Jessica McCabe

How to ADHD

Jessica McCabe is the creator and host of the YouTube channel How to ADHD, the most popular ADHD channel on YouTube. Her TED talk has been seen over 12 million times on Facebook and 1.5 million times on TED.com and has inspired ADHD and neurodiversity advocacy around the world. Her educational videos are fun, relatable, and based on current research, consultations with mental health professionals, and her personal experiences. Her content has helped hundreds of thousands of people accept and understand their unique brains and live better, more fulfilled lives.

John & Mark X. Cronin

Co-Founders of John's Crazy Socks

John and Mark X. Cronin are the father-son team that created John’s Crazy Socks, a social enterprise with a mission to spread happiness. They bootstrapped their business into the world’s largest sock store earning them recognition as EY’s Entrepreneurs of the Year.   John is not only an entrepreneur, but he has also Down syndrome. Every day, John and Mark show what people with differing abilities can do – more than half their colleagues have a differing ability. They are fierce advocates for the rights of people with differing abilities having testified twice before the U.S. Congress, spoken at the United Nations and recorded two TEDx talks. They are members of the CEO Commission on Disability Employment. Their work has been featured on national broadcasts by CBS, ABC, CNBC, PBS, the BBC and Fox News.   They have built a business based on creating customer experiences and spreading happiness. John’s Crazy Socks has 240,000 Facebook followers and over 29,000 five-star reviews. John and Mark show their gratitude through their Giving Back program that has raised nearly $500,000 for their charity partners.  Most of all, they are spreading happiness one pair of socks at a time. 

Paperless Pierre Smith

President, Scan It Forward

Pierre Smith, known as Paperless Pierre, is a serial entrepreneur and the co-founder of Scan It Forward with 24+ years of experience in workflow/e-forms automation and enterprise content management (ECM, a.k.a. document management, document control, and business process management). Paperless Pierre has been working with young adults with autism and similar disabilities for the past 18 years.   Under Pierre’s leadership, Scan IT Forward has demonstrated the value of people on the Spectrum working in a supported environment including process flow diagrams, job coaches, and daily lunches with the management team. Scan IT Forward has a demonstrated career path towards increasing technical knowledge with enhanced responsibility and potential franchise ownership. Scan IT Forward’s vision is to have nationwide locations employing 1,500 autistic people by 2024   Paperless Pierre will share his knowledge on how we can go about our lives in hiring with the neurodiverse in mind.

Sara Holland 

Director of Human Resources, Summit Aerospace

Sara N. Holland born in Ecuador and immigrated to Miami, Fla. From an early age she aspired to make an impact on this world. For the last 16 years, Sara has been serving aviation at the reputable Summit Aerospace. Unveiling her career as a technical librarian, Sara quickly grew within the company and was promoted to Accounts Payable after six months. At work, it took coworkers little to perceive Sara as a good listener, honest and dependable person. Sara’s great qualities opened the door to embark on her current position in the Human Resources department.  When Summit was a small business, Sara offered to balance her work between Accounts Payable and HR serving 50+ employees. The company eventually grew into a medium-sized organization with over 250+ employees with a full-fledged HR department currently overseen by Sara.  Her main objective has been to provide an inclusive work environment. Sara implemented a new conscious hiring process of procuring new employees from varying ethnicities, genders, and abilities. During the challenges of COVID-19, she developed a plan of action to mitigate risk and maintain a safe work environment, resulting in a sparse number of cases ensuring the company with a flight-critical production. Sara’s perpetual motivation is her family, and her purpose of being a bridge for others; a value instilled by her grandmother. Working in HR has allowed her to share this knowledge with others to promote mindfulness and being in the presence. The impact she always wanted to accomplish on this world. 

Zhara Astra 

Arizona State University

Zhara Astra is a writer, producer, and television executive. She is also a professor at Arizona State University where she developed the first course of its kind on understanding neurodivergent women with an emphasis on autism.   After discovering she was on the autism spectrum and had ADHD as an adult, she set out on a mission to help other women better understand themselves and their potential neurodivergences, while aiming to educate and equip the neurotypical world with a greater understanding of how to interact with those who think differently, operate differently, and see the world through a different lens. Her work has been featured in Scientific American Magazine, Globo Magazine, and across media platforms worldwide. 

