Student & Trainee Committee
The Student and Trainee Committee (STC) was established in 2009 to further the INSAR’s mission of promoting education and training in the field of autism research.
The committee has focused on three goals:
- Represent the perspectives and needs of student membership in all activities of the society.
- Provide support for the student membership of INSAR through learning, networking, and mentorship opportunities.
- Increase global representation and accessibility of INSAR activities.
Committee Statement of Purpose: Support INSAR’s mission of promoting quality autism research, and to provide the next generation of autism researchers with opportunities for education, career development, and collaboration.
Anti-Racism Repository
The STC Anti-Racism Repository is a collection of resources to aid researchers in actively creating and participating in anti-racist practices. This repository focuses on the intersecting domains of antiracism and autism research.
The committee regularly updates this repository with new resources, and invites you to submit any resources for inclusion. View the Anti-Racism Repository
STC Activities and Events
Student & Trainee Pre-conference Workshop
The workshop is held on the Wednesday before INSAR Annual Meeting. This workshop has focused on topics related to grant writing, but changes from year to year. This event requires pre-registration. There is also
a travel award specifically for the workshop to help cover the costs of traveling to conference early to attend.
STUDENT & TRAINEE social
The social is typically held at a local establishment near conference venue. This is a free event open to all students and trainees. It is a great opportunity to network and enjoy some free feed.
Join us in Melbourne for INSAR 2024!
Meet-the-experts
This event provides students with direct access to leaders in the field of autism research. Students and trainees get to spend the lunch hour with researchers. This event requires pre-registration and often fills
up quickly.
The Networkshop - New
The INSAR Student Trainee Committee (STC) is organizing a new event to help you master networking: The Networkshop.
We are excited for this new event, which will provide the opportunity
to learn from a panel of experts about their own experiences with networking. The faculty panelists will share their advice for networking at a conference, including initiating, maintaining, and following up
with new connections. After the panel, participants will have the chance to practice networking skills within a group of peers and senior scientists in a safe and non-intimidating environment.
Networkshop - INSAR 2021 Virtual (Recording)
*This event recording is only available to current INSAR Members.
(Interested in becoming a Member? Click here)
STUDENT Booth
The booth is place to get information about events at INSAR and other resources relevant to students and trainees. The booth is often staffed by committee members, so it’s a chance to talk and meet us in person.
We hope you stop by!
INSAR Institute
This is a six-week series of webinars on topics related to autism spectrum disorders. The INSAR Institute (previously titled Summer Institute) is open to everyone. It is a great opportunity for students and trainees
who are unable to attend the annual meeting to connect with each other and leading researchers. The Institute webinars are designed for students, post-doctoral fellows, early-career investigators, families,
service providers, and people with autism and their families.
Clinicians and established researchers who would like a snapshot of the current state of science in topics outside their area of expertise may also find these sessions of value.
Registration is free and
available worldwide to those interested in autism research.
Past series are available on the Institute event page. Learn More
The Student & Trainee committee strives to highlight the innovative and significant contributions of student and trainee autism researchers in our bi-yearly newsletter.
Crossword Puzzle Solution - February 2021
Student & Trainee Committee Statement on Black Lives Matter and Discrimination:
Recent atrocities, namely, the murder of Black people at the hands of the police in the U.S., highlight racism at all levels. Our Student and Trainee Committee is largely composed of members from the U.S., although some of
our members live in Europe, Australia, and Asia. We understand that racism occurs worldwide, and it is everyone's responsibility to work to dismantle it. Sparked by the death of George Floyd and the ensuing Black Lives
Matter protests across the world, our committee has been reflecting on our own complacency--and thus complicity--in upholding systems of oppression. Together, as the next generation of autism research leaders, we must educate
ourselves and work to advocate for anti-racist systems. We urge our student and trainee members to do the same. To bring this issue to the forefront within the autism research community, we commit to highlighting multicultural
and intersectional autism research across our initiatives. We will also work with the INSAR Board to develop structures for recruiting and supporting Black students and trainees. The STC stands in solidarity with Black
Lives Matter and supports the INSAR Board’s statement.
