Dr. Olson holds a doctoral degree in clinical psychology with a special emphasis in child and adolescent assessment and psychopathology.  She received intensive training in pediatric psychology, developmental psychopathology, and developmental disabilities.  She completed her doctoral internship at LaRabida Children’s Hospital and Research Center, and received post-doctoral training with Catherine Lord, Ph.D. (principal developer of the ADOS and co-developer of the ADI-R) at the University of Chicago.    

Currently, Dr. Olson works independently as an autism and early childhood consultant. She spends most of her time facilitating clinical and research trainings across the country, and around the world, on standardized test measures used to assess children for autism spectrum disorders (ASD), including the Autism Diagnostic Interview (ADI) and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS).  She is involved in multiple federally funded research projects in the United States and Canada looking at the early diagnosis of young children with autism, the efficacy of intervention, and biomedical etiologies for autism.  Additionally she regularly consults with local school districts, early childhood agencies, and individual families providing autism-specific diagnostic evaluations.  

Dr. Olson also serves as full-time adjunct faculty at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology where she teaches graduate studies in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology and Assessment, Lifespan, and Family Systems Theory and Therapy.

She is also the proud mother of two young children.