Claire E. Hughes-Lynch, Ph.D., has her doctoral degree from the College of William and Mary in the areas of gifted education and special education and is an associate professor of teacher education in the early childhood/special education program at the College of Coastal Georgia. As a former Visiting Fellow at Oxford University in the area of autism, she researches and publishes in the areas of educational interventions for children with autism, gifted children with disabilities, and Response to Intervention. She has lived with her husband, two children, three cats, and a dog up and down the East Coast. They currently live near the beach in Georgia, where they play happily in the sea.