INSAR's Public Statement on Discrimination and the Black Lives Matter Movement
Student and Trainee Committee: 2023-2024
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Michal Cook - Chair
Pronouns: she/her
Michal is a PhD candidate in the clinical psychology program at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She is currently completing her APA internship with the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s
Hospital. Michal’s research interests center around identifying and maximizing moderators of quality of life for autistic individuals. Currently, her work is focused on developing community-partnered interventions, with a particular
interest in finding ways to facilitate low-cost, community-based programs that meet the expressed needs of autistic people. Michal has been an INSAR Member since 2017 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2019.
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Meredith Pecukonis - Co-chair
Pronouns: she/they
Dr. Meredith Pecukonis is a postdoctoral research fellow jointly appointed at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Lurie Center for Autism and Harvard Medical School. She received her Ph.D. in developmental psychology
from Boston University and her B.S. in psychology from the University of Maryland. Meredith’s current research focuses on understanding variability in language abilities and anxiety traits in autism. Meredith has been an INSAR
Student Member since 2017 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2021.
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Emily Spackman - Treasurer
Pronouns: she/they
Dr. Emily Spackman is a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University. They received their PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia, where they also completed a Bachelor of Science majoring in Psychology.
Their research interests include anxiety in autistic individuals and improving our assessment and understanding of different manifestations of restricted and repetitive behaviors including special interests and insistence on sameness
behaviors. They have been a member of INSAR since 2021 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2022.
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Juliette Gudknecht - Secretary
Pronouns: she/her
Juliette is a PhD student in Psychology at the University of Portsmouth. She received her Masters of Science in Applied Statistics (with an Autism research focus) from Teachers College of Columbia University.
Juliette’s research focuses on autism stigma, identity development, language use, and trainings related to the neurodiversity movement. She identifies herself as neurodivergent, as she is autistic and ADHD. Juliette has been an
INSAR Student Member since 2021 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2022.
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Jiedi Lei - Past-Chair
Pronouns: she/her
Dr. Jiedi Lei is a clinical psychologist and autism researcher currently completing a Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford, with a focus on Understanding Strengths-Based Approaches in Supporting
Autistic Children and Young People (CYP). Jiedi's research interests include understanding mechanisms that maintain anxiety disorders such as social anxiety in autistic CYP, with an aim of improving clinical treatment for anxiety
difficulties in this group. Jiedi is currently exploring ways of assessing and incorporating character strengths to adopt a strength-based approach when supporting autistic CYP and their families in mental health settings and
beyond. Jiedi joined the student and trainee committee in 2017.
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Divya Swaminathan
Pronouns: she/her
Divya is a Speech-Language Pathologist and Audiologist by clinical training and is currently a Ph.D. Scholar at the Infant – Toddler Language Development and Intervention Lab (https://ssm-lab.org/), Department
of Speech Pathology and Audiology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, India. Her current work and research interests focus on the early home language environment and its impact
on the development of early communication and language skills in infants-toddlers, early identification and intervention in children with autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. She has been an INSAR Student Member
since 2019 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2021.
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Erin Matsuba
Pronouns: she/her
Dr. Erin Matsuba is a Combined Clinical/Research Postdoctoral Fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She received her PhD in School Psychology with a concentration in Neuroscience
from Syracuse University. Her research leverages developmental theory and neurophysiological methods to identify neural biomarkers for autism. Erin has been an INSAR Student Member since 2019 and joined the Student and Trainee
Committee in 2022.
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Emily Coombs
Pronouns: she/they
Emily is an autistic PhD student in Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta. Her doctoral research is on understanding gender and sexuality from the perspective of autistic individuals using
a community-based participatory research approach. Emily has worked alongside Dr. Heather Brown on her research interests in support of autistic university students. Together, they have established an Autistic Community Partner
Collective for the Campus Belonging Study. Emily is also affiliated with the University of Calgary and the University of Victoria and aims to bridge these three institutions whenever similar research is being conducted. Emily
has been an INSAR Student Member since 2021 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2022.
