Kendra Wolf, M.Ed., is an implementation coach at the University of Washington. Prior to working with the SMART Center, Kendra worked as a statewide autism specialist and grant coordinator for the Alaska Autism Resource Center. Here she developed and provided free culturally competent and evidence-based autism resources, training, and consultation services to autistic individuals (i.e. self-advocates), caregivers, educators, first responders, and service providers across the state of Alaska. Kendra has a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Special Education from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.
The purpose of this multi-site study is to develop and evaluate a multi-phase implementation and sustainment strategy to support evidence-based practice use across different interventions for individuals with autism, settings, and ages. Click here for more information.
This study will test the effectiveness of the newly-redesigned paraeducator-delivered RUBI for use in Educational Settings (RUBIES) intervention compared to usual care training in reducing disruptive behavior in 80 elementary-school children with ASD. This study also will examine paraeducator- and child-level mechanistic pathways of the RUBIES intervention.
The purpose of this study is to identify which evidence-based practices (EBPs) teachers and paraeducators use to more meaningfully include and retain autistic children in general education settings; and the malleable individual and organizational characteristics that increase EBP use. Click here for more information.
(Training & Technical Assistance) As a key component of this mission, UW SMART has developed strategies and related infrastructure for providing training and technical assistance to state and local education agencies as well as individual school districts. The SMART Center’s “TACore” provides: 1) Training and consultation/coaching focused on developing workforce capacity (among school staff and community partners) to deliver research-based strategies, policies, and practice models relevant to the education context, 2) Technical assistance focused on building evidence-based, multi-tiered systems of school-based behavioral health, using collaborative decision-making processes guided by local data as well as research evidence, and 3) Program evaluation focused on collecting and analyzing existing (e.g., administrative datasets) and novel (e.g., surveys, focus groups) quantitative and qualitative data to determine the impact of new or existing programs, practices, and policies.