Eileen McGrath, PhD

Dr. McGrath has extensive experience teaching university students in early childhood special education, training early intervention practitioners, and teaching infants, young children and adolescents with low-incidence neurodevelopmental disabilities including children with autism spectrum disorders. She has conducted research on the effects of systems change on early childhood special education, service recipients and service providers, as well as the effects of implementing family-centered services on families, early-intervention service coordinators, practitioners and the service delivery systems. Her current research focuses on the neurodevelopmental outcomes of extremely low birthweight, very low birthweight, extremely preterm and very preterm infants, and toddlers at 3 years of age. Additionally, Dr. McGrath is a co-investigator for an ongoing NIH-NEI Grant titled “Spectacle Prescribing in Early Childhood.”

Dr. McGrath owned and operated The Center for the Family, an agency in Tucson that provided service coordination and early childhood special education services to families with infants and toddlers who were eligible for Part C services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Throughout this time, she held contracts with the Arizona Early Intervention Program (AzEIP), the Department of Economic Security, Division of Developmental Disabilities (DES, DDD) and the Arizona Department of Education (ADE). She trained hundreds of early-intervention practitioners and subcontracted with occupational and physical therapists, speech language pathologists, dieticians and feeding specialists, and monitored public and charter school compliance with federal special education law. She has been the principal investigator for 17 grants and contracts with a total funding of more than $14.5 million.