Alan Eskot has been in the field of special education for 50 years. He received his BA from UCLA and his MA from Cal State LA. He also completed some coursework toward his Ph.D at USC. He worked as a special education teacher for 5 years before becoming a consultant and administrator of three nonpublic schools in residential programs. These programs dealt with youth placed by the Department of Probation as well as Department of Children and Family Services. He created and completely set up these programs and also was the Director of each. At Optimist, he converted the nonpublic school into a charter school for the last 7 years of his tenure and was the Superintendent of the school. In addition to these three programs, he also opened up his own nonpublic schools and with his business partner has been operating them for 35 years! Alan is currently the head administrator and co-owner of both schools but is primarily at Dubnoff School in Northridge. Additionally, he has had a private educational therapy practice for 10 years as well as a consulting business and has opened up a total of 11 residential programs and has consulted with 7 other existing nonpublic schools. He is currently consulting with two established nonpublic schools. He has impacted thousands of youth and hundreds of staff members over the years and never plans on retiring!