10 Millennium - A Marquis Who’s Who Magazine ACADEMIA, EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL SERVICES LORI A. IRVINE, MED EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANT IN SPECIAL EDUCATION LIGHTHOUSE Learning and Resource Katy, TX Lori A. Irvine has dedicated 40 years to serving students, teachers, administrators and parents in special education, working across several U.S. cities – including New York, Chicago, Denver, San Antonio, Duncanville, Boerne and Katy – as well as in Hungary and Moldova from 1985 to 2025. In 2009, she earned a Master of Education in educational psychology from Texas A&M University through a grant program for LIFE Skills teachers. Many interventions and strategies learned during her master’s studies were already part of her daily practice, reflecting her commitment to evidence-based teaching. Numerous influences have shaped Ms. Irvine’s career path. Notably, her younger brother, Joel, born with Down syndrome, inspired her to shift from being a music major in the early 1980s to pursuing a teaching degree in special education. Additional experiences influenced Ms. Irvine’s desire to work with inner-city teachers and parents, even before she began her career. A college interim course allowed choir members to sing in inner-city churches from Chicago to the East Coast, where she encountered children and families whose joy and gratitude inspired her interest in innercity education. Ms. Irvine’s teaching journey began with the inner-city projects of the Bronx, where daily life was particularly challenging. Her classroom, designed for students with severe autism in a public-school setting, required a structured environment with clear behavioral expectations. She developed visual schedules and routines and created a unique visual curriculum for reading and language arts that utilized photos, line drawings and word identifiers. Ms. Irvine’s foundation in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) was established with guidance from the principal and professor at the Margaret Chapman School for Exceptional Children, as well as instruction from Teachers College at Columbia University. Behavioral interventions, including task-analyzed programming and individualized reinforcement strategies, became integral to her teaching at P.S. 176 in the Bronx and continued to influence her classrooms throughout her career.
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