Casey Okoniewski

Casey Okoniewski specializes in using assessment and intervention expertise to support individuals with neurodevelopmental differences and their families across research, hospital, home, school, and community settings. A licensed psychologist in North Carolina, she has served as a preschool and elementary school psychologist and as an educational specialist at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities.

Dr. Okoniewski joined RTI in 2017. She currently plays a key role in Early Check, an innovative, statewide newborn screening research program, serving as a follow up specialist for infants identified with rare neurogenetic conditions, where she leads and executes developmental surveillance assessments and family adaptation/coping evaluations from birth to three years of age. She also acts as an interventionist on Parent-Infant Inter(X)action Intervention, a one-of-its-kind virtual early intervention program for infants identified pre-symptomatically for rare neurogenetic conditions. Dr. Okoniewski is a trainer and assessment expert for three NIH HEAL Initiative projects including the Outcomes for Babies Exposed to Opioids longitudinal investigation of developmental, behavioral, and neurocognitive outcomes in infants identified with Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS).

With her background in positive psychology and advocacy, Dr. Okoniewski uses clinical evaluations and translational research to incorporate standardized and innovative assessment and intervention techniques at the child and family level. She has experience both in small- and large-scale longitudinal protocol development and execution, and is a member of the American Psychological Association.