kimberly gaul

I work in the Neurocognitive Development Lab under Dr. Susan Rivera, assisting in running MRI scan appointments at the UC Davis Imaging Research Center, greeting participants and training them on tasks they will perform in the scanner. I created a behavioral coding scheme for charade gestures performed by clinical and typical populations, trained coders. Scored behavioral assessments for clinical populations, including ADOS, Vineland II, SRS, DCDQ, SCQ, ADAMS.

Greet and guide visitors through the gallery, answer questions or direct questions to supervisors. Provide assistance with hosting special gallery events. Organize and document donations and memberships for ARTfriends. Responsible for publicizing gallery events/exhibitions on social media and/or public calendars via text and photographs. Help with archiving past press releases for old exhibitions. Clean and organize public space daily.

Work in the Alternative Recreation Department of the City of Davis as the leader and coordinator for all activities for teens with developmental disabilities. Put together monthly outings and bimonthly social events on Friday nights, organize and supervise teen summer camps. Duties include working with parents to enhance their teens’ experiences and improve their teens’ social skills, overseeing staff members that work the activities, e-mailing activity reminders, and creating/sending out fliers for activities. Perform program intakes for new teens and visit teens at school when necessary to investigate recent behavioral changes.

Updated profiles of past UC alumni on a website called Highrise. Organized grades for teachers on Excel documents. Extracted students’ individual project pages from larger pdf files to send out. Compiled the contact information of professors and advisors from top universities to be distributed to alumni. Used Dropbox to share information with coworkers and bosses.

The Social Skills Training Program is designed to help teach kids with autism spectrum disorders, and disorders involving other social cognitive deficits to learn new skills and techniques in interacting with their peers. I worked with the 8-10 age group under Dr. Jennifer Thomas. As co-leader, I assisted the clinician in the lesson plan and tracked the goals of 2-4 kids to whom I was assigned at the beginning of the program. I met with the parents weekly to discuss their children's progress. I also attended weekly case conferences and presented at a case conference to a group of clinicians at the MIND Institute. http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/mindinstitute/clinic/social_skills/index.html

I coordinate for a study investigating visual processing and later cognitive development in infants and young children with fragile X syndrome and Down syndrome compared to typically developing children. Coordinating involves recruiting families to take part in the study and assisting them in all aspects of their visit to the UC Davis MIND Institute, performing a variety of developmental and behavioral assessments on each participant, running eye tracking tasks on each participant, and analyzing data related to visual processing and cognitive development back in lab. I also assume the role of lab manager, taking care of administrative needs, IRB updates and renewals, occasional review of incoming RA and job applications, and website management.