The Virtual National Conference
of the
Tourette Association of America

Michael Leopold is a Human Resources consultant, corporate trainer, career consultant, and public speaker. He is the founder and president of Leopold Talent Consulting, offering career consulting and job search services to individuals, as well as HR services to organizations. Before launching his business, Michael held corporate HR and consulting roles at Xerox, Two Sigma Investments, and Mercer. His work is shaped by his own experiences as a professional with TS and ADHD along with his desire to bridge the cognitive science of career decision making with the human side. He helps clients understand what drives them and how their unique strengths can position them for professional success.

His involvement with TAA began in 2008 when he became a youth ambassador and started speaking publicly about neurological conditions. Since then, he has mentored countless individuals with TS to ensure their continued success academically, socially, and professionally. He serves on TAA's Young Professionals Advisory Board and also as a TAA Education Volunteer. 

Raised in the Midwest, Michael currently resides in Manhattan. He holds a M.S. in Human Capital Management from Columbia University and a B.S. in Cognitive Science from Yale University.

Kristi Pierce, B.A. Psych, MSW, received her Master's in School Social Work in 2001 from the University of Tennessee. As the Mental Health Coordinator of a school system, she spent most of her time working with troubled teens, even as she was struggling with worsening TS and comorbid disorders. Kristi had to leave this job and, ultimately, the workplace by age 34 due to TS. During the last 17 years, Kristi has hoped her TS would improve, but it has continued to worsen. She has become a stronger person, though, with each challenge. Today, Kristi is learning to accept her health conditions and is determined to enjoy her life and constantly improve it. She serves on the TAA Adult Task Force and is co-administrator of a new Facebook group- “Young at Heart: Adults 50+ with Tourette Syndrome.” Kristi lives in Tennessee with her loving husband and their two always-up-to-something dogs who keep her laughing and centered on what is really important in life.

Michael Chichioco is a 25-year-old Filipino-American diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome and is currently a 1st year medical student at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). Michael graduated from Northeastern University with a B.S. in Biochemistry and a minor in Psychology. Michael first showed symptoms of Tourette Syndrome when he was 5 years old, and he was diagnosed at the age of 14. Michael has been involved with the Tourette Association of America for many years as a Youth Ambassador (2014) and Rising Leader (2019). He is a passionate advocate for Tourette Syndrome and has presented at numerous venues such as KQED Radio, TEDx, various elementary/middle schools and universities across the country. Asa future medical physician, he is interested in exploring the fields of Neurology and Pediatrics, and also hopes to dedicate his career towards addressing health disparities for individuals with TS and disabilities. Through his career and through public speaking/advocacy, he strives to encourage individuals with TS and disabilities to embrace their differences and see them as a strength.

Dr. Paul DePompo, PsyD, ABPP is a board certified behavioral and cognitive clinical psychologist specializing. He is a diplomate of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy endorsed by Greenberger & Padesky (authors of Mind Over Mood). He is a certified trainer for PCIT and PC-CAARE by the UC Davis child psychiatry team. He is certified in SPACE treatment for Anxious Children from Yale. Dr. DePompo has been treating Tourette's and its combination with ADHD, OCD, GAD, and Social Anxiety for over 17years.In addition, DePompo’s center in Newport Beach, California has APA certification for training professionals where they provide training and workshops for professionals and the public. Experts such as Windy Dryden, PhD, Ann Vernon, PhD, and many other accomplished psychologists have facilitated trainings with Dr. DePompo. He has been published in scientific journals, a regular on a morning television program, authored articles and has been cited in Huffington Post ,Wall Street Journal, NPR, and other mainstream media. He also consults with Hollywood studios regarding psychological matters. DePompo works closely with the Southern California chapter of the Tourette’s Association

Dr. Alicia Goodman is a licensed psychologist and nationally certified school psychologist. She is the owner and director of Simply Psychology LLC in Phoenix Arizona, a multidisciplinary group practice specializing in childhood anxiety disorders, including tics/Tourette's and selective mutism, and providing individual therapy, comprehensive evaluations and workshops for parents and school professionals. She supervises interns and postdoctoral residents and is a member of the Tourette's Association of America, The Selective Mutism Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Association of School Psychologists

Kathy Giordano served as the Tourette Association's Education Specialist 2003-2022. Additionally, she owned Tourette Plus under which she provided behavioral consultant services to school districts and human service agencies. Kathy has presented internationally regarding Tourette Syndrome, Functional Behavioral Assessments, and positive/proactive behavioral management plans for 35+ years.  She continues to assist school districts nationally determine symptoms vs. purposeful behaviors and interventions which make challenging symptoms/behavior less likely to reoccur.   

