Thomas Reilly

Dr. Reilly received his doctorate in special education with a focus on emotional disturbance from the University of Oklahoma in 1978.  He has a combined 33 years experience in education including 10 as a public school teacher, a year as the principal of a residential treatment facility, and another year as a Director of Special Education.  Additionally, Dr. Reilly has been a faculty member of the Department of Special Education at Chicago State University for the last 23 years where his primary task has been teaching classes on the behaviorally disordered and applied behavior analysis.

His experiences are broad and varied.  He has worked with juvenile delinquents in park district activities, detention centers, and classroom settings in Oklahoma, Texas, and Illinois, has been a principal in Indiana, and was the Interim Chair of the Department of Special Education at CSU.   He has taught Biology and Math at the junior high school level, and has worked successfully with children and youth experiencing emotional behavioral disorders, learning disabilities, cognitive delays, and the gifted.  Most recently, he has served, for the last six and a half years, as a long-term consultant to a residential facility in Gary, IN. 

Dr. Reilly has publications in the areas of communication strategies for teachers, cultural bias in the assessment of children and youth experiencing emotional and behavioral disorders, stress management for teachers, and, most recently, in the area of aggression and violence.

Nationally, Dr. Reilly serves on the Board of Directors for the Behavioral Institute for Children and Adolescents.  Locally, he serves on the Board of Directors for South Central Community Services, Inc.; an organization dedicated to working effectively with those children and youth rejected by traditional school systems.

Perhaps the most important aspect of Dr. Reilly’s background is that he is a graduate of the streets.  He is one of those very fortunate few who have “made it.”  In doing so, he has been able to apply many of the street lessons to the needs of teachers and student’s in today’s classrooms.