Marcella Piper-Terry, BFA, MS
Biomedical interventions for Autism, Asperger's Syndrome, severe ADHD, and environmental toxicities.

Areas of Interest: The “A” List – Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, ADHD/ADD, and Anxiety.

Marci is a transplant to the Midwest. She was born in Los Angeles and lived in Orange County, California until the age of twelve, when her family relocated to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Marci attended Junior High and High School in Mississippi, where she skipped her junior year and graduated 5th in her class of nearly 400 students. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of South Alabama, where she graduated summa cum laude and was named in the annual Who’s Who Among American College Students.

After the birth of her second child, Marci returned to college, completing her undergraduate work in psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi before going on to obtain a Master’s of Science degree from the University of South Alabama. During her graduate education, Marci pursued both the clinical and experimental tracts, finishing with nearly double the necessary hours of coursework to obtain the Master’s Degree. She was was nominated by her professors and was chosen to sit as the sole student representative to the University Graduate Council, and was named Outstanding Graduate Student in Psychology. Marci served as a research assistant for both years of her graduate school career, during which time she performed extensive literature reviews and participated in the design and implementation of a number of original research studies. Marci’s master’s thesis, Increasing Risk Perception for HIV Infection in Heterosexual College Students received the American Psychological Foundation’s Graduate Research Scholarship Award in 1997, when she was one of ten graduate students nationally to be recognized by the APF for excellence in research.

After graduate school, Marci went to work in a community mental health center in Jackson County, Mississippi, where she provided individual and family therapy and performed psychological evaluations for adults with developmental disabilities and psychiatric disorders. Through the mental health center, Marci worked to establish a community education outreach program for adolescents, focusing on two major issues: Increasing HIV-Risk Perception and Prevention of Eating Disorders. As a community educator, Marci researched and presented information on these important health topics to thousands of children and adolescents in public schools across the Mississippi Gulf Coast. At this same time, she served as a member of the Board of Directors for the South Mississippi AIDS Task Force, where she was active on the educational and fund-raising committees.

In 1999, Marci moved with her husband and family from Mississippi to Washington, D.C., where Marci’s husband concluded his 24-year career in the United States Air Force. While living in Maryland, Marci was licensed through the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and worked for three years as a psychological associate in a neuropsychology private practice. Professionally, the three years in the Washington D.C. area were a tremendous time of learning about brain-based behavior, learning disabilities, ADHD, and Autism. When her husband retired from the Air Force in 2002, it was time to move again – and this time the family headed to Indiana.

Marci’s first position after moving to the Evansville area was with the Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation’s Office of Psychological Services and Testing. She was hired as a consultant and worked as a preschool psychologist, conducting evaluations of children referred through First Steps. Marci evaluated numerous children with Developmental Disabilities and was struck by the extent of physical challenges faced by so many of the TriState’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens. Working with EVSC was Marci’s first experience with evaluating children through the school corporationn, having previously worked only in the private sector. The brief experience of evaluating children on behalf of the school system has continued to serve as a strong motivating factor in Marci’s ongoing work as an educational advocate for students with disabilities.

In June 2003, Marci first joined forces with Dr. Louis Cady, working for the next two years in his practice, where she served as intake specialist, therapist, and educational advocate for children and adolescents with neurologically-based developmental disabilities. While working alongside Dr. Cady and Dr. Gabhardt, Marci continued her passion for researching and learning. The holistic approach to the treatment of their patients dovetailed well with Marci’s own belief system regarding the importance of nutrition and balance. You may recall that Marci was born in Los Angeles. What you don’t know yet is that Marci’s mother was also a research buff, and was the original fruit and nut queen! Marci recalls how her mother used to put Cod Liver Oil in her orange juice, which was used to wash down the Kelp pills and Vitamin C with Rose Hips, and was accompanied by unpasteurized yogurt from Alta Dena Dairy – and that was in the 1960s! Marci still has her mother’s copies of the Adele Davis books, Let’s Eat Right to Keep Fit and Let’s Have Healthy Children – and, as Marci insists, “They are still relevant, perhaps now more than ever!”

In October 2005, Marci attended her first Defeat Autism Now! Conference and was excited to learn that much of what she had been recommending in the way of nutritional supplementation was right on target with what the pre-eminent practitioners in the field were doing. How validating it was to sit through presentation after presentation, listening to world-class physicians extolling the virtues of Cod Liver Oil, Vitamins A,C,E, and Selenium, Probiotics, and yes - Digestive Enzymes!

Marci’s continued interest in neuropsychological evaluation of children and adults with ADHD, Learning Disabilities, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Autism ultimately led to her departure from the Cady Wellness Institute in the summer of 2005, when she joined the practice of Evansville Neuropsychologist, Dr. Jeffrey Gray, Ph.D. Working with Dr. Gray, Marci’s focus was initially on neuropsychological assessment and educational advocacy for children and adolescents with Developmental Disabilities. Before too long, however, Dr. Gray approached Marci with an opportunity to provide pain management therapy to adults whose lives were severely impacted with chronic pain syndromes. What Marci learned from her work with these patients is that there are many similarities in adults with chronic pain and children with developmental disabilities, particularly autism – and more often than not, it seemed, things tended to start in the gut! Being a researcher at heart, Marci is trained to look for patterns, or trends – in symptoms, and in family histories. This is perhaps the best thing about working in many environments: having the opportunity to observe similar trends among different age groups, and in different diagnostic “labels.”

In April 2007, Marci attended her second Defeat Autism Now! Conference, and was allowed to participate in the Clinician’s Intensive Training Seminar. This time, she returned to Evansville with a much broader understanding of the complexities of Autism Spectrum Disorders, and is now more prepared to assist families with the challenges associated in understanding and implementing biomedical interventions for their children. Much of what Marci has done in her professional career has been preparing her for this work. In graduate school she learned to be a tireless researcher. Her work in neuropsychological assessment sharpened her keen eye for pattern analysis and recognition of trends. Through her work as a community educator she became adept at explaining even the most complex technical information in terms that her audience will understand and can therefore benefit from. Her training and experience as a therapist have helped her develop the most important tool, when it comes to treating children with autism; she knows how to listen and respects the expertise of parents and the validity of parental observation. In ongoing discussions, Marci and Dr. Cady agreed to join forces again to explore their mutual interest in the definitive neuropsychiatric and functional medicine approach to bio-medical interventions in the autistic spectrum patient, as well as collaboration on extremely complex cases of refractory ADHD and environmental toxicities.

Marci is very excited to be rejoining the family of professionals at The Cady Wellness Institute. She is looking forward to once again working collaboratively with Dr. Cady and Dr. Gabhardt to provide the most comprehensive, state-of-the-art care, addressing the needs of the whole person through attention to mind, body, and spirit.

Read Marci's blog on autism HERE.

Read Marci's original article on "Autism is Treatable" by clicking HERE.