Associate Professor
University of Nevada, Reno, United States
Debra C. Vigil, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at University of Nevada Reno in the Department of Speech Pathology & Audiology, Director of the University Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment (UCAN), Co-Director of the NvLEND program, and Chair of the NvLTSAE state team. Dr. Vigil is currently the CDC’s Learn the Signs Ambassador to Nevada. As Director of UCAN, Dr. Vigil directs a multidisciplinary team of professionals from a wide array of disciplines to conduct evidence-based assessments for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. Training is provided to child psychiatry fellows, medical students, masters and doctoral level speech-language students, and NvLEND trainees to gain experience in interdisciplinary work with children with autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. The NvLTSAE state team is an active, collaborative effort that is leading an educational agenda in the state for families and professionals including material customization for distribution across the state, providing CEUs for childcare workers, annual Act Early Summit with participation from both private and state agencies. In addition, Dr. Vigil is currently collaborating with WIC on the WIC Developmental Monitoring Program grant obtained from the Association of State and Public Health Nutrition and the CDC to develop statewide monitoring and referral system. She is also on the Advisory Board for the grant. Her research interests include cultural diversity issues in treatment of minority children with language disorders, and social interaction predictors of language disorders, and diagnosis of autism from a transdisciplinary perspective.
The University of Nevada, Reno (Employment)