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Sapir Soker-Elimaliah
Pronouns: she/her
Dr. Sapir Soker-Elimalaih is a postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Southern California. She earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from the City University of New York in 2022. She completed
her Bachelor’s in Psychology and Education at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. Her current research focuses on the physiological underlying mechanisms of sensory processing and restricted interests and
repetitive behaviors in autistic children and infants at increased likelihood for autism. Sapir has been an INSAR Student Member since 2018 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2021.
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Josh Chou
Pronouns: he/they
Josh is a graduate student in the UMass Boston Clinical Psychology doctoral program under the mentorship of Dr. Abbey Eisenhower, and a graduate student researcher for the Noonan Foundation Smooth
Sailing in Early Childhood research study. His research interests are centered around the socioemotional cognition and interpersonal relationships of transitional-age autistic youth. Prior to his graduate studies, he
graduated from UCLA where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychobiology with double minors in Disability Studies and Global Health, and served as a clinic coordinator at the UCLA PEERS® Clinic under Dr. Elizabeth
Laugeson's mentorship. Josh has been an INSAR Student Member since 2021 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2022.
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Imene Zoulikha Kassous
Pronouns: she/her
Imene is a PhD student at University of Glasgow, School of Education and a Teaching Associate at University of Nottingham, School of Education. She has a Master’s degree in Language and Communication
from University of Abdelhamid Ibn Badis, Algeria. Her research interests include autism, inclusive education and disability studies. Her PhD is about working towards inclusive education for autistic children in Algeria.
She received 2021 INSAR Virtual Research Internship in Autism and Cultural Diversity. Imene’s internship project is about the experiences of mothers of autistic females in the Algerian context. She has been a member
of INSAR since 2021 and has become part of the Student and Trainee Committee in 2023.
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Zachary Miller
Pronouns: he/him
Zachary Miller is a masters student at University of Pittsburgh. He is simultaneously receiving his bachelors in bioengineering. Zachary’s research focuses on vocal stereotypies and their significance
within conversation. Additionally, he is interested in the social implications of cross-neurotype communication. Zachary has been an INSAR Student Member since 2023 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2023.
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Moussa Sleiman
Pronouns: he/him
Moussa Reda Sleiman is a graduate student at Columbia University currently completing his psychology certificate and working as an autism researcher at the Teachers’ College. His
research interests include the development of methods of autism intervention prioritizing accommodation, understanding, and advocacy. Further research interests lie in the relationship between autism
and language with methods by which linguistic models could be implemented into intervention.
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Derica Su
Pronouns: she/her
Derica is a Research Specialist at the University of Pittsburgh working primarily on an Autism Center of Excellence study. Derica earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from
the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research thus far has focused on mental health experiences among autistic adults. She is also interested in intersecting identities among autistic individuals
belonging to various minoritized groups. Derica has been an INSAR Student Member since 2022 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2023.
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Talia Liu
Pronouns: she/her
Talia Liu is a PhD candidate in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Boston University. She received her clinical master’s degree in speech-language pathology at Vanderbilt
University. Her current research focuses on speech prosody in autism. Her research interests also include how musical activities impact social engagement in children with autism and the efficacy
of music-based interventions and community programs. Talia has been an INSAR Student Member since 2017 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2023.
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Marshae Franklin
Pronouns: she/her
Marshae is a PhD candidate in the Chan Division of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at the University of Southern California (USC). She completed a Post-Professional
Doctorate in Occupational Therapy (OTD) from USC, a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy from Howard University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Social Behavior from the University
of California, Irvine. Using qualitative and participatory research approaches, her research seeks to amplify the voices of autistic women of color and their experiences with 'belonging' in higher
education. Marshae has been an INSAR Student Member since 2023 and joined the Student and Trainee Committee in 2023.
Contact Us
Find Student and Trainee activities on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with the hashtag #INSARSTC. For questions about the committee and its activities, email studentcommittee@autism-insar.org.
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