Kate Cooper, PhD

Lecturer, University of Bath

Kate Cooper is a Lecturer in Clinical Psychology at the University of Bath, and a HCPC registered Clinical Psychologist and BABCP accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist. She has worked in a range of clinical settings, including mental health services and neurodevelopmental clinics for both young people and adults.   Kate completed an NIHR-funded clinical doctoral fellowship titled "How should health services adapt to meet the needs of autistic people with gender dysphoria?" in 2022. This work led to academic publications, accessible summaries, and co-produced training materials for healthcare clinicians working with autistic people experiencing gender dysphoria, available here:  https://www.bath.ac.uk/projects/adapting-health-services-to-meet-the-needs-of-autistic-people-with-gender-dysphoria/  Kate is a researcher on the Autism Depression Trial (ADEPT, ADEPT-2), supporting the development of a psychological treatment for depression in autistic adults and its evaluation in a Randomised Controlled Trial. 

Mark Stokes, PhD

Associate Professor, Deakin University

I am a researcher and Psychologist interested in a lot of things. Chief among these is autism and how to best assist those with autism to successfully transition to adulthood. In this area I research all soughts of things, like:
How to develop social skills and social networks if you're autistic?
How to find a relationship if you're autistic, and what kind of relationship you might find?
How does autism and gender or sexual orientation all interact with each other?
What to do about university if you're autistic?
How does an autistic person get a job?
What about parenthood and autism?
How to protect and improve mental health if you're autistic?
To support this, I founded the Healthy Autistic Life Lab (HALL). I am also very interested in how autistic girls and women differ from autistic boys and men, and why this may have contributed to the underdiagnosis of girls and women with autism. Another area of interest is how do all the things above impact upon an autistic person's wellbeing and mental health, and how this may be best supported. I also do research into children and injury prevention. All injuries are avoidable, and no child should die from, be permanently disabled, or hurt by an injury. I do not believe in wrapping children in cotton wool. All children must be allowed to have experiences that lead to growth and development. But death or permanent injury prevents growth and development. So, I work to create systems and understanding that help children. I also work in wellbeing research and have a deep interest in how best to measure and assess wellbeing and the soughts of things that improve and increase wellbeing. I have a long-term interest and have researched into circadian rhythms and sleep. My PhD examined the mathematical theories that describe circadian rhythms and sleep control. To find about my research, go to https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/mark-stokes, or look me up on ORCID at 0000-0001-6488-4544
I'm a curious guy (in a good sense)... It defines me.

Beth Foraker 

Co-Director - UC Davis Redwood SEED Scholars Program

Beth Foraker and her husband, John, are alumni of UC Davis. Beth and John are parents to four children: Jack, Mary Kate, Patrick, and Caroline. Their third child, Patrick, has Down Syndrome. Patrick was fully included in school, earned a California high school diploma and is now a senior at an inclusive college program at George Mason University in Virginia. Beth has been an educator for over thirty years and worked for fifteen years for UC Davis in the School of Education with beginning teachers in their Multiple Subject Credential/Masters Program. Today, she is the Co-Director of the UC Davis Redwood SEED Scholars Program – a four-year, residential, inclusive college program – the first of its kind in California. She works to build what she calls Continuums of Inclusion: communities that offer preschool through college inclusion so that independent adulthood - inclusive living and inclusive employment - and full belonging are possible. With the launch of the UC Davis Redwood SEED Scholars Program, the City of Davis is now one!

