The Founders: Helen and PJ Shafer founded The Shafer Center for Early Intervention to provide program opportunities for their own son who is on the autism spectrum. Realizing the important role early intervention has played in maximizing their son’s potential, the Shafer’s wanted to create an environment where their son could continue to flourish while bringing those same programs and services to other children on the spectrum and their families.
The Staff: Christine Accardo, Ph.D., BCBA, is the program director for the Shafer Center for Early Intervention. She is also the Director of Children Services at Mid-Atlantic Human Services Corporation. Dr. Accardo is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Kennedy Kreiger Institute and Johns Hopkins Medical Center. In the last ten years Dr. Accardo has developed and provided clinical consultation services for in-home and in-school autism programs for children ranging in age from 2 to 11 years. Her other professional experience includes providing discrete trial instruction and behavioral support to children diagnosed with autism, providing psychological, educational, and cognitive assessments to teenagers with cognitive and learning disabilities, and providing counseling and therapy services to adolescents and young adults.
