An artist visualizes how the new home for the Koegel Autism Center, foreground, might be tucked into the Education and Social Sciences Building complex that will rise on parking lots 20 and 21.

By Eileen Conrad

The Autism Research and Training Center at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education has received a $2.35-million gift from Brian and Patricia Kelly of Santa Barbara. It will be used to enhance facilities for one of the nation’s leading centers for the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of autism.

The Kellys’ gift will help create a new physical home for the Autism Research and Training Center and help the center expand its services for children with autism and their families. The facility, which will be part of a new, state-funded Education and Social Sciences Building complex, will more than double the center’s existing clinical space and feature additional treatment facilities, a recreation area for children, a private entrance, and a garden.

The expanded center is scheduled to break ground in January and open in the spring of 2008.

“Through our support for this outstanding center, we hope to raise public awareness of autism and help generate additional support to facilitate effective treatment and research on autism,” said Brian Kelly. “UCSB’s autism research center is one of the best centers in the country.”

Autism is a neurological disability that affects one in every 166 children. Once thought of as a lifelong, devastating disability, appropriate interventions have been shown to help children with autism learn.

The center is dedicated to using a behavioral approach to improve the lives of children with autism, as well as the lives of their family members. It has been recognized by the National Academy of Sciences and ranked among the country’s top 12 such facilities for its innovative research and teaching methods.

Said Patricia Kelly: “This center at the Gevirtz School is a unique resource for families, and we believe that this expansion will make it possible for many more families to take advantage of its services and benefit from its research.”

Chancellor Henry T. Yang thanked the Kellys “for their generous and visionary support of this national asset and renowned center. Their kindness and their consideration of the special needs of families dealing with autism are wonderful gifts.”

With the expansion, the center will also be given a new name—the Koegel Autism Center, in recognition of Robert Koegel, the facility’s longtime director and a professor of education, and his wife, Lynn Kern Koegel, the center’s clinical director.

An international authority on autism, Robert Koegel has published more than 150 journal articles, papers, and books on the subject. He is co-founder and co-editor of the “Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions.” Lynn Koegel has published several books on communication and language development.

Professor Gale Morrison, acting dean of the Gevirtz School, said the center’s expansion would enhance services to the community and help continue its excellence in autism research. “Our clinical facilities will now be among the country’s best,” she said.

More information about the center and its programs can be found on its Web site: <http://www.education.ucsb.edu/autism>.