Staff
Agnes Patton
Agnes Patton received her B.A. in Liberal Studies with concentration on Linguistics from California State University, Northridge and has over 15 years of experience working with children with disabilities, including a year at Villa Esperanza in Pasadena, California.
For more than seven years she has worked with a child with disability doing a home program of the Institutes for Achievement of Human Potential Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In addition, while in Philadelphia, she completed all the requirements of the Child Brain Development Course at the Initial Parent Level (1993), at the Intermediate Parent Level (1994) and at the Completion of lecture series (1997). »Read more.
Eileen Tatevossian
Eileen Tatevossian received her B.A. in History with a specialization in Education from UCLA in June 1997. She began working full time on her Masters and credentials in Moderate/Severe Disabilities at California State University at Northridge in August 1997. At CSUN Eileen won the Dan Chernow Future Teacher Scholarship award. She was then accepted to the Teacher's College at Columbia University, N.Y. in Behavior Analysis. She graduated with her M.A. and Special Education Credential in October 1999.
As the Director of the Behavioral Department, Eileen began working as the Behavioral Program Specialist at the Elliott Institute in November 2000. Eileen conducts Functional Analysis on students' behaviors, writes behavior programs for three classes of children with autism, attends IEP's as needed and provides 1:1 behavior services after school. »Read more.
Class A - Holly VanHofwegen
Holly VanHofwegen is the special education teacher in class A. This is her first year at Elliott Institute. She has worked with many children with a wide array of disabilities. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Child and Adolescent development with an emphasis in special education from California State University of Fullerton. She also received her Level I teaching credential in Moderate/Severe disabilities. She is currently working towards earning her Level II credential in Moderate/ Severe disabilities.
Class B - Deborah Perlis
Deborah is the Teacher Specialist in Classroom B. She is the mother of three children, one of whom has autism, and another of whom has a rare chromosomal microdeletion. Deborah holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Accounting from California State University, Los Angeles. She is currently in the process of finishing up her Master of Arts Degree in Special Education with Moderate to Severe Credentialing and Certificate of Autism at National University. Prior to becoming a Teacher Specialist, Deborah was an ABA Behavioral Interventionist for a local school district.
Transition - Karla Keese Taylor
Karla holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Speech Communication from California State University, Los Angeles and a Master of Arts Degree in Human Development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, CA. She obtained her Preliminary Level I Education Specialist Instructor Credential for Moderate/Severe Disabilities from Pacific Oaks College as well. Karla earned her Clear Education Specialist Credential for Moderate/Severe Disabilities from California State University, Northridge. She received her certification as a Behavior Intervention Case Manager (BICM) from the Los Angeles Unified School District Division of Special Education. Karla has been part of Elliott Institute’s teaching staff since October of 2000. She has taught in every class from K1 through High School. Karla is currently the Transition Teacher at Elliott Institute.