Dr. Cynthia Vail received her Ph.D. from Florida State University and has been on the faculty of the University of Georgia in the Department of Communication Sciences and Special Education since 1989, where she is currently Professor. She teaches in the Birth through Kindergarten/Early Childhood Special Education program at UGA. In this role, she prepares undergraduate, masters, specialists, and doctoral level graduate students who work in the field of early intervention and Birth through Kindergarten inclusive programming. Dr. Vail collaborates with other faculty in the federally funded early childhood leadership consortium EDiDC which prepares doctoral students with a focus on young children with high intensity needs . She is also the Director for Georgia Sensory Assistance Project, Georgia's Technical Assistance project for students who are deaf-blind. Her research interests include Part C policy, teacher collaboration and peer-coaching, partnering with families, inclusion and fostering play in young children with challenging behaviors. She has published in Exceptional Children, The Journal of Early Intervention, Teacher Education and Special Education, Teaching Exceptional Children and other scholarly journals. She also provides leadership in Georgia as the personnel preparation representative on the State Interagency Coordinating Council for Early Intervention Programs and lead the GA Higher Education Consortium for EI/ECSE.
cvail@uga.edu