Nicky Bohm is a passionate and experienced hard worker with over 20 years of experience as a Behavior Specialist and teaching.  Nicky has worked in group homes, autism centers, K-12 schools and is the former President of the Minnesota chapter of the Tourette Association.  She was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome at the age of 25 but has had symptoms since the age of five. Nicky was born with other gifts such as a rare genetic form of Dystonia and all the comorbid conditions associated with Tourette syndrome.  She is a motivational speaker and trainer/ educator for adults and K-12 students.   Nicky currently works at Cyber Village Academy in St. Paul.

Dr. Rowe is a retired faculty member from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), School of Health Professions, Department of Occupational Therapy. In 2010, with an increased focus in pediatrics, program development and service to underserved populations Dr. Rowe was the first occupational therapist to develop and coordinate a Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) program for children with tic disorders.

Dr. Rowe has been with Children’s of Alabama since 2013. Since 2015 Children’s/UAB  has been recognized as a TS Center of Excellence, a designation from the Tourette Association of America (TAA).

Dr. Rowe serves on the Medical Advisory Board for the TAA and is the Co-director of the Children’s’ TS Center of Excellence. Other activities include research in Tourette syndrome and tic disorders addressing occupations impacted by tics, serving as a CBIT trainer for occupational therapists and other health professionals, and providing numerous presentations for medical professionals, educators, and community partners.

Kathleen Downing is a highly experienced special education teacher and executive function consultant who draws on her long-term experience as a teacher and parent of children with special needs. Her first career was as an interior designer and then, after moving to Michigan, a stay-at-home-mom. Life took an interesting turn when her oldest child began to have tics and trouble in school. After learning more about Tourette syndrome and her son’s learning disabilities, Kathleen became a special education teacher and a volunteer for the Michigan Chapter of the TAA. Fast forward to 2023 and she has more than 15 years of general and special education teaching and volunteering experience with the TAA. She currently teaches in a self-contained autism classroom and has turned her master’s thesis into an executive function consulting and visual materials business - Clean Clear Designs. This work allows her to combine her expertise in helping children with executive function challenges, her experience in coaching parents how to better support their children, and her love of design to teach children independence skills so families can get on living their lives.

Jan Stewart is a highly regarded governance expert, advocate and author.  As the parent of two children with Tourette Syndrome and multiple co-occurring conditions, she has been involved with Tourette Syndrome, neurodevelopmental and mental health advocacy over the past 25 years.  She was Vice Chair at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Canada’s largest psychiatric hospital, served on the Parent Advisory Council at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Neuropsychopharmacology, and co-founded Toronto SickKids Hospital’s OCD Parent Support Group.  She currently chairs the Board at Kerry’s Place Autism Services, Canada’s largest autism services provider, and is a Consultant to the Tourette Association of America Education Advisory Board.  Jan spent the majority of her career as a senior Partner with the global executive search firm Egon Zehnder.  She is a Diamond Life Master in bridge and enjoys fitness, genealogy and dance.  

Jan is the author of the acclaimed memoir Hold on Tight: A Parent’s Journey Raising Children with Mental Illness.  You can find her website at janstewartauthor.com, and her Instagram and Facebook pages at janstewartauthor, where she posts daily about mental health.

Charles Galyon is a practicing clinician who specializes in working with Tourette’s and related compulsive behavioral disorders, Autism, and Anxiety. He primarily works with children, teenagers, and their families. Dr. Galyon believes strongly in the value and importance of educating parents and professionals so children and teens receive the support and guidance they need to be able to thrive. Dr. Galyon also has lived experience as an individual with Tourette’s and a parent of a child with Tourette’s.  

Dr. Kinga Tomczak is a pediatric neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and Instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School with a broad background in genetics, neurology and neuropsychology. With M.D. from Poznan University of Medical Sciences and Ph.D. from the Polish Academy of Sciences, she completed postdoctoral training in Boston, including the labs of Dr. Alan Beggs at Harvard Medical School. In 2020, she launched the Boston Children’s Hospital Tic Disorders and Tourette Syndrome program.

Through close collaborations with colleagues in psychiatry and psychology at Boston Children’s and Massachusetts General, Dr. Tomczak shares her clinical and research interests in tic disorders and comorbid obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). She is analyzing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with chronic tic disorders and OCD. In a new population of patients, most of whom did not have tics in the past, she is examining the phenomenon of functional tics and psychosocial stressors and vulnerabilities.

