Dr. Mishelle Ross, the President and CEO of AHEAD, has been a special educator for over 30 years. She has been a classroom teacher as well as program administrator, and continues her educational therapy practice. In addition to her work at the Kayne Eras Center, where she held positions from classroom teacher (serving students with learning, emotional, behavioral, and developmental challenges) to Vice President of Educational and Therapeutic Services, Mishelle is an instructor at UCLA Extension, teaching a number of their courses leading to the California State Teaching Credentials. These include Educating and Supporting Students with Autism; Advanced Study: Provisions and Strategies for Special Needs Learner Instruction; Characteristics of Students with Special Needs; Intervention Strategies in Reading Instruction; Special Needs Learners; Issues, Policies, and Practices; and Planning and Implementing Curriculum and Instruction in the Inclusive Classroom.

Mishelle completed her graduate education at Columbia University- Teachers College, where she received a Doctorate in Education in Curriculum and Teaching, with an area of specialization in Reading and Language Arts; a Master of Education in Urban Education; and a Master of Arts in Special Education of the Neurologically Impaired/Learning Disabled. Mishelle’s Bachelor of Arts degree is from UCLA. She holds hour California State Credentials (Learning Handicapped/ Physically Handicapped, Severely Handicapped, Reading Specialist, and Multiple Subjects).

Mishelle is privileged to have served on the IDEA roundtable called by the (federal) Office of Education for the reauthorization of IDEA, as well as serving as a member of the Board of Directors for the California Association of Private Special Education Schools (CAPSES), “a statewide professional association of nonpublic schools, agencies, organizations and individuals who specialize in the delivery of quality special educational programs to students with special education needs.”