Rebecca Landa, Ph.D.

Rebecca Landa is the founder and director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD) and the Research and Education for Autism in Children (REACH) research program at Kennedy Krieger Institute. She is also a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Landa obtained her master’s degree at Pennsylvania State University and her doctorate at the University of Washington. She completed postdoctoral training in psychiatric genetics at Johns Hopkins University.

Landa is a speech-language pathologist and has practiced in the public schools, university clinics and hospital settings, having consulted with schools and families on an international level to establish state-of-the-science educational programming for children with autism spectrum disorders. Her research focuses on neuropsychological, learning and communication processes in autism across the lifespan.

As director of CARD, Landa combines educational, behavioral, clinical, diagnostic, outpatient and outreach programs to create treatment that is tailored to the particular needs of individual children and their families.

Landa is the recipient of the National Institute of Mental Health Shannon Award for excellent and innovative research, as well as the Rita Rudel Prize for Developmental Neuropsychology. In 2014, Landa was honored with the Speaker’s Medallion Award, Maryland State House 2014. In summer 2017, Landa was named to Parents Magazine board of advisors, contributing and weighing in on mental health topics.