Dr. Tomczak recently received the NeuroNEXT award and is investigating the gut microbiome in tic and OCD patients hoping to discover new avenues for potential interventions.

Dr. Tomczak enjoys traveling, swimming and is an avid skier. She loves spending time with her three children and family dog.

Tamar Katz, M.D., Ph.D is a licensed, board certified child and adolescent psychiatrist. She currently works as a pediatric neuropsychiatrist at Boston Children’s Hospital where she engages both in clinical work and in clinical research. She completed her MD at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and her Ph.D. in developmental genetics as a joint student at Mount Sinai Medical School and Harvard Medical School where she was a visiting student in the lab of Dr. Clifford Tabin. Following medical school she attended residency at Massachusetts General Hospital where she was a chief resident, followed by child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital where she served as chief fellow. She also completed additional training as a part time fellow in the neuropsychiatry fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. She enjoys working with trainees of all levels and is a sought after teacher and lecturer. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her five children, competitive triathlons, writing, and will never turn down the opportunity for a quiet moment with a cup of tea and an audiobook.

Dr. Noa Benaroya-Milstein (M.D., PhD) is director of psychological medicine at Schneider Children’s Medical Center’s outpatient unit and Tourette clinic, affiliated to Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Israel. She is currently supervisor of the liason psychiatry service to the hemato-oncology ward, a member of the hospital ethics committee board, and assistant professor at Tel Aviv University. She earned her M.D. and PhD through Tel Aviv University’s excellence program, specializing in PsychoNeuroImmunology, and won awards for the work in haemato-oncology and research conducted during her studies. Dr Benaroya-Milshtein has also received grants for her work in oncology and has penned multiple publications, specializing in Tourette and accompanying disorders. She was also the Israeli coordinator for the European Multi-center Tics in Children Studies (EMTICS). 

Dr. John Piacentini is a board-certified clinical child and adolescent psychologist and Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences. He directs the UCLA Child OCD, Anxiety, and Tic Disorders Clinic and Tourette Association Center of Excellence which provide diagnostic evaluation and treatment (both therapy and medication) for youth with the above problems. He also directs the UCLA Center for Child Anxiety Resilience, Education, and Support (CARES; carescenter.ucla.edu) which provides education and programming to parents, teachers, and clinicians about anxiety prevention and management.

Dr. Dana Feldman-Sadeh (PhD) is a clinical psychologist and coordinator of the psychological clinical staff at the Neuropsychiatric Clinic for Tourette Syndrome and Tic Disorders, at Schneider Children’s Medical Center’s Psychological Medicine outpatient unit. In her PhD dissertation Dana researched suicidality in youth and was the Israeli coordinator of a 7th framework, European multi-center study called SEYLE. In addition to her clinical practice, Dana develops research and mentors doctoral students during their dissertations as part of her work.

Heather Simpson, OTD, OTR/L is an occupational therapist working at the University of Florida at the Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases in Gainesville, Florida. Dr. Simpson received her Master’s in Occupational Therapy, in 2009, from the University of Florida and her Doctorate of Occupational Therapy from the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in 2017. She is an expert in the field of occupational therapy for evaluation and treatment of children and adults living with Tourette Syndrome and Tic Disorders. Dr. Simpson received specialized training Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) in 2012. She has served as the clinic coordinator for the UF Health Center of Excellence for Tourette Syndrome, running support groups, participating in research and patient advocacy. Dr. Simpson’s research focus is based on occupational therapy management of tic disorders. She has extensive Sensory Integration training and arousal modulation training, as well as daily occupational training related to handwriting and self-care skills. Dr. Simpson is familiar with the IEP and 504 plan process and has training on school modifications necessary to succeed in school.

Dr. Rowe is a retired faculty member from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), School of Health Professions, Department of Occupational Therapy. In 2010, with an increased focus in pediatrics, program development and service to underserved populations Dr. Rowe was the first occupational therapist to develop and coordinate a Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) program for children with tic disorders.

Dr. Rowe has been with Children’s of Alabama since 2013. Since 2015 Children’s/UAB  has been recognized as a TS Center of Excellence, a designation from the Tourette Association of America (TAA).

Dr. Rowe serves on the Medical Advisory Board for the TAA and is the Co-director of the Children’s’ TS Center of Excellence. Other activities include research in Tourette syndrome and tic disorders addressing occupations impacted by tics, serving as a CBIT trainer for occupational therapists and other health professionals, and providing numerous presentations for medical professionals, educators, and community partners.

