CONNIE L. HÉBERT

Connie L. Hébert, M.S. Ed., is the Director of the Southeast Missouri State University Autism Center for Diagnosis and Treatment. Connie has years of experience supporting individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders across the lifespan through professional development and consultation provided for a variety of public and private educators and service providers, as well as support and training for families and community members. She has a diverse background regarding various methodologies and approaches used to address the needs of individuals with Autism, particularly those used in educational settings.

An experienced educator and consultant in the field of special education, Connie also works as an independent consultant from her personal business, here2help, LLC, to provide services to school districts in many areas, including the development of Response to Intervention systems.

Her experience includes special education teacher for students with cognitive disabilities, learning disabilities, emotional disturbance, autism, and multiple disabilities. Connie served as a classroom consultant in Central Pennsylvania providing supports to teachers for behavior assessment and intervention, and implementing strategies for working with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Following relocation to Southeast Missouri, Connie became a systems-level Special Education Improvement Consultant in the southeast region of Missouri. In 2005, she was named Missouri Staff Developer of the Year. In March 2009, Connie was appointed to one of the two seats designated for Higher Education on the Missouri Governor’s Commission on Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Connie believes her career has been blessed with opportunity to learn about effective supports and systems level data analysis from skilled experts in the field and national speakers and consultants, including Dr. Bernhardt. She has worked with systems level data analysis for continuous improvement since 2003, including working as an Associate with Education for the Future at the annual Summer Data Analysis and School Improvement Institutes. Schools that work with Connie find her approach to be student focused while remaining sensitive to the responsibilities of teaching in today’s classroom. She is enthusiastic about supporting schools in the use of proven practices for meeting the expectations of federal and state legislation or other mandates as they relate to school improvement.

In 2011, Connie co-authored, with Victoria L. Bernhardt, Response to Intervention (RtI) and Continuous School Improvement (CSI): Using Data, Vision, and Leadership to Design, Implement, and Evaluate a Schoolwide Prevention System.

Connie can be reached at connie.here2help@gmail.com