SESAME STREET CREATORS SALUTE UCSB AUTISM RESEARCHERS...Koegel's in the News

Gift will help UCSB autism center grow

10/26/05

By MORGAN GREEN
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

$2.3 million donation to allow more treatment, training

A $2.3 million gift from Montecito residents Brian and Patricia Kelly
will launch plans to nearly triple the size of the UCSB Autism Research
and Training Center, one of the nation's top 12 facilities of its kind
and a boon to scores of local families with an autistic member.

The couple's gift, announced Tuesday, is the largest the center has
received. The money will be used to create a larger home for the center
in UCSB's planned Social Sciences and Education Building complex. The
enlargement will enable the center to treat more autistic children and
expand its training of professionals to employ center methods
throughout the nation and beyond, said professor Robert Koegel, the
center's longtime director. He works alongside his wife, Lynn Koegel,
the center's clinical director of autism services.

Such a large gift was unexpected, said Mr. Koegel. "When we saw the
dollar amount, you had to pick us up off the floor. This is like a
dream."

The Kellys named the expanded UCSB facility the Koegel Autism Research
and Training Center. "That stunned Lynn and me," said Mr. Koegel. "We
tried to talk them into naming it after themselves, but they didn't
want to."

Autism, a neurological disability of mysterious origin, has reached
epidemic proportions all over the world, he said. It affects one in
every 166 children, and Santa Barbara County is no exception. About 75
local families participate in the center's intensive yearlong program.

Another thousand or so, many from outside the region, seek shorter-term
help, said Mr. Koegel. With the Kellys' gift, "We'll be able to reach
thousands more."

Mr. Kelly said Tuesday that his own family is among those "the center's
human talent has absolutely helped."

The Kellys have five children. One is autistic.

The couple wants to help more families get the kind of support they
received at UCSB, he said. "We're facing a major crisis in America."

Mr. Kelly is the co-founder of Eastern Development LLC, a
Massachusetts-based real estate development company, and serves on the
board of directors of Autism Speaks, an autism research and family
support group. Mrs. Kelly owned the couture wedding apparel company
Priscilla of Boston until she sold it to the May Co. four years ago.
The couple's fifth child was born earlier this month.

The Kellys are not finished with the UCSB center. They expect to raise
money in the coming year to build up the center's staff. "We want to
try to get the best and brightest young professionals, the graduate
students. They are the future in the treatment of children, the
research, and in helping families with the day-to-day challenges of
dealing with a child who has autism," Mr. Kelly said.

The expanded center will contain more treatment facilities, a
children's recreation area, a private entrance for families and a
garden. The groundbreaking is scheduled for December, with completion
estimated in two years.

"Our clinical facilities will now be among the country's best," said
Gale Morrison, acting dean of the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education,
of which the center is a part.

Children with autism are likely to have difficulty socializing, to
avoid eye contact, to have limited interests and to have communication
delays. Autism was once thought to be a lifelong disability, but
treatment is helping autistic children, some to the point where they
show no outward signs of the disability, according to UCSB. The
university center's methods involve instructors working one-on-one with
students and the assimilation of those methods into the family's daily
life.

Mrs. Koegel, who most recently co-authored the book "Overcoming
Autism," is nationally noted as a leading clinician in her field. She
appears Nov. 4 on the ABC television program "Supernanny" as an expert
adviser for a couple with an autistic 3-year-old son.

F.Y.I.

More information about the center and its programs can be viewed at
www.education.ucsb.edu/autism.

e-mail: mgreen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

RAFAEL MALDONADO / NEWS-PRESS PHOTO

The UCSB Autism Research and Training Center will be named after Lynn
Koegel, left, and Robert Koegel, seated. The Koegels and center
graduate students were pleased to learn of a $2.3 million donation from
Brian and Patricia Kelly of Montecito. At top, Eileen Klein, a graduate
student at the center, works with David DeCret, 4.




http://www.instadv.ucsb.edu/pa/display.aspx?PKey=206

UCSB Press Release

SESAME STREET CREATORS SALUTE UCSB AUTISM RESEARCHERS

July 2, 1998

When a New York-based national children's advocacy group looked for
heroes to honor, their attention was drawn to Robert and Lynn Koegel,
directors of the Autism Research and Training Center at UC Santa
Barbara.

The Koegels have devised special education techniques for a range of
children with autism that the awards panel describes as not only
effective but also gentle and agreeable to the children treated. The
married couple joined eight other individuals to receive the first
annual Sunny Days Awards last month for efforts to improve and brighten
young children's lives. An awards ceremony is to be held at a date to
be set in October.

The Sunny Days Awards are given by Sesame Street Parents magazine and
its publisher, Children's Television Workshop, the creator of the
Sesame Street TV series. "We're so proud to share the good news about
these heroes for young children," said editor Susan Lapinski. The
July/August issue of her magazine provides details of the awardees'
various approaches.

Winning such recognition was a surprise for the Koegels, who have used
positive reinforcement methods to treat hundreds of children since
establishing their center in the Graduate School of Education. "We
didn't even know we had been nominated," said Robert Koegel, a
professor of education and clinical psychology. "But we are honored we
were."

It gives them another forum to let parents know that autism is no
longer a hopeless disorder; its symptoms can be treated successfully.
While they acknowledge that much remains to be learned about autism,
the Koegels argue that especially young children can be taught ways to
neutralize the frustration and turn helplessness into hopefulness.

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