Dr. Judith Newman, a faculty member at Penn State's Abington College for over 45 years, teaches a wide array of life-span developmental courses, and an ethics course for students entering the mental health field.

Dr. Newman recently (2022) co-authored an updated version of her 2013 book entitled Against their Will about the exploitation of children in medical and psychological experiments throughout the 1900’s. She frequently gives conference presentations about the rights of children as research participants.

Dr. Newman has herself conducted research in areas such as children's concepts of family; concepts of death; and concepts of illness. She is writing a book about the development of children’s understanding of the causes of various physical and “mental” illnesses, as well as of neurobehavioral disorders such as Tourette Syndrome. She will share this information with you.

Dr. Newman had been teaching about Tourette’s for years in her developmental courses. Then her nephew and her son were diagnosed. For more than a decade, she coordinated a large family support group in New Jersey for parents of children and adolescents with TS and offered teacher in-services as well. Then, Dr. Newman facilitated a support group in Southeastern PA for several years. She remains involved with both the New Jersey Center for Tourette Syndrome and Associated Disorders and is also involved with the Pennsylvania Tourette Syndrome Alliance. She has also conducted some research with her undergraduate students on interventions to increase children’s understanding of Tourette Syndrome.

Joohi Jimenez-Shahed, MD is an Associate Professor of Neurology and Medical Director, Movement Disorders Neuromodulation and Brain Circuit Therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She completed a fellowship in Movement Disorders at the Parkinson’s Disease Center and Movement Disorders Clinic (PDCMDC) at BCM.  She specializes in the care of adult and pediatric patients with Tourette syndrome and other movement disorders, and her research investigates the neurophysiologic features of movement disorders that are recorded during deep brain stimulation (DBS), the application of wearables and digital health technologies, and health outcomes research. Dr. Jimenez-Shahed is the Chair of the Science Advisory Board of the Davis Phinney Foundation and a member of the Executive Committee of the Parkinson Study Group, where she also serves as Chair of the Mentorship Committee and past chair of the Functional Neurosurgical Working Group. She is also an investigator member  of the TAA International Tourette Deep Brain Stimulation Database and Registry, and the Tic Disorders and Tourette Syndrome Study Group of the Movement Disorders Society.  She is a recipient of the Roy H. Cullen Quality of Life Award, the Rising Star Clinician Award, the Faculty Excellence Award in Teaching and Evaluation, and the Outstanding Health Care Practitioner Award. She is a graduate of the Women Leading in Neurology program of the American Academy of Neurology.   

Rebecca K. Lehman, MD is Associate Professor of Neurosciences (Pediatric Neurology) and Director of the Pediatric Neurology Residency Program at the Palmetto Health – USC Medical Group in Columbia, SC. She obtained her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and remained at the University of Rochester for her Pediatrics preliminary years, Child Neurology residency, and Movement Disorders fellowship. Clinically, she treats pediatric patients with a wide variety of movement disorders, including Tourette syndrome, dystonia, chorea, tremor, ataxia, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease. She was awarded the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Humanism and Excellence in Teaching Award in 2008 and was nominated for the American Medical Student Association’s and College of Medicine’s Golden Apple Award for excellence in medical education in 2011.

Dr. Irene Malaty completed movement disorders fellowship at the University of Florida before joining the UF faculty. She devotes her practice to clinical care, research, and education across the movement disorders spectrum. She specializes in Tourette syndrome (TS) in patients of all ages and is director of the Tourette Association of America Center of Excellence at UF. She is a member of the International Tic and Tourette syndrome study group of the International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society. She also specializes in the care of Parkinson disease (PD) and is director of a Parkinson Foundation Center of Excellence at UF. Dr. Malaty is a primary investigator in a number of trials in movement disorders and helps direct the movement disorder trials at UF. She has authored multiple publications and chapters in movement disorders. In 2017, Dr. Malaty became the first female president of the Florida Society of Neurology. She currently serves as vice-chair of the movement disorders subsection of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and is an invited member of the AAN science committee. She was selected for the inaugural class of the prestigious Women Leading in Neurology program of the AAN.

Suzy Eppling is an occupational therapist who specializes in Tourette Syndrome and other tic disorders, Functional Neurological Disorder, and Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors. Her habit reversal telehealth practice, Online OTs, utilizes CBIT Therapy and the ComB model to support patients in NY, MA, NH, VT, and ME. Suzy’s experience includes volunteering at an orphanage for children with special needs in China and working in public schools as a pediatric occupational therapist. Suzy also has a child with Tourette Syndrome and Autism who is in her 3rd year of college at MIT.

