Our Team

Daniel Dukes is a postdoctoral researcher in special education at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) with a special interest in socio-emotional development and learning. He worked in special education for ten years before completing a doctoral degree in psychology and working at UC Berkeley (USA), Oxford (UK) and Amsterdam (NL).

Personal Website: https://dukes.space/

Marisa Fisher is an associate professor of special education and a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst- Doctoral (BCBA-D). Her research focuses on understanding and decreasing social vulnerability among individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and supporting the social acceptance of individuals with IDD in the community. To support individuals with Williams syndrome, her research examines the social behaviors of individuals with Williams Syndrome, and how those social behaviors are related to friendship outcomes and increased risk of victimization. She then uses these findings to develop safety and social skills training specifically for individuals with Williams Syndrome. She is currently evaluating the feasibility and efficacy of the distance-delivered Social Skills Training Program for Adults with Williams Syndrome between the ages of 18 and 30.

I am a Professor of Psychology and a Licensed Psychologist and I direct the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Child Neurodevelopment Research Lab. Together with graduate students, I conduct research about the behavioral characteristics of children with Williams syndrome and approaches to support functioning. I have been conducting research about the cognitive, adaptive, social, and personality characteristics of children with Williams syndrome since 1993. I am currently working on research related to development and dissemination of a manualized developmentally-informed exposure therapy approach for addressing fears and phobias in young children with Williams syndrome. This research is funded by the Williams Syndrome Association where I serve on the Professional Advisory Board.

Dr Olympia Palikara is an Associate Professor in Educational Psychology and co-director of

postgraduate research programmes in the University of Warwick, UK. Her research interests concern

the educational and psychosocial outcomes of children with developmental disorders, including

those with Developmental Language Disorder, Williams Syndrome, Down Syndrome and Autism

Spectrum Disorders.

Web profile: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ces/staff/palikara

Webpage

I am a Professor of Developmental Psychology based at Durham University in the UK, and Director of the Centre for Developmental Disorders. I have been conducting research on aspects of cognition and behaviour in Williams Syndrome since 2000, with a specific focus on social behaviour and social cognition and associated issues of anxiety. I work closely with the Williams Syndrome Foundation in the UK and I had been a member of the Professional Advisory Panel for the charity since 2014.

Andrea Samson is Associate Professor in Psychology and co-responsible for the French-speaking Masters program in Psychology at UniDistance, Switzerland.

She also has the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Professorship at the Institute of Special Education, University of Fribourg.

She is director of the  chEERS Lab  – a team of researchers interested in the study of socio-emotional processes in individuals with developmental disorders (e.g. autism spectrum disorder) and intellectual disabilities (e.g. Williams Syndrome).

Positive emotions (such as humor) and emotion regulation in relation to mental health play an important role in several research projects. Her team is also interested in using board games as well as new technologies such as virtual reality for the assessment of emotional competences and for remediation training programs.  

Link to the website