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
Kristina C. Breaux, PhD
Scientific Council Chair, 2023
Principal Research Director, Education Portfolio
Research and Development Manager, Education
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.
Nicki Joshua, PhD
Scientific Council Vice Chair, 2023
Portfolio Director, Asia Pacific
Nicki Joshua, PhD, is the Portfolio Director for Pearson Clinical Asia Pacific (APAC). She leads the research and development teams across the region, including in Australia/New Zealand and India and provides support to Pearson publishing partners in Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. She completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne and has worked with Pearson since 2012. Her professional interests include cultural adaptation and localisation of assessment content to ensure suitability and fairness for local populations.
Her career has spanned academic, not for profit and government sectors and she has published several peer-reviewed articles. She lives in Melbourne, Australia with her partner, two boys and three dogs.
Lisa Whipple Drozdick, PhD
Principal Research Director, Healthcare Portfolio
Research and Development Manager, Healthcare and Therapeutics
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.
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.
Emily Savage-McGlynn, PhD
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.
Hector Solis
Manager Systems Development, Field Research
Hector Solis has been at Pearson for 19 years. In his tenure at Pearson, he has worked in the Field Research department collecting data on various clinical diagnostic tools in the fields of psychology, speech therapy, and more. He also manages various data collection systems that track and standardize data sets used for analysis during product development.
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.