Attention Magazine February 2026

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Each year during the International Conference on ADHD, CHADD acknowledges the contributions of dedicated professionals, emerging researchers, innovative educators, and outstanding CHADD chapters and volunteers. Meet the 2025 honorees.

 

CHADD Lifetime Achievement Award

This award recognizes those who have a depth of knowledge of ADHD and who strive to raise the standards of how ADHD is assessed and treated. These individuals display a high level of ethics and professionalism, integrity, exhibit excellence in judgement, and have an interpersonal working relationship with individuals, families, and professionals affected by ADHD.

 

Eugene Arnold, MD, MEd, was professor emeritus of psychiatry at Ohio State University, where he was the director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry and vice-chair of psychiatry. He was a co-investigator in the OSU Research Unit on Pediatric Psychopharmacology. Dr. Arnold spent forty-five years as a child psychiatric researcher, including the multi-site National Institute of Mental Health Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (“the MTA”), for which he was executive secretary and chair of the steering committee. For his work on the MTA he received the National Institutes of Health Director’s Award. He had a particular interest in alternative and complementary treatments for ADHD. His publications include nine books, seventy chapters, and more than three hundred articles. This Lifetime Achievement Award is granted posthumously. Dr. Arnold’s work within the ADHD community, and his contributions to CHADD, have helped to shape the way we understand the condition and the many ways people with ADHD lead successful lives.

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Kathleen Nadeau, PhD, is an internationally recognized authority on ADHD and a frequent lecturer in the United States and abroad. Prolific in her writing, clinical work, teaching, and dedication to sharing the latest science and practice of ADHD assessment and treatment across the lifespan, she helped a generation become aware of ADHD in women and girls. Dr. Nadeau is the author or coauthor of over a dozen books related to ADHD. Her most recent work, Still Distracted After All these Years: Older Adults with ADHD, is the only book to date that focuses on the needs of older adults with ADHD. Dr. Nadeau remains an active clinician, giving of her time to the clinic that she founded, the Chesapeake Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

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CHADD Hall of Fame Award

This award recognizes those who demonstrate an outstanding and significant service to support CHADD’s mission either through research or practice. Their contributions can include but are not limited to such areas as public policy, medicine, psychology, and education.

 

One of the first clinicians who specialized in adult ADHD, William Dodson, MD, LF-APA, has been a member of the faculties of Georgetown University and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. His main focus has been clinical practice and how evidence-based practice can be combined with practice-based evidence. Named a life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association in recognition of his clinical contributions to the field of ADHD, he also received the national Maxwell Schleifer Award for Distinguished Service to Persons with Disabilities. Dr. Dodson authored more than 120 articles and book chapters designed to help the nonprofessional audience better understand ADHD and its treatment.

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Diane Dempster, MHSA, CPC, PCC, is a professional ADHD coach, speaker, author, and educator with twenty years of corporate leadership experience. Dempster co-founded ImpactParents, a coaching and training organization for parenting neurodiverse kids, and she co-hosts the Parenting with Impact podcast. Through her work with ImpactParents, she teaches parents and professionals a relationship-first, neurodiversity-informed, coach-approach that blends behavior management with change management, so that concerned adults can empower kids, teens, and young adults to become independent and successful.

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Elaine Taylor-Klaus, CPCC, MCC, is a master certified coach and the mom in an ADHD-plus family of six. A trusted advisor for parents and a mentor for professionals, she is internationally recognized as a thought leader at the intersection of neurodiversity, coaching, and parenting. As a parent advocate and educator, Taylor-Klaus co-founded ImpactParents, the first global coaching and training organization for parents of complex kids (formerly known as ImpactADHD). ImpactParents educates, coaches, and empowers families of complex kids and the professionals who support them, using an innovative neuro-informed coaching model. She co-hosts the Parenting with Impact podcast, and she is regularly featured in national magazines, summits, and podcasts. Taylor-Klaus is the author of Parenting ADHD Now! Easy Intervention Strategies to Empower Kids with ADHD and The Essential Guide to Raising Complex Kids with ADHD, Anxiety and More, a typical parenting book for kids who aren’t so typical.

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Evelyn Polk Green, MSEd, is a CHADD past president and a past president of ADDA. An adult with ADHD, she is the mother of two adult sons, Perry and Robert, both of whom also have ADHD. Active in ADHD and mental health advocacy for almost thirty years, she has served as a leader representing the family and educator voice in the ADHD and mental health communities in many capacities, including as a member of the Network on Children’s Mental Health Services funded by the MacArthur Foundation. She frequently represents the family and consumer perspective on mental health issues and often speaks to audiences and the media. Throughout her advocacy career, Green has focused on the challenges of ADHD in minority, poor, and other underserved populations. She is the recipient of several honors for her volunteer work in mental health and education, including the Beacon College Achieving Lifetime Vision and Excellence (ALiVE) Award for her advocacy work on behalf of children and adults with learning differences and ADHD. Green works as an administrator with the Chicago Public Schools, planning professional development programs for early childhood special education professionals and families. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from National Louis University and a master’s degree from Northern Illinois University.

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Dr. Thomas E. Brown Pioneer Award

Formerly known as the CHADD Young Scientist Research Award, this award recognizes researchers new to the ADHD field who are making contributions to the understanding of ADHD.

