AUTISM EXPERTS

Christopher Duffley

A musician, inspirational speaker, and podcaster who is blind from Retinopathy due to premature birth, and who was diagnosed with Autism.

Channel: The YouTube Success of Christopher Duffley

Website: The Professional Website of Christopher Duffley

Michael's Thoughts: I'm so happy for this fellow autistic's passion and talent with music. This gentleman may have no sight but that never stopped him from working towards his journey to let everyone hear his wonderful singing. I'm glad Christopher found an interest that he enjoyed in his past which was music and it became a really big involvement into Christopher's life. Not only am I happy that many others were inspired by Christopher's work (and singing), I really like that many people were honored to work with this excellent advocate within his own successful business. Christopher is correct that it's better to see others for who they are with your heart rather than with your eyes + it's even good advice for the blindness community. I'm impressed to have learned that Christopher had earned lots of gigs to sing to many audiences at many areas which were big increases to his life at a successful autistic person.

David Byrne

A musician believed to have ASD but not professional diagnosed.

Channel: The YouTube Success of David Bryne

Website: The Professional Website of David Bryne

Michael's Thoughts: I'm impressed that David Bryne's hard work not only went on HBO but it also came onto Broadway which became a big example of a successful autistic adult. From what I've been learning about David Bryne, his work with music, radio, theater, and filming became a completed utopia in the world of Broadway. I'm happy that many others have worked with David in their performances and music videos which many audiences have enjoyed from across the globe especially from viewing it on Broadway.

Kristen Gillespie-Lynch

Associate Professor of Developmental Psychology at the College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center; CUNY

Kristen Gillespie-Lynch on Google Scholar

Kristen Gillespie-Lynch's ResearchGate Page

Michael's Thoughts: Kristen doesn't actually have any disabilities but she has family members and friends with disabilities so I see her as a very kind advocate who wishes to help them out in any way that she can. I've known Kristen during my time in AHRC's Melissa Riggio Higher Education Program since it led to me getting to meet other advocates from CUNY. I'm grateful to her work with CUNY + she's mostly involved with AHRC's Melissa Riggio Higher Education Program on Staten Island so she's done well for the college students in that borough.

Gregory Abowd

Director, Health Systems Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology

Video: Gregory's Ted Talk

Michael’s Thoughts: I’m impressed that he is a Father of 2 autistic sons which I think is one of the reasons he’s been researching autism & worked on applying some new technologies for that research. I think it was fantastic that he did a excellent presentation of his research (including a few parts of his family life) for everyone to understand more about autism. I say that Gregory Abowd has done very well (even for Georgia Tech).

Rebecca Landa

Director of Psychiatry, Kennedy Krieger Institute

Biography: Rebecca's Bio

Video: Rebecca's Video Message

Michael’s Thoughts: I like to say that I'm happy for Rebecca Landa earning awards in her life from doing hard-learning work involved with ASD. Rebecca has also done well in doing a whