Julie Scorah, PhD

Julie Scorah, PhD, is a licensed neuropsychologist specializing in neurodevelopmental conditions. She holds a master and doctorate degree from the University of Waterloo, Ontario. Scorah joined McGill University in 2019 as an Assistant Professor (Professional) in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. She served as Associate Director of the Azrieli Centre for Autism Research (ACAR) Clinic from 2019 to 2023. Scorah also previously held a position as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary from 2008 to 2011.

Scorah leads the Neurodevelopment Learning Community (NDLC), a program that offers professional development opportunities in autism and neurodevelopment for health professionals worldwide. As part of this initiative, she is the Director of the Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) Superhub at the MUHC and was responsible for introducing ECHO-Autism to Quebec. Scorah is a scientific committee member of the Transforming Autism Care Consortium (TACC) and served as a co-investigator for the Quebec 1,000 (Q1K) Families initiative that fostered collaboration across six institutions to promote groundbreaking discoveries in autism research.

Scorah is a faculty member of the Canadian Neurodevelopmental Research Training (CanNRT) Platform, lecturing at the annual summer school and serving as a member on the platform’s Mentorship and Membership committee. She is also a member of the CHILD-BRIGHT Network’s Knowledge Mobilization Clinician Hub.

Her research interests focus on identifying and addressing barriers to healthcare for neurodivergent individuals. She collaborates on pan-Canadian projects that address healthcare access for minority language speakers, increasing clinical capacity in the health system, and including under-represented groups in research. These include such projects as Pathways in ASD, the Project ECHO Autism Diagnosis and Integrated care Opportunities (ECHO-AuDio), and Canadian World Health Organization-Caregiver Skills Training (CST).

As a clinician, Scorah has extensive experience in assessing and diagnosing neurodevelopmental conditions in tertiary centres, including at the McMaster Children’s Hospital, the Alberta Children’s Hospital, the Montreal Children’s Hospital, and The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital). Her expertise also extends to leading multidisciplinary teams in home, school, and centre-based interventions for autism.

With a comprehensive background in academia, clinical practice, and collaborative research, Scorah continues to make significant contributions to the field of neuropsychology and neurodevelopmental research.