As a licensed clinical psychologist with specialties in diagnosis, social and communication development and intervention in autism spectrum disorders, Dr. Lord is a Professor of Psychology and the founding Director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain (CADB), a collaborative program between New York-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell Medical College, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and New York Collaborates for Autism. She is renowned for her work in longitudinal studies of children with autism as well as for her role in developing the autism diagnostic instruments used in both practice and in research worldwide—namely the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) an observational scale; and the Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised (ADI-R) a parent interview, now considered the gold standard for research diagnoses all over the world. Dr. Lord completed degrees in psychology at UCLA and Harvard, and a clinical internship at Division TEACCH at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.