Dr. Burka earned his PhD from the University of Rochester in New York, graduating with honors. He completed the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship including a Comparative Study of preschool educational programs in Denmark, England, Holland, Israel and Sweden. Dr. Burka specializes in child and adolescent psychology including psycho-educational evaluation, cognitive behavior modification, school consultation, learning disabilities, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder and parental counseling. He founded and has directed the Challenges Summer Program for the past 27 years, a program which teaches resiliency skills to elementary school children. Dr. Burka also started the O-YES program at Metairie Park Country Day, a program which teaches high school students with learning disabilities how to take ownership of their disabilities and overcome them. Dr. Burka has been on the Ochsner staff since 1979.