Deborah M. Spitalnik, PhD

Deborah Spitalnik is the Executive Director of the Elizabeth M. Boggs Center on Developmental Disabilities, where she is also a Professor of Pediatrics.

Dr. Spitalnik holds degrees from Brandeis, Harvard, and Temple Universities. She was also a Maternal and Child Fellow in Child Clinical Psychology at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.

For over 25 years her work has focused on the intersection of individuals and public policy. She is a co-author of both the 9th (1992) and 10th (2002) edition of the AAIDD terminology and classification manual. Dr. Spitalnik was a principal investigator of an innovative Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project demonstrating the feasibility of integrating adults with chronic disabilities into managed health care using a care coordination model. She is the developer of The Managed Health Care Curriculum: Supporting People with Developmental Disabilities to Utilize Managed Health Care, a federal Project of National Significance and also educational materials for SSI beneficiaries moving into Medicaid managed care. Dr. Spitalnik educates a wide range of constituencies, including people with disabilities and their families, medical students and resident physicians, direct support workers, case managers, and other professionals. She also provides consultation and technical assistance to state agencies, service providers, and families.

Past Chair of the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities and a past President of the Association of University Centers on Disabilities, Dr. Spitalnik serves on numerous committees and boards, including the New Jersey Developmental Disabilities Council, The Governor's Council for the Prevention of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, and the Governor's Advisory Council on Traumatic Brain Injury.

Dr. Spitalnik has been recognized by the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Dybwad Humanitarian Award, the United Cerebral Palsy of New Jersey Elizabeth M. Boggs Citizenship Award, the Brandeis University Student Alumni Association Pride Award, The Camphill Elizabeth M. Boggs Leadership Award, and the Community Health Law Project Ann Klein Advocacy Award.

Publications

Work Address:
The Boggs Center
P.O. Box 2688
New Brunswick, NJ 08903-2688

Phone: 732-235-9326
FAX: 732-235-9330
Email: deborah.spitalnik@umdnj.edu