Kenneth W. Phelps, PhD, is a child and relationship therapist at the University of South Carolina and Prisma Health specializing in the treatment of youth living with Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and/or anxiety disorders. He serves as a national supervisor and speaker for the Tourette Association of America's Behavioral Therapy Institute. Dr. Phelps offers a variety of evidence-based therapies, including CBIT, CBT, ERP, and family therapy. His research interests include psychotherapy pedagogy, resilience, and tic disorders. Phelps is a member of the International Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Foundation, the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He has served on the board for the Children's Trust of South Carolina, specifically assisting in program development and implementation. He has been published in multiple academic journals and leads the outpatient child and adolescent rotations for general psychiatry residents and child psychiatry fellows within his academic contexts.

Dr. Ann Weller is a Child and Adolescent Psychologist and the owner of Plum Tree Psychology, Ltd. She’s worked in outpatient settings, community mental health, and college counseling. She was a clinical director at a psychiatric inpatient hospital. Dr. Weller has co-authored research in conjunction with Chicago’s Loyola University Psychology Department. She’s given trainings throughout the state of Illinois to parents, teachers, clinicians, and students. Her areas of expertise include psychological evaluations, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and ADHD coaching.

Dr. Weller has diagnosed and treated children with the full range of psychiatric disorders, including: OCD, anxiety, depression, ADHD, mood disorders, Tourette’s Disorder, behavior disorders, trauma, learning disorders, and more.

Mindy Meyer is a Certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, Pediatric Mental Health Specialist (PMHS), and one of the few experts Certified in CBIT (Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics).
Mindy has over 18 years of experience working with children and adolescents, from ages birth to 25, in various settings including inpatient and outpatient. She has been focused on pediatric neurology for over 10 years treating Tourette’s, Autism, ADHD, Developmental Delays, Pediatric Strokes, and a wide range of neurological disorders. She has a special interest in connecting with children and teens with Tourette’s Syndrome.

Mindy attended Rush University and The Ohio State University. She is double board certified by the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board in Primary Care Pediatrics and Pediatric Mental Health. She is a certified Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) provider.

Joseph Sexton (he/him) is a recent graduate of Vanderbilt University, where he triple-majored in cognitive studies, mathematics, and medicine, health & society on the full-tuition Cornelius Vanderbilt Scholarship. While there, Joseph was highly involved with research on suicide among minoritized populations, with co-authored work featured in Archives of Suicide Research and presented at four national and international conferences. For promise as a future academic in STEM, in Spring 2021 Joseph was awarded the Goldwater Scholarship, the nation’s most prestigious grant for undergraduate researchers. Beyond research, Joseph has also become highly involved in the scholar-activist space of critical psychiatry. In 2022 he directed the inaugural Conference on Critical Psychiatry, which the JED Foundation later praised as a ground-breaking show of student leadership and reform by popularizing social and political critiques of mental health care. Joseph was also honored as one of Mental Health America’s 10 Youth Mental Health Leaders for 2021-2022. Joseph was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome in 2014 and was trained as a Rising Leader for the Tourette Association of America in 2019; previously, he presented at the TAA’s Virtual National Education Conference in 2020 and 2021.

Joseph McGuire, PhD (he/him) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He has over 15 years of research and/or clinical experience in the assessment and treatment of Tourette Disorder, anxiety disorders, OCD and related disorders. Dr. McGuire has received numerous national and international awards. He has co-edited three books with Elsevier, published over 125 peer-reviewed journal articles, and has given dozens of conference presentations. Dr. McGuire has gratefully received research support from the National Institute of Mental Health, Tourette Association of America, and the American Academy of Neurology, and several other foundations.

Dr. Kathleen Ramsey is a psychology postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Autism Research based at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she conducts developmental and autism evaluations as part of research on early detection of autism. She received her Ph.D. in child clinical psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi and completed her pre-doctoral internship in child and pediatric psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where she was a Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities Fellow. Dr. Ramsey trained at the Tourette Syndrome Center of Excellence at Children’s of Alabama (COA) and UAB and provided services on the pediatric consultation-liaison service at COA, where she aided families in pain management strategies for various medical and behavioral conditions. Presently, Dr. Ramsey is a member of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Tic and Obsessive-Compulsive Related Disorders Special Interest Group and plans to pursue Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT) certification and work with youth with tic conditions upon licensure.