Andrea Hojnacki

Director, Office for Students with Disabilities & Deaf Services

Holyoke Community College

Andrea Hojnacki is the Director of the Office for Students with Disabilities & Deaf Services at Holyoke Community College, Holyoke, Massachusetts.  Prior to serving in this role, she was the Coordinator of the Massachusetts Inclusive Concurrent Enrollment Initiative at Holyoke Community College, providing autistic and neurodivergent students with Developmental Disabilities access to the full range of college experiences as they transition out of high school.  Andrea serves as co-advisor to the Students on the Autism Spectrum Club and serves on the Universal Design Council at HCC.  She has spent the past twenty years working with neurodivergent teens and adults in high school, college, and transition program settings, and is the parent of two beautiful, neurodivergent teens.  

Brett Ranon Nachman, PhD 

Assistant Professor in Adult and Lifelong Learning

University of Arkansas

Dr. Brett Ranon Nachman is an Assistant Professor in Adult and Lifelong Learning at the University of Arkansas, as well as Director of Research with College Autism Network. As a self-advocate, Brett centers much of his research around autism in higher education, which has been published in a variety of journals including The Review of Higher Education, College Student Affairs Journal, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, and Community College Journal of Research and Practice. Most recently he and his colleagues received a national grant to launch a longitudinal study on autistic college student success.

Alexander Mario Blum, PhD 

Stanford University

Dr. Alexander Mario Blum, although struggled with Bipolar as a child and adolescent, used higher education as a tool to channel his dispositions. The library became his manic friend, reading research and course work became high ways for expression and understanding. With practice learning how to navigate his regulation and flexibility across contexts, he took a strong affection towards promoting cognition through narrative, particularly graphic narratives. He had a game changing experience using comics in the class room as a high school special education teacher. Furthermore, he found ways to use research as a tool to promote cognition. From this, he trained in the UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University joint doctoral program in Special Education. There, he earned his Ph.D., exploring  the intersection of cognition, narrative, and Autism. Through partnering with local school districts, he found ways to promote inferential thinking using comics in his dissertation research, and today as a post-doctoral scholar with Sanford University. He is also founder of Enrich Your Academics (www.EnrichYourAcademics.com), where he applies his training as a writing and cognition coach. 

Sara Sanders Gardner 

Director, Navigators Programs, Bellevue College

Sara Sanders Gardner’s work in the disability field began in 2001, when as a newly diagnosed autistic, they served as a parent advocate for IEP meetings, provided parenting classes at United Cerebral Palsy, and was president of a 600-family autism support group in Orange County, CA. In 2011, Sara designed and developed the nationally recognized Neurodiversity Navigators at Bellevue College in Washington State, which has grown to serve over 300 students in tiered services. As director of the program, Sara leads a team of staff and peer mentors, designs curriculum, teaches the first class in the 9-course series, and works to support disability inclusion and accessibility across campus. Through their Autistic at Work LLC, Sara also provides workshops and e-Learning in Neurodiversity Cultural Responsiveness for Microsoft Corporation, Amazon Web Services, and other entities. Sara has a 31-year-old autistic son, and a 12-year-old dachshund. Sara’s pronouns are they/them/theirs.

Edlyn Vallejo Peña, PhD 

Professor and Director of Autism and Communication Center

California Lutheran University

Dr. Edlyn Peña is the Director and Professor of the Higher Education Leadership doctoral program at Cal Lutheran. She is an award-winning researcher who studies ways to support autistic students in the preschool through higher education pipeline. Her edited books, “Communication Alternatives in Autism” (2019) and "Leaders Around Me" (2019), feature prominent autistic individuals who advocate for communication and inclusion rights.  As a scholar and Director of the Autism and Communication Center, Dr. Peña’s service to the autism community has reached international audiences.

Tami Tidwell

Program Coordinator/Counselor, University of Washington

I have been a counselor/coordinator for University of Washington DO IT program for almost 20 years. I enjoy working with high school and college students on topics like college admissions, scholarships, internships, employment, accommodations, and disclosure strategies. Being able to build long and lasting relationships is one of the best parts of working at DO-IT. Outside of work, I read a lot of audio and e-books, enjoy creating with friends, eating things from the garden, and playing with my cats and pup. I am neurodivergent, celiac and hard of hearing.