Director; Counselor

Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist.  She directs the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development, and its subsidiary, the Gifted Development Center, in Denver, Colorado.  Over 5,000 children have been assessed at the Center since 1979.  She is co-chair of the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) Task Force on Assessment. Her Ph.D. is in educational psychology and special education from the University of Southern California.  For nine years, she served on the faculty of the University of Denver in counseling psychology and gifted education.  Her textbook, Counseling the Gifted and Talented (Love: 1993), is the most popular text in this area; it has been adopted at more than 50 colleges and universities. Her latest book, Upside-Down Brilliance:  The Visual-Spatial Learner, was released November, 2002.  She founded the only journal on adult giftedness, Advanced Development.  Currently, she is conducting research on profoundly gifted children, the visual-spatial learner, comparative assessment of the gifted on different instruments, the effects of vision therapy, and introversion. Linda has been studying the assessment, psychology and education of the gifted since 1961 and she has contributed over 300 articles and chapters in this field.

To view Linda's Curriculum Vitae, please click here.

Associate Director; Counselor; Examiner

Barbara ("Bobbie") Gilman, M.S., serves on the NAGC Task Force on Assessment and is creating the official report of the Task Force.
A recognized expert on assessment of the gifted, Bobbie has been writing and speaking extensively on the appropriate use and scoring of the newly revised and renormed major IQ tests with gifted children.  She holds degrees in Child Development and Psychology, and has extensive experience testing gifted children and making educational recommendations for them.  She works with the highly gifted and gifted children with learning disabilities, AD/HD, or underachievement issues.  Bobbie trains testers, supervises reports, and consults with parents worldwide.  A mother of highly gifted sons, she is a veteran of gifted committees, helped create an accelerated charter middle school, and is a popular speaker for parents and teachers on advocacy and classroom accommodations for the gifted.  Since the release of  her award-winning book, Empowering Gifted Minds: Educational Advocacy That Works, she is devoting more of her time to School Advocacy Consultation, helping parents to document the unique instructional needs of their gifted student, find curricular options that meet the child's needs, and negotiate with school personnel for programming accommodations.  Bobbie has just completed the manuscript for her new book, Challenging Highly Gifted Learners.

Senior Staff Development Director; Counselor; Examiner

Betty Maxwell, M.A., is Director of the Visual-Spatial Resource and holds a Master's degree in gifted education and has over 20 years of experience teaching at all levels, including six years in a school for gifted children. Certified as a psychosynthesis counselor and educator, Betty is an insightful psychotherapist with gifted individuals of all ages. She also helps visual-spatial learners learn to employ their learning style effectively. Betty offers the Dial-Log Telephone Consultation, a service for families outside the Denver area. Co-founder and Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development, Betty is also Editor of Advanced Development, the only journal on adult giftedness. She has contributed several articles and chapters on developmental and emotional issues of the gifted.

Counselors

Linda Silverman, Ph.D.  (See Director)

Bobbie Gilman, M.S. (See Associate Director)

Betty Maxwell, M.A. (See Senior Staff Development Director, Examiner)

Michael Davis, Ph.D., Staff Counselor, has been in private practice since 1977. He has taught communication skills and conflict resolution at the graduate level at the University of Denver. Michael has worked successfully with gifted underachievers, adults and young gifted children, individually and in family therapy. He provides personality assessments for individuals, couples and families and facilitates group seminars on understanding personality and working creatively with personality differences. In addition, he teaches workshops for adults on accessing personal creativity. Michael teaches and counsels with insight, compassion, humor and heart.

Dave Atkinson, is a Licensed Professional Counselor.  He joined the Gifted Development Center as an intern in 1993, while working on his Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology.  His expertise in assessment led him to become our first Director of Staff Development.  Dave works part-time at the Center, specializing in career development, counseling, tutoring and preparation for the SAT, ACT, GRE and LSAT.  He also assists in reviewing reports.

 

Professional Affiliates

Linda Powers Leviton, M.A., MFT, Consultant & Director, West Coast Office of the Gifted Development Center office, has been in private practice as a Licensed Marriage, Family and Child Therapist since 1996. Prior to that, she taught gifted children and raised three of her own. Linda Leviton and Linda Silverman have worked together since 1974. They co-authored "In Search of the Perfect Program," which serves as a basis for helping parents find appropriate educational environments for their children.

Alexandra "Allie" Golon, is a Master Teacher at Rocky Mountain School for the Gifted & Creative. As the former Director of the Visual-Spatial Resource, a G/T teacher and homeschooling parent to two exceptionally gifted visual-spatial learners, Allie brings a wealth of experience to her books, Raising Topsy-Turvy Kids: Successfully Parenting Your Visual-Spatial Child and If You Could See the Way I Think: A Handbook for Visual-Spatial Kids. Her newest release, The Visual-Spatial Classroom: Differentiation Strategies that Engage Every Learner, is a rich resource for teachers. Allie has been invited to present on teaching and parenting visual-spatial learners at state, national and international venues. She has counseled dozens of families regarding parenting visual-spatial learners as well as various homeschooling issues. She can be reached at www.Visual-Learners.com.

Michael M. Piechowski, has a Ph.D. in molecular biology and a Ph.D. in counseling psychology, both from the University of Wisconsin-­Madison. He is a Senior Fellow of the Institute for Educational Advancement and Professor Emeritus of Education and Psychology, Northland College, Ashland, Wisconsin Co-author of Theory of Levels of Emotional Development (2 vols.) with Kazimierz Dabrowski, Michael has written extensively on the developmental potential and emotional development of the gifted, including the book, "Mellow Out," They Say, If I Only Could.

Kathi Kearney, M.A. Ed., is the founder of the Hollingworth Center for Highly Gifted Children, a national resource and support network for exceptionally gifted children and their families. She has worked with gifted children as a teacher and administrator in a wide variety of settings, urban and rural, in public, private, religious, and home schools. Kathi is a recognized expert on homeschooling exceptionally gifted children. An excellent diagnostician, she works primarily in New England.

Examiners

Betty Maxwell, M.A.  (See Senior Staff Development Director, Counselor)

Barbara Gilman, M.S.  (See Associate Director)

Nancy B. Miller, Ph.D., holds degrees in psychology and sociology and has received advanced training in family processes and children’s psychological adjustment. Since 2000, she has served as Associate Editor for Advanced Development, a journal on adult giftedness. Prior to moving back to the Denver area, she was Executive Officer for Sociologists for Women in Society and taught courses at both the graduate and undergraduate level at the University of Akron in Ohio, including socialization; children, youth and society; and sociology of the family. Her numerous publications focus on emotional development, gender and giftedness, and women’s social support and adjustment. She has worked with Dr. Silverman for the past 20 years and is committed to fostering children’s social and emotional development at home and at school. She brings a sociological perspective to the assessment of children at the Gifted Development Center.

 

Connie C. Tucker, M.S., N.C.S.P., Associate, holds a Master's degree in School Psychology.  She has held state and national certificates in school psychology since 1988. Connie works in two elementary schools and a middle school in Jefferson County where she conducts psychological assessments to determine learning disabilities or emotional disorders, counsels at-risk children, and consults with teachers to develop interventions to help children be successful in school.  As the mother of gifted daughters, she has learned through experience the joy of giftedness and the need for advocacy for gifted children.

Helen McVicar, M.B.A., ABSNP, is licensed by the Colorado Department of Education as a School Psychologist and her professional experience includes 12 years working in public schools conducting comprehensive assessments, and providing direct services, crisis management, applied behavior analysis and consultation. She has worked for GDC as a Professional Associate for more than eight years providing assessments and acting as the site coordinator of a Stanford-Binet 5 discriminant validation study. She worked for several years testing children for Dr. George Dorry of the Attention and Behavior Center before his retirement. Helen holds an MBA in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from City University of New York and completed a Post-Masters Licensure Program in School Psychology at Marywood University.

As she has become more interested in twice exceptional and learning disabilities, Helen has recently completed the School Neuropsychology Post-Graduate Certification Program and received a Diplomate by the American Board of School Neuropsychology (ABSNP). In addition to cognitive, academic and social/emotional assessment, she can now consider attention, memory and executive functioning.

Marni Choice-Hermosillo, Ed.S.,  Associate, holds an Educational Specialist degree from the University of Denver and a license in School Psychology.  Marni currently works in Denver Public Schools as a school psychologist for an elementary and middle school; however, she is certified to work with children of all ages (birth – 21).  As a school psychologist, Marni conducts psychological assessments for gifted children, as well as those with learning and emotional disabilities.  In addition, she also counsels at-risk children, teaches social skills, consults with teachers to develop accommodations in the classroom, implements conflict mediation programs and tutors children with reading disabilities.  Marni has worked with the gifted population for three years and has a special interest in play therapy, gifted minorities, learning disabilities and reading interventions.

Ann W. DeMers, M.A., N.C.S.P., Associate, holds a Master's degree in Special Education and a state license as well as national certification in School Psychology.  She has recently retired with 31 years of experience in Jefferson County Schools as a special educator, classroom teacher and school psychologist. Ann’s experience includes teaching conflict resolution, anger management and social skills and supporting students with severe emotional disabilities. She has training and experience with students who are Twice Exceptional. Ann has been an examiner at the Gifted Development Center since 2003.

Dawn Kinard, M.S., holds a Master's degree in Special Education from Texas A&M University, and certifications as an Educational Diagnostician, Pre-K through 12, ESL, and Special Educator.  Prior to relocating to Denver, she was employed by the Dallas Independent School District where she provided psycho-educational evaluations and developed individualized education plans for students with learning disabilities. Previously, she spent three years teaching the gifted. In addition, she screened and identified gifted students, and chaired the committee that admitted students into the gifted program. Her background as a Special Educator influenced her advocacy for including twice exceptional learners in gifted programs.

Robin V. Bunker, M.A., M.S., holds Master’s degrees in Western Classics from St. John’s College and Clinical Psychology from New Mexico Highlands University. Robin worked in Santa Fe, NM, with a forensic psychologist providing psychological testing and evaluations for juveniles and adults. Her internship experience includes work with an elementary school psychologist in Pecos, NM, where she provided psychological testing and counseling to students ranging in age from 4 to 15 years. In addition to her work at the GDC, she has a private counseling practice with a focus on children and families.

Annette Revel Sheely, M.A., is the school counselor at Rocky Mountain School for the Gifted and Creative (RMS) . At RMS, Annette teaches students (pre-k through 8th grade) social and emotional skills, as well as leading parent support groups and an adolescent gifted girls group. She holds a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology and serves as the MENSA Children's Coordinator for Denver. Annette has written articles on social and emotional issues and assessment of the gifted. She has been a manuscript reviewer for the Advanced Development Journal and is one of the authors of "High IQ Kids: Collected Information, Insights, and Personal Stories From the Experts" about profoundly gifted children.  Annette has spoken at many national and local conferences, and to parent groups, about gifted children.  She is passionate about helping gifted children and their families, especially regarding social and emotional needs. 

Copyright 1997 - 2007, Linda Kreger Silverman, Ph.D.
Gifted Development Center
A Service of the Institute for the Study of Advanced Development
1452 Marion Street Denver, Colorado 80218
1-888-GIFTED1 (Continental US only) * 303-837-8378
Fax: 303-831-7465

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