Professor Hilde Geurts

July 11th, 9:00am EDT

Professor Dr. Hilde Geurts is a professor of clinical neuropsychology at the Department of Psychology of the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). She is head of the Department of Brain & Cognition and of the Dutch Autism and ADHD research group (d’Arc, www.dutcharc.nl). She is also affiliated with a mental health care institute that specializes in supporting autistic people across their lifespan, the “Dr. Leo Kannerhuis.” Her research focus has been on both autism and ADHD for over 25 years. First, she focused mainly on children, but currently, her focus is adulthood and older age. The topics she has studied range from quality of life to cognitive functioning. In all her work, she collaborates with autistic adults for specific projects and larger initiatives like the Academic Workplace Autism project (2014-2023). Co-creation fits both with embracing open science and aiming for science, which makes a difference in people’s lives.

Professor Francesca Happe

July 22nd, 9:00am EDT

Francesca Happé is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. Her research has focused on autism for over 30 years. Some of her recent work focuses on mental health on the autism spectrum, and under-researched groups including women and older people. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences and a past-President of the International Society for Autism Research. She has received the British Psychological Society Spearman Medal and President’s Award, Experimental Psychology Society Prize, and Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award. She is co-author/editor of two recent books - Autism: A New Introduction to Psychological Theory and Debate (with Sue Fletcher-Watson), and Girls and Autism: Educational, Family and Personal Perspectives (with Barry Carpenter and Jo Egerton). In 2021, she was awarded a CBE by HRH Queen Elizabeth II for her services to the study of autism.

Dr. Gavin Stewart

July 22nd, 9:00 am EDT

Gavin Stewart is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London. His principal research interests focus on trajectories of age-related change in autistic people’s health, cognition, wellbeing, and support needs in midlife and older age. He is also interested in improving methods of identification for undiagnosed autistic and other neurodivergent people. Gavin co-leads the Re:Spect Lab with Prof Francesca Happé. He also organises the Autism ResearCH (ARCH) Series and is a founding member and the coordination lead of the Autism Practitioner Network (funded by NHS England).

Laura Klinger, PhD

July 24th, 2:00 pm EDT

Laura Klinger (she/her), PhD is the Director of the TEACCH Autism Program and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in community-based care and methods to support the implementation of evidence-based practices in community settings. Her research focuses on identifying and supporting service needs for individuals across the lifespan with a focus on promoting positive adult outcomes. Her current projects include current randomized controlled trials examining the efficacy of a transition to adulthood program for autistic adolescents and young adults and two comparative efficacy studies examining mental health therapies for autistic children and adults. She is also following a longitudinal cohort of 25-60-year-old autistic adults who were served by TEACCH during childhood and examining outcomes related to employment, quality of life, and aging.

Clair Klein, MA

July 24th, 2:00 pm EDT

Claire Klein (she/her), MA is a fifth-year doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program at UNC Chapel Hill with Dr. Laura Klinger. Her clinical interests include assessment and evidence-based practice across the lifespan for individuals of all abilities. She has experience delivering and researching interventions for autistic individuals from early childhood through adulthood, from NDBIs to transition to adulthood programs for young adults with and without intellectual disability. Claire’s research interests are in the development and study of measurement tools to examine clinical outcomes and intervention mechanisms in autism, examining developmental trajectories of autistic individuals across the lifespan, and identifying service gaps to develop approaches to promote well-being in older adulthood. 

Marsha Mailick, PhD

July 24th, 2:00 pm EDT

Marsha R. Mailick, PhD is the Emeritus Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, and Vaughan Bascom and Elizabeth M. Boggs Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  From 2002 to 2014, she served as the Director of the Waisman Center and principal investigator of the Waisman Center's Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center, funded by the NIH.