 

Carlos E. Yeguez, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute. He received his PhD in clinical child and adolescent psychology from Florida International University and completed his predoctoral internship at the University of Washington School of Medicine. His research is primarily focused on refining and developing treatments for young people with ADHD and related conditions to reduce risk for suicide and health-risk behaviors. To achieve this goal, he is focused on developing treatments that are person-centered, cost-effective, and can be implemented in community settings. He has identified improving sleep health as a high-impact treatment goal that may enable young people to better engage with treatment, improve their functioning, and reduce risk for suicide. Among young people with ADHD, he has identified circadian dysfunction (delayed sleep-wake times, for example) as a promising treatment target. During adolescence, individuals with ADHD demonstrate a more pronounced shift in their bedtime that reduces how much sleep they get and how tired they are during school hours. His current Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Fellowship Award in ADHD brings together experts in the management of ADHD and sleep health, as well as the perspectives of adolescents, caregivers, and school mental health professionals to develop a blended treatment program for high school students that focuses on both academics and sleep health. The resulting treatment will be examined in a pilot randomized controlled trial and is the first treatment to respond to calls to understand ADHD and its treatment as a 24-hour process involving both daytime and nighttime functioning.

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Helena F. Alacha, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at Penn State College of Medicine. When selected for this award, she was completing her PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Louisville and her predoctoral clinical internship at Penn State Health Medical Center. She earned her undergraduate degree in psychology from Grinnell College and a terminal master’s degree in clinical science from the University of Northern Iowa before beginning her doctoral studies. Her research explores how ADHD affects everyday life—from childhood through adulthood—and why people with ADHD are more likely to struggle with anxiety than those without ADHD. She is especially interested in how these experiences differ between girls and boys and how they change with age. Her current project, submitted for this award and for a postdoctoral research fellowship from the National Institutes of Health, uses brain activity measures, behavioral observations, and data from a real-world ADHD clinic to study the connection between ADHD, anxiety, and social experiences across the lifespan. This research focuses on how both girls and boys with ADHD experience and respond to social situations during different developmental periods—and whether those responses might raise or lower their chances of dealing with anxiety later on. The long-term goal of her work is to find meaningful ways to improve personalized, age-appropriate care for people with ADHD—by helping clinicians recognize mental health challenges earlier and identifying the types of support that work best for each individual—so that people with ADHD can ultimately lead healthier, happier lives.

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CHADD Educator of the Year Award

This award recognizes exemplary educators throughout the United States who through their influence improve the lives of students with ADHD.

 

Claire Walter, MAT, is a founding faculty member and the head of the English department at Wolcott College Prep, in Chicago, Illinois. She began her teaching career as a Teach For America corps member in Baltimore, Maryland, and earned her master’s degree in the art of teaching from Johns Hopkins University.  Walter joined the founding team at Wolcott and discovered her passion for working with students with ADHD, dyslexia, and dysgraphia. She developed unique and innovative curricula for helping students with learning differences find joy in literature. Walter is a regular presenter at National Council of Teachers of English and Learning Disability Association conferences. She is a National Endowment for the Humanities scholarship recipient, a Golden Apple Teacher of Distinction, a 2022 Founder’s Award recipient, and a National Council of Teaching about Asia fellow. Walter authored the chapter “Discussing Difference: Engaging Students with Learning Differences in Authentic Discussion” in Raise Your Voices: Inquiry, Discussion, and Literacy Learning and is a spotlight educator in Bring on the Bard: Active Drama Approaches for Shakespeare’s Diverse Student Readers.

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CHADD Chapter of the Year Award

This award recognizes an outstanding CHADD chapter that has made exceptional contributions to the CHADD community, and in their community, during the duration of their involvement with CHADD. This chapter continues to strive to provide outstanding support and use CHADD resources to create a safe environment for chapter members and volunteers.

 

BuxMont CHADD began in a hospital conference room, where three moms—facing the closure of their fledgling support group—chose to step forward rather than lose the connection they so badly needed. With no clear roadmap, they decided to build something lasting for families navigating ADHD. Their vision took off when Larry Maltin, CHADD Volunteer of the Year 2019 and a retired professional and grandfather of a newly diagnosed child, volunteered to help. He booked nationally recognized speakers, helped establish a strong board of directors, and brought structure to the group’s growing ambitions. After two years of focusing on parents, BuxMont launched an adult ADHD group that quickly flourished. As needs expanded, so did the chapter—adding support groups, absorbing nearby communities, and eventually becoming BuxMont CHADD, representing Bucks County and Montgomery County. In 2020, the chapter moved online, discovering a broader reach across the state, country, and globe. Most recently, BuxMont adopted a young adult group from a neighboring chapter, continuing its tradition of meeting emerging needs. With its focus on programming, outreach, and strong organizational leadership, BuxMont CHADD remains rooted in its mission: to serve the ADHD community with compassion, credibility, and connection.

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CHADD Volunteer of the Year Award

This award recognizes an outstanding local volunteer who has made exceptional contributions to the CHADD community, and in their community, during the duration of their involvement with CHADD.

 

Brian Foy and his wife, Jane, started a support group in Muscatine, Iowa, in 1986, when their daughter was diagnosed with ADHD, later joining it to the national CHADD organization. Six Iowa chapters joined together to form CHADD of Iowa in 2008, with Foy as treasurer and later chapter co-coordinator. He was one of the founding members of CHADD’s affiliate advisory board, the precursor to the current chapter advisory board. A past member of CHADD’s board of directors, Foy served as secretary, and he currently serves on CHADD’s finance team. Foy is a speech-language pathologist who worked as a school SLP and administrator before retiring in 2015. He is especially fond of working with students who are diagnosed with autism or hearing impairments and has served on the state of Iowa’s significant disabilities team. For the past ten years, he was an adjunct clinic instructor in the master of speech pathology program at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. Five years ago, the Foys started a tutoring ministry at their Quad City area church, working with students at risk of failure in reading, math, and writing. Foy is currently director of the program, which has twenty-three staff and twenty-five students, many diagnosed with ADHD.