Comprehensive, expert guidance from an established authority

About Dr. Hussey-Gardner, the Author of PPOD™

Dr. Hussey-Gardner has more than 25 years of research and clinical experience with infants, toddlers, and their families. Currently, Dr. Hussey-Gardner is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine where she is the Director of Maryland’s PRIDE. Since 2000, Dr. Hussey-Gardner has received over $1.6 million dollars in grants to operate and study this program which provides early intervention services in collaboration with the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), NICU Follow-Up Clinic, and general pediatrics clinic at the University of Maryland Hospital. She is also the coordinator of the NICU Follow-Up Clinic where she oversees more than 1,000 patient visits per year. In addition, she is the developmental specialist in the NICU.

University Instructor. Dr. Hussey-Gardner also holds adjunct positions with the Psychology Department at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and the Special Education Department at the University of Maryland College Park where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on developmental psychology, parenting, children with disabilities, early intervention, and infants born prematurely. Anonymous student reviews consistently rank her as one of the top instructors at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Author & Presenter. Dr. Hussey-Gardner has been the author or co-author of 11 articles published in peer-reviewed journals and she has co-authored 2 textbook chapters. In addition, she has given 106 invited speeches at national, regional, and local conferences; 69 peer-reviewed, national and regional presentations; and has participated in 24 television, radio, magazine or internet interviews regarding child development. In addition, Dr. Hussey-Gardner has developed and published a number of resources that are used by professionals serving infants and toddlers, and by the families themselves. These publications include: Understanding My Signals: Help for Parents of Premature Infants (currently in its third edition), Taking Care of Me: Help for Parents of New Babies, Parenting to Make a Difference: Your One to Four Year Old Child, and Best Beginnings: Helping Parents Make a Difference. She is also the creator of the Best Beginnings Developmental Screen, a criterion-referenced tool for screening developmental milestone attainment and quality of performance in adaptive, social-emotional, fine motor, cognitive, language, and gross motor domains of children from birth to 39 months of age.

Advocate. Dr. Hussey-Gardner has a history of advocating for children with developmental delays in Maryland. She has been a member of the Maryland State Interagency Coordinating Council since 2006, an Executive Board member since 2007, and in 2011 she became the Chair of this council whose job is to advise and assist the early childhood intervention and education system of services in Maryland. At the state level, she has conducted research to substantiate and change high probability conditions for early intervention eligibility in Maryland. Her research led to inclusion of infants with chronic lung disease and surgical necrotizing entereocolitis. In addition, Dr. Hussey-Gardner led the effort to create the Maryland Infants and Toddlers Program Physician’s Guide, released in 2009. Locally, Dr. Hussey-Gardner has been a member of the Baltimore City Interagency Coordinating Council since 1996 and was the Chairperson from 1997-2001.

Mother. Dr. Hussey-Gardner is the mother of Austin Gardner who is now 22 years old and in graduate school. She and her husband fondly remember when he learned to sleep through the night, say “I love you.” and use the toilet all by himself.