Title: Professor

Company: University of Houston-Victoria

Location: Houston, Texas

Dr. Richardson wrote a book on behavior management, called ‘Discipline Options: Establishing a Positive School Climate.’ It is co-authored by Charles Meisgeier and published by Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc. She has also written ‘Connecting with Others: Lessons for Teaching Social and Emotional Competence,’ which was published by Research Press Publishers. Prior to writing a title five grant, Dr. Richardson was teaching. She was promoted to the director of the curriculum for the grant and developed an online master’s degree program. She also directed the grant and distributed money.

The most recent highlight for Dr. Richardson was a federal grant she received totaling 1.1 million dollars to fund a program to work with autistic children. Another highlight for Rita is when she worked with kids in the ghetto’s of New Orleans. Dr. Richardson had one girl who was in an alternative school, and wanted her to be her ‘nanny.’ At that time she wanted Dr. Richardson to be the god mother. In five years, Dr. Richardson hopes to write more and continue teaching. She also plans to write a book about personality types and show teachers how to use her book in order to discover students’ learning styles; the procedure is called the ‘Richardson Inventory of Personality Types.’

Dr. Richardson attributes her success to her hard work and passion for helping children. She became involved in her profession after working in the public school system and finding herself attracted to special education; she decided that she wanted to help children with both learning and behavioral disorders. As a woman in today’s world, what has contributed to Ms. Richardson’s success is the inspiration she gets from working with her kids.  She looked at the needs of kids and it inspired her to help in anyway. The advice she would give the younger generation of women entering the workforce would be to follow her motto: ‘ One Person can make a difference.’