Sarah S. Mire, PhD, is Associate Professor of School Psychology. Dr. Mire developed and directs the *sparc (School Psychology Autism Research Collaboration) team. Along with her team, Dr. Mire works to connect research and practice through her study and support of persons in systems surrounding children and adolescents with autism. The mission of *sparc is to improve child outcomes by positively impacting the functioning of those in the systems immediately surrounding an autistic child- which includes families, direct service providers, and school personnel. This is accomplished by developing and maintaining collaborative research efforts that can inform collaborative practice-based relationships between key stakeholders to benefit children with autism.

Broad goals of *sparc research include:

• understanding child, family, and regional factors contributing to various autism intervention choices (e.g., school-based, psychosocial and behavioral, psychotropic, etc.), across settings;
• exploring connections between cognition, affective responding, and behaviors related to treatment, such as choosing, pursuing, and implementing intervention; and
• investigating whether and how change in one domain influences change in other domains.

Dr. Mire is a Licensed Psychologist (LP) in Texas, a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP), and Licensed Specialist in School Psychology (LSSP).