School Leadership
School Board
Michael G. Jarman is the Founder, a board member, and the President of The Vista School® and The Vista Foundation®. Mr. Jarman is the father of twin teenage boys with autism and, after discovering that quality services for children with autism were beyond the reach of many of Central Pennsylvania’s families, worked tirelessly to develop and establish Vista’s programs. Mr. Jarman also served on Pennsylvania’s Special Education Advisory Panel for three years and is currently working on a number of cooperative endeavors for persons with autism and other disabilities in Pennsylvania. Mr. Jarman is a member of the law firm McNees Wallace & Nurick, LLC, with more than 20 years of experience in corporate, transactional, securities, and tax law, with subspecialties in employee benefits and health care law.
David R. Fine is a board member and corporate Secretary of The Vista School® and The Vista Foundation®. The father of a teenage son with autism, Mr. Fine has been active in promoting disability rights and services for a number of years. In addition to his work with the Vista entities, he served on Pennsylvania’s Special Education Advisory Panel for six years, including terms as vice chair and chair. Mr. Fine was a participant in the Pennsylvania Autism Task Force, and currently serves on the advisory board of the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare’s Bureau of Autism Services. He has worked with a number of advocacy endeavors for persons with autism and other disabilities, and he has written about disability-related matters for The San Francisco Chronicle, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Harrisburg Patriot-News and WITF-FM.. Mr. Fine is a member of the law firm K&L Gates LLP, and his practice focuses on commercial litigation and appellate work. He is a former member of the lawyers advisory committees for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, former chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Civil Litigation Section and a current member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Appellate Courts Procedural Rules Committee.
Martin F. Jackson is a board member of The Vista School® and The Vista Foundation®. He has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Select Medical Corporation since February 2007. He was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer from May 1999 to February 2007. Before joining Select Medical, Mr. Jackson served as Managing Director of the Healthcare Investment Banking Group for CIBC Oppenheimer from January 1997 to May 1999. Prior to that time, he served as Senior Vice President of Health Care Finance with McDonald & Company Securities, Inc. from January 1994 to January 1997. Mr. Jackson has also held senior financial positions with Van Kampen Merritt, Touche Ross, Honeywell and L’Nard Associates.
Thomas W. McCormick is a board member and corporate treasurer of The Vista School® and The Vista Foundation. A retired CPA, Mr. McCormick has been active in the Central Pennsylvania community as an advisor to several newly formed not-for-profit organizations. He is a retired officer from the US Army. Mr. McCormick has recently retired from his position as an internal finance manager with PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. His focus with the firm was with national Sales and Business Development initiatives. Mr. McCormick and his family have lived in the Harrisburg area since 1991.
Michael J. Murray is a board member of The Vista School® and The Vista Foundation®. The father of a teenage son with autism, Mr. Murray is also Child Psychiatrist and Director of Child Psychiatry at Penn State Psychiatry. Dr. Murray’s ongoing research projects include study of the efficacy of the Comprehensive Social Skills Training program (based on a validated social anxiety disorder program) in adolescents with high-functioning autism and Asperger’s disorder.
James N. Bouder is the Chief Operating Officer of The Vista School® and The Vista Foundation, and serves as the Director of Collaboration and Development of the Central Pennsylvania Regional Autism Center. In 2004, he served as the Chairman of the Pennsylvania Autism Task Force’s Funding Streams Subcommittee and was the primary author of the Subcommittee’s Final Recommendations. He is also a principal author of the Pennsylvania Autism Insurance Act (Act 62 of 2008) pertaining to private health insurance coverage for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, which has become a national model for autism coverage across the United States, with similar laws enacted in Florida, Louisiana, and Illinois. Mr. Bouder is published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and the Speaker’s Journal of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.
Kirsten Yurich, as the Chief Clinical Officer (CCO) of The Vista School and The Vista Foundation, provides overall clinical and quality leadership to all Vista subsidiaries, programs, and services. The CCO is responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of all clinical and educational programs. The CCO further provides ultimate supervision and mentoring to clinical and educational staff. Kirsten also serves as an executive board member for Autism Central PA, a non-profit regional autism center funded by the PA Department of Public Welfare. She is Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Psychiatry in the Penn State Hershey College of Medicine and at Elizabethtown College, department of special education, in 2010. Kirsten received her Bachelor’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from Lock Haven University and her Master’s Degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from Penn State University in Harrisburg. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst as well as a Certified Coach for the Competent Learner Model. Kirsten has presented at professional conferences including the American Psychological Association, the National Autism Conference, Cumberland-Perry ARC, International Precision Teaching Conference and Association for Behavior Analysis International. She has authored and co-authored posters at Pennsylvania Psychological Association, Maryland Association for Behavior Analysis and Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and is published in Intervention in School and Clinic, Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities and Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Current research interests include toilet training individuals with autism, early intensive behavioral interventions, joint attention, Precision Teaching and fluency-based instruction.
