine and other drugs. In addition, the Center is conducting intervention studies with alcohol-affected children aimed at remediation of specific effects of prenatal exposure. Dr. Coles is recognized as an expert on an international level on the effects of addiction and alcoholism and the impact of maternal substance abuse on cognitive, social and emotional outcomes of infants and children and has published a number of books and articles in this area. She was a member of the National Task Force on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects, is a past president of the Fetal Alcohol Study Group of the Research Society on Alcoholism and was a member of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine’s Committee to Study Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Dr. Coles recently received the 2009 Leadership award from the National Organization for FAS. Dr. Sarah Mattson is a neuropsychologist and a Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University. She has been studying the effects of heavy prenatal alcohol exposure for over 20 years and is a past President of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Study Group (2001-2002). Her research focuses on neuropsychological and neuroanatomical aspects of FASD. Specific studies have addressed the spectrum of neurobehavioral and neuroanatomical effects in heavily exposed children with and without the physical features of FAS, determining the neurobehavioral profile(s) of FASD, and understanding the specificity of this profile. Other studies address specific aspects of cognition, namely visual-spatial function and attention.
Edward P. Riley (Ph.D., 1974, Tulane University) is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Director of the Center for Behavioral Teratology at San Diego State University. He has authored over 225 scientific papers and reviews and served as Chair of the U.S. National Task Force on FAS/FAE from 2000-2004. He currently serves on the Expert Panel for the SAMHSA FASD Center for Excellence. He has served as President of the Research Society on Alcohol, the Fetal Alcohol Study Group, and the Behavioral Teratology Society. He is currently a Reviewing Editor and on the Editorial Board of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research and has served on several other Editorial Boards. He currently serves on the Behavioral & Social Advisory Council of ABMRF/The Foundation for Alcohol Research and as a member of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Council. He has received numerous awards for his scholarship and service including the Research Society on Alcoholism Distinguished Researcher Award and the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Research Recognition Award. His work on FASD has been continually funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism since 1978.
Daniel D. Savage II, Ph.D., is Regents’ Professor & Chair of the Department of Neurosciences at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. He holds secondary faculty appointments in Psychology and Pediatrics. He also serves as Center Director for the New Mexico Developmental Alcohol Research Center, an NIAAA-designated research center focused on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Dr. Savage’s primary research interests center on how moderate drinking during pregnancy causes long-term impairments of the neurobiologic mechanisms that subserve brain plasticity and learning. His current translational research projects include preclincial screening of putative therapeutic agents for treating fetal alcohol-induced learning deficits, and the development of novel biomarkers for the identification of fetal alcohol-induced functional brain damage. His other collaborative research interests include combined neuropsychological and functional neuroimaging studies of adolescents with FASD. Dr. Savage has been a member of the FASD Study Group and RSA since 1987, and is a past President of the FASD Study Group (1993-1994).
Kathleen K. Sulik, Ph.D. is a Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology and a member of the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The focus of her research career has been on defining the pathogenesis and mechanisms underlying a variety of birth defects, with major emphasis on examination of the teratogenesis of alcohol in a mouse model. Current work in her laboratory employs state of the art imaging methodologies to identify alcohol-induced CNS abnormalities. In addition to basic research, Kathy's efforts have been directed toward development of FASD prevention curricula for middle and high school students. Kathy has previously served as the President of the Teratology Society and of the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Study Group. For her work in the FASD field she has been honored as a recipient of the NOFAS Excellence Award, the FASDSG Henry Rosett Award, and RSA's T-K Li Lectureship.
