About The Wiley Center

The Wiley Center for Speech and Language Development is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing evidence-based services to children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other special needs. We respect the significance of cultural diversity among our families and value the uniqueness of each individual. 

The Wiley Center’s mission is to create a broad-based collaborative network to provide comprehensive support that results in meaningful employment and promotes healthy life sustaining educational, emotional and physical outcomes across the lifespan.

our founder

Pamela Wiley, Ph.D. is the President of the Los Angeles Speech and Language Therapy Center, Inc. and the founder of The Wiley Center for Speech and Language Development, a 501c(3) organization dedicated to providing direct services and support to children with autism spectrum disorders or other developmental disabilities throughout the lifespan. The center has a solid reputation as a premier agency which works tirelessly on behalf of all children with special needs.

With the dramatic increase in autism, Dr. Wiley and her team of speech-language pathologists and infant development specialists continue to forge the way for thousands of families throughout L.A. County. Her centers located in Maywood, Lawndale, Culver City, Los Angeles, and Sherman Oaks provide innovative and comprehensive services to countless families regardless of race and income. As a result, Dr. Wiley has established long term relationships with her children and families, many of whom started as young as two and are now young adults in college, driving and looking forward to their independence. 

In 2016, she developed a Workplace Social Skills Employment Readiness Program for young adults 18+ with autism. The program currently meets virtually and results in meaningful internships and employment consistent with each students unique interests and skill sets.In 2018, she partnered with Stan Campbell, a retired law enforcement officer to develop Spectrum Shield a 3day, 2 night, Safety with Law Enforcement training program.Data indicates that African American people are more inclined to have negative outcomes when dealing with law enforcement than their white counterparts. Her overall objective is to promote trust, greater awareness and positive dialogue to ensure the safety of young adults with autism who are driving and functioning independently in their communities. She has been invited to share her program live and on podcasts. 

Dr. Wiley is a published author, a noted authority on social skills, a fellow of the American Speech and Language Hearing Association and in 2020 was awarded Honors of her association which is the highest distinction in her profession. She is only the 12th African American to have received this award out of 313.

Dr. Wiley continues to provide direct service to young adults as well as inspiration to her young therapists. She says “I feel as passionate and excited about speech pathology today as I did more than four decades ago! We have great staff, families and community partners. We make a difference and it’s very gratifying.”

board of directors

Sylvia Castillo

Sylvia Castillo serves as director and foundation and community officer for MUFG Union Bank’s  Corporate Social Responsibility group. She is responsible for building relationships with civic and  business leaders, community-based advocacy organizations, and multicultural leaders throughout the  communities that the bank serves. Additionally, Ms. Castillo directs initiatives that involve the bank’s  Foundation, public policy, and community development efforts. She is based in Los Angeles. 

Ms. Castillo has more than 35 years of experience in the banking industry. Prior to joining Union Bank  in 2012, she served as a senior vice president and consumer market executive at Bank of America,  where she was responsible for driving growth of consumer markets. Ms. Castillo also held several  other management and executive positions at Bank of America.  

Active in the community, Ms. Castillo serves on the board of Vermont Slauson EDC, The Wiley Center,  The Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, the corporate advisory board of the Brotherhood  Crusade and the Greater Los Angeles African American Chamber of Commerce. In 2020, Sylvia was  invited to serve on the board of the newly-formed CDFI NEW Economics for Women; she also joined  the University of La Verne President’s Council.

Arnold Hackett

Arnold Hackett joined Metrolink in May 2019. As the Interim Chief Executive Officer, he is responsible for managing an annual budget of $793 million at an agency that employs 282 full-time employees.

Arnold has more than 30 years’ experience in private technology industry at Xerox Corporation; he has served as Vice President and General Manager of Alliance and Partnership Management, positions in research, engineering, strategy development, technical project/program management, business development and global process / performance improvement initiatives.

Arnold has been a Computer Science Lecturer for California State University at Long Beach’s Computer Engineering Computer Science Department since 2017.

Arnold holds a BS from UCLA, a MS in Computer Science from CSULB, an MBA from USC, and is a Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt. Mr. Hackett currently serves as Treasurer of The Wiley Center Board of Directors and has been Gala Co-Chair for the past two consecutive years.

Alex Johnson

Alex M. Johnson is a program director at The California Wellness Foundation where he manages a broad portfolio focused on environmental justice, community safety, gun violence prevention, and youth justice. Prior to Cal Wellness he served as managing director of Californians for Safety and Justice and as executive director of Children’s Defense Fund-California. Mr. Johnson previously led education, youth development, and public safety efforts for Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. He began his career in New York City advocating for domestic violence victims as an assistant district attorney in Bronx County and previously clerked at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

In addition to The Wiley Center Board of Directors where Mr. Johnson has served as Gala Co-Chair for the past two consecutive years, he also serves on the boards of the Los Angeles County Board of Education, Southern California Grantmakers, California Advisory Board for the Trust for Public Land. A graduate of Morehouse College and American University, Washington College of Law, Alex’s writings have appeared in Huffington Post, The Guardian, Los Angeles Daily News, San Jose Mercury News, and Sacramento Bee.

Faye W. Mcclure

Faye McClure is a native Angelino, and a respected business leader in the greater Los Angeles community. She is a recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Award of Excellence for her work in insuring Hispanic, Asian, and African Americans, and was also recognized by the United States Congress, California State Senate, and the California State Legislature for her years of service in the community. Prior to founding Urban Advantage Insurance Services, Ms. McClure was a Senior Financial Executive with prominent carriers in the insurance industry. She was also featured in a Fox National News “Americans in Focus” segment, named one of Southern California’s Freedom Sisters, and recognized by Savoy magazine as one of the Top 100 Most Influential Blacks in Corporate America.

In addition to serving as the Wiley Center, Board President, Faye McClure is a graduate of Pepperdine University, Malibu and a current member of Pepperdine’s Board of Regents. She also serves on the March of Dimes California Board of Directors, Los Angeles Urban League Board of Directors and as a member of the Los Angeles Advisory Board for the United Negro College Fund.

Gloria Mitchell

Gloria Mitchell currently serves as Manager of Community and Physician Relations at Community Family Care, IPA. Mrs. Mitchell has over 35 years experience in management focusing on sales, acquisitions, and day to day commercial operations.

Prior to joining Community Family Care, Mrs. Mitchell served as the Manager for Florence Western Medical Clinic. During her time in management, Mrs. Michell developed standards for compliance with all state and federal regulatory agencies and also implemented strategies for planned growth.

Mrs. Mitchell serves on the board of the Keith Black Brain Trust. She also serves as Vice President on the Wiley Center Board of Directors. Other affiliations include Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, National Women’s Leadership Forum, and LA Gourmet food Research, Recipe and Testing.

Jan Perry

Jan Perry serves as the Executive Director of the Infrastructure Funding Alliance (“IFA”), a national initiative founded to meet future infrastructure, economic development, and environmental challenges. The IFA’s mission is to develop and advocate approaches and strategies that motivate government at all levels.


IFA has partnered at the federal level with the National Academy of Public Administration (of which Ms. Perry is a Fellow), to revive concepts and approaches applied during the early history of infrastructure implementation, including tax increment financing and modernized public-private partnership approaches.

Projects undertaken by IFA with Ms. Perry as Executive Director include zero emission options with a maglev, free – flow technology that promotes goods movement from containers from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach that can propel trains and trucks through the region. Land will be repurposed to address critical issues, including job generation, housing, transloading near ports, reduction of truck traffic, and creation of greater open space. IFA’s future projects include an oil field recovery initiative; repurposing of land adjacent to overflow channels, including the Los Angeles River; and repurposing underutilized or abandoned retail shopping centers to accommodate new affordable residential development.

Maxwell G. Sinclair

Maxwell G. Sinclair currently serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer of Pacific Mercantile Bank.  Mr. Sinclair has over 25 years of experience in the banking industry focusing on audit, risk management, Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and compliance.

Prior to joining Pacific Mercantile Bank, Mr. Sinclair served as the Vice President Compliance and BSA Manager for Zions Bancorporation’s subsidiary, California Bank & Trust.  In his banking career, Mr. Sinclair has held key management positions in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and San Diego County banks.

Mr. Sinclair received his undergraduate degree from the University of Redlands and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Southern California. He is also a graduate of the University of Washington’s Pacific School of Banking. 

Maurice Taylor

Maurice Taylor is President and Owner of Maurice Taylor Insurance Brokers, Inc., an agency which he founded in 1991 with as few as three clients. Today his company has grown to include a large diverse client population insuring their Property and Casualty interests and assets.

Mr. Taylor has a personal connection with The Wiley Center. As a child he had a lisp and difficulty pronouncing multisyllabic words. At the age of five he began to receive speech therapy and today can attest to the benefits of the profession.

As a member of The Wiley Center Board of Directors since 2002, Mr. Taylor has served in several capacities from fundraising committee member to Gala Co-Chair.

Gloria Weddington

Gloria Weddington is Professor Emerita in Communicative Disorders & Sciences at San Jose State University where she chaired the department and taught for more than 40 years. A specialist in child language, she published in the area of diversity, concentrating on African American English.  She holds Honors and Fellow of ASHA, Honors of the Santa Clara County Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and multicultural awards from the ASHA and the California Speech-Language-Hearing Association.  She co-authored The African American Child with Jean van Keulen and Charles DeBose (Allyn & Bacon, 1998) and refereed journal articles and book chapters on African American English and craniofacial anomalies.  She has presented workshops and lectures on related topics at national & international conferences.  Gloria Weddington is also known for creating and managing graduate and undergraduate speech-language pathology educational programs in remote and isolated regions of the world, including Saudi Arabia, Guam & Micronesia, Guyana, and South Africa.  She’s also taught at universities in Uganda, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.



Stephanie Wiggins

Stephanie Wiggins was named chief executive officer of LA Metro by a unanimous vote of the board of directors in April 2021. Ms. Wiggins will assume leadership in May 2021 and lead the 11,000-employee strong commuter railroad with a budget of $7 billion.

A human-centered leader, and former CEO of Metrolink, Ms. Wiggins directed an agency that operated a commuter rail network on seven lines across a six-county, 538 route-mile system. Ms. Wiggins has held high-level positions at three of the five-member agencies that comprise Metrolink and is well-known as customer -focused who pursues fearless solutions from a regional perspective.

Ms. Wiggins earned a Master of Business Administration from the USC Marshall School of Business in 2007. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from Whittier College in 1992.
Ms. Wiggins is the founding president of the Inland Empire Chapter of Women’s Transportation Seminar (WTS). She is the recipient of many awards including the League of Railway Women’s 2020 Woman of the Year Award and the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials 2018 Women Who Move the Nation Award. In addition to serving on The Wiley Center Board of Directors, she is a Member of the Whittier College Board of Trustees, and serves on the Boards of the Los Angeles Chapter of Friends of the Children, the LA Division of the American Heart Association, the American Public Transportation Foundation, and an Advisory Board Member for the UCLA Lewis Center.