Michele Adubato

Michele Adubato joined the North Ward Center as Deputy Executive Director in September 2008 after spending two decades in the Newark Public School System.

Michele brings a wealth of administrative and social policy experience to the North Ward Center. She holds two masters degrees, one in social work from Rutgers University-Newark and another in Educational Administration from Caldwell College.

Michele has many years experience working with children with special needs, as a classroom instructor, social worker and administrator.

In the early 1980s, Michele worked with juveniles in need of supervision in Essex County for six years. At the same time, she worked as a freelance video producer, creating an award-winning three-part series on the problems in urban America.

She began her educational career in the Newark Public School System in 1992 as a special education teacher at Camden Elementary school in Newark.

In 1997, she joined the New Jersey Regional Day School (NJRDS) where she developed and administered educational initiatives that helped students with special needs transition from school to adulthood. The transition program was recognized by the State Department of Education as a model program for students with disabilities.

Michele became the vice principal of NJRDS in September 2004, where she held extensive responsibilities, including supervision, curriculum leadership, school finance, parent and community affairs and continued to expand the transition program.

Passionate about helping children and young adults, Michele maintains a relationship with many in the autism community, including her former students. She also writes a blog, where she is documenting her efforts to open a comprehensive Center for Autism in North Jersey.