Rebecca Nathanson, Ph.D., James E. Rogers Professor of Education & Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is joining FMI as research professor. She will be collaborating with professionals and faculty at the Norton School, Cooperative Extension, and Bureau of Justice to establish Pima County’s first “Kids’ Court School.”
The program uses an empirically-based curriculum developed by Nathanson and Karen Saywitz, Ph.D. to assist children ages 4–17 to better understand courtroom procedures and to help decrease anxiety among youth who are asked to participate in legal proceedings.
Nathanson received her doctoral degree in Special Education from the University of California at Santa Barbara and her training in the area of children’s testimony as a research fellow at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine. She has merged her training in these areas and developed a research focus that examines the capabilities and limitations of child witnesses with disabilities.