In practice for three decades, Dr. Roberts is a deeply experienced psychologist and neuropsychologist. She has helped people of all ages, from babies to older adults, over her career. She has been privileged to gain her experience and wisdom at university hospitals across New England and the tristate area.
Dr. Roberts seeks to understand people from a developmental perspective. In simple terms, she is interested in your life story—the impact your growing up years have had on who you are today and the experiences that have affected your journey. She works with you to fully understand the challenges you face, and envision what your positive outcome would look like. She is solution-oriented. She helps you directly but often helps set up local teams and resources to improve complex situations.
Dr. Roberts offers diagnostic and neuropsychological evaluation to identify strengths, gain understanding, and set up action plans to address the challenges surrounding a learning, emotional, or health condition. Her approach to psychotherapy rests on her training and experience in human development and mental health. She brings this perspective to her efforts to help children, families, and adults feel better and make changes. She offers consultation to parents, schools and other organizations to understand challenges and generate a plan of action. She provides legal support to individuals with legal problems. She offers professional training and supervision to colleagues and organizations.
Work Experience
Most recently, Dr. Roberts was the National Director of Clinical Support Services for College Internship Program (CIP), a multi-site residential transition program for young adults with mild autism spectrum disorder and other learning differences. In that position, she gained a deep understanding of young adults with special needs and their families.
For 11 years prior to serving College Internship Program, Dr. Roberts held a faculty appointment with the NYU School of Medicine and was a psychologist and neuropsychologist at the NYU Child Study Center in Manhattan. At the NYU Child Study Center’s New York and New Jersey offices, she provided diagnostic and neuropsychological evaluation and psychotherapy to children, adults, and families. She also lectured, taught, supervised interns, and consulted to schools and legal firms. During this time she was also a research evaluator at NYU’s Phyllis Green and Randolph Cowen Institute for Pediatric Neuroscience.
Over the years prior to joining NYU, Dr. Roberts evaluated and treated children, families, and adults in various university and non-academic hospital settings in New England and the tristate area including Tufts New England Medical Center, Stony Brook University Hospital, and the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey.
Education
Dr. Roberts earned her undergraduate degree at Brown University. She completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at what was then Hahnemann University. She completed a two-year, postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Neuropsychology at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA. Both institutions have since become part of Drexel University.
Additional Training & Credentials
Dr. Roberts is a volunteer faculty member in the Department of Psychology, UMass Amherst.
She is research-level reliable with the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2), gold standard tools for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders.
Dr. Roberts completed certificate training at UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior in PEERS, an evidence-based group social skills curriculum.
She earned her certificate in Integrative Harm Reduction Psychotherapy (IHRP) at the New School for Social Research in Manhattan. IHRP is a psychotherapeutic treatment for individuals experiencing problematic relationships with alcohol, substances, or risky behavior.
Media
Dr. Roberts has been a frequent guest on Sirius XM’s “Dr. Radio” program “About Our Kids.” She is a regular contributor to Autism Spectrum News, a national publication for professionals and families. Across her career at the NYU Child Study Center and in the years before, she offered webinars and many public lectures to professionals and in the community. More recently, she presented a community lecture at Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, MA.
See below for a partial listing of media contributions:
SiriusXM Radio with Dr. Shatkin
“Autism & Family Vacation”
Autism Spectrum News Winter 2019
“Supporting Parents in the Transition Process” [p. 13]
Autism Spectrum News Spring 2018
“Co-Occurring Conditions in Mild Autism Spectrum Disorder:
Integrated Treatment Approaches” [p. 6]
Autism Spectrum News Fall 2016
“The ‘Self’ in Girls and Women with Autism Spectrum Disorder” [p.4]
The Autism Notebook October/November 2017
“Getting Unplugged: Helping Kids Discover Life Outside the Blue Screen” [p. 30]
Child Study Center Webinars at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone
“Babies and Autism: What Every Parent Needs to Know” April 2015
“Enjoying Your New Baby” March 2016