Deborah L. Ruf
Deborah L. Ruf earned a Ph.D. in Tests & Measurement with a minor in Learning & Cognition at the University of Minnesota. She worked as a private consultant and specialist in gifted assessment, test interpretation, and guidance for the gifted for 30 years. Having been a parent, classroom teacher, and administrator in elementary through graduate education, she continues to write and speak about school issues and social and emotional adjustment of gifted children and adults. Dr. Ruf maintains an interest in educational policy, particularly how to set up schools that meet not only academic but social and emotional needs of children through grouping and instruction with true peers. She is the author of the award-winning book Losing Our Minds: Gifted Children Left Behind (2005) and retitled 5 Levels of Gifted: School Issues and Educational Options in 2009. In late 2022, Dr. Ruf released her follow-up longitudinal book study of the now-adult children from the original book and how they are doing now. Her focus has progressed toward the social and emotional health of the gifted adults who parent gifted children. Her most recent invited paper, How Parental Viewpoint and Personality Affect Gifted Child Outcomes (2020, Gifted Child International Journal), looks into specific parent-child interactions of the subject families from the 5 Levels book. For more than 40 years, Dr. Ruf has served as a keynote speaker, workshop and conference presenter, and has written chapters for five textbooks, more than a dozen peer-reviewed journal articles, and over 100 articles and handouts for newsletters, magazines, and websites. For more information see www.fivelevelsofgifted.com and LinkedIn.
