Pearson Clinical Assessment Scientific Council
The Pearson Clinical Assessment Scientific Council establishes, documents, and oversees the scientific standards and methods utilized during product development. These standards and methods provide guidance to our multi-discipline, international project teams to ensure products meet scientific standards, improve consistency across products, and increase efficiency and cost effectiveness of processes. The Council is composed of Clinical Assessment subject matter and content development experts. Council members provide consultation throughout the organization on scientific, practice, and related issues.
In addition to internal research directors, the council includes an external expert who is selected annually to participate in all council activities.
Meet the team
Emily Savage-McGlynn, PhD
Scientific Council Chair, 2022
Head of Research & Development, Pearson Clinical UK
Emily Savage-McGlynn, PhD, is Head of Research & Development for Pearson Clinical UK, where she leads the research team in the development of educational assessments and clinical diagnostic tools. She completed her graduate studies in Child Development, Psychology, and Psychometrics at the University of Oxford (MSc) and the University of Cambridge (PhD).
Her career has been varied, working in both academic and corporate organizations, as well as collaborating on several national government initiatives and advising on policy relating to Maternal Mental Health and Child Development. She has published in numerous academic journals and contributed to book chapters. She rejoined Pearson Clinical UK in 2017 and is the Chair of the Scientific Council for 2022.
She lives in Oxford, UK and is the proud mum of two boys.
Kristina C. Breaux, PhD
Principal Research Director, Education Portfolio
Kristina C. Breaux, PhD, is a licensed special educator, learning disabilities specialist, researcher, and published author. In her current role at Pearson, she leads the development of diagnostic achievement tests and dyslexia assessment solutions in Clinical Assessment. Since receiving her clinical training at Northwestern University, Dr. Breaux has taught students with learning disabilities and other neurodevelopmental disorders across the grade range and conducted numerous psychoeducational assessments for children, adolescents, and adults. She has co-authored two books and published numerous book chapters and journal articles in the field of clinical assessment. Dr. Breaux is a member of the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA) and past president of LDA Oregon. She currently serves as Associate Editor for the Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment.
Thomas Brown, PhD
Research Director, Healthcare Portfolio
Thomas Brown, PhD, is a research director for Pearson specializing in the development of behavior and personality assessments. Thomas received his doctoral degree from Northern Illinois University. His professional interests include fairness in testing and the diagnostic accuracy of clinical decision making. During his time with Pearson, Thomas has worked on a wide variety of assessment instruments, including the Behavior Assessment System for Children™, Third Edition (BASC™–3), the Brown Executive Functioning/Attention Scales™, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory®–IV (MCMI®–IV), and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests, Third Edition (WRMT–III).
Lisa Whipple Drozdick, PhD
Principal Research Director, Healthcare Portfolio
Lisa Whipple Drozdick, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, researcher, and published author. She received her clinical training at West Virginia University and the South Texas Veterans Healthcare System. She currently leads the development of neuropsychological and cognitive measures across the lifespan. Lisa has led the development efforts on products assessing memory, executive functioning, cognitive ability, adaptive functioning, and behavior. She currently spearheads an initiative within Pearson focused on engaging with the research community. Lisa is a member of the National Academy of Neuropsychology, International Neuropsychological Society, American Psychological Association (Divisions 12 Section 2, 20, 22, 40), and Psychologists in Long Term Care.
Michelle Joseph, PhD
Head - Research and Development, Pearson Clinical Assessment, India
Michelle A. Joseph, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in child and adolescent mental health. During her tenure and in her current role at Pearson she’s lead the adaptation and standardization of clinical assessments for India to make them culturally and linguistically suitable. She received her MPhil in Clinical Psychology from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, India and doctorate from King’s College London, UK. Previously, she has worked in clinical, school, and research settings and conducted psychoeducational assessments and therapeutic interventions. She also conducts training for postgraduatestudents and professionals. Her areas of interest include psychological assessment, parent-child interaction, and intervention in children.
María R. Muñoz, PhD
Director, Market Development
In her tenure at Pearson, Dr. Muñoz has led the trans-adaptation of multiple instruments to provide a culturally and linguistically appropriate evaluation of Spanish speakers inside and outside the US. Dr. Muñoz is a Licensed School Psychologist who provides expert consultationand training in topics related to the cognitive assessment of minority populations, equitable evaluations, and psychological measurement in general. She has also volunteered as a translator and interpreter for institutions such as the National Association of School Psychologists.
Katherine Presnell, PhD
Research Director, Healthcare Portfolio
Katherine Presnell, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and research director at Pearson. She earned her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and completed an APA-accredited clinical internship at Duke University Medical Center. In her current role at Pearson, she leads the development of behavior and personality products in Clinical Assessment. Prior to joining Pearson, she provided psychological assessment and treatment of medically ill patients and consultation to interdisciplinary teams in a variety of medical settings. Additionally, she taught graduate-level courses in psychopathology, assessment, and research methods, as well as conducted research on the assessment of health-related behaviors. She has published several peer-reviewed articles and developed workshops and webinars on various topics in clinical assessment.
Susan Engi Raiford, PhD
Principal Research Director, Education Portfolio
Susan Engi Raiford, PhD, is a licensed psychologist and principal research director of Wechsler intelligence and other cognitive ability products in the education portfolio at Pearson. She has been a primary developer of the Wechsler intelligence scales since March 2004. She has led projects such as the WISC®-V, the WISC®-V Integrated, the WAIS®-IV, the WPPSI®-IV, and the WAIS®-5. She has authored and co-authored multiple books on assessment including Essentials of Psychological Tele-Assessment, Essentials of WISC-V Integrated Assessment, Intelligent Testing with the WISC-V, Essentials of WPPSI-IV Assessment, and WAIS-IV Clinical Use and Interpretation. She also maintains a part-time private psychological assessment practice.
Prior to becoming a psychological test developer, she obtained a graduate degree in community counseling then in clinical psychology. She engaged in clinical work for ten years, providing assessment, psychotherapy, and consultation to individuals of all ages in inpatient, outpatient, school, and residential settings.
W. Joel Schneider, PhD
Professor
W. Joel Schneider, PhD, is a Professor at Temple University in the College of Education and Human Development. He earned a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Texas A&M University. His research interests include cognitive assessment, psychotherapy outcome research, statistical methods, and psychometrics. Along with Kevin McGrew, he has co-authored the most recent updates to the Cattell-Horn-Carroll Theory of Cognitive Abilities (Schneider & McGrew, 2018). He co-authored the second edition of Essentials of Assessment Report Writing (Schneider, Lichtenberger, Mather, & Kaufman, 2018). He is currently writing a book about psychometrics with an accompanying package in the R statistical programming environment.
Chien (Shannon) Wang, MA
Principal Research Director, Therapeutics Portfolio
Shannon Wang, MA, CCC-SLP, is a licensed speech-language pathologist and researcher. In her current role as principal research director at Pearson, she leads the development of diagnostic tests for speech, language, and early childhood in Clinical Assessment. Since receiving her clinical training at the University of Kansas, Shannon has created a preschool curriculum for children with language impairment and children learning English as a second language. She also participated in transdisciplinary assessments for infants and toddlers as well as school-age children and adolescents. Shannon is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and frequently presents webinars on assessment administration and interpretation as well as coauthoring journal articles on identification of specific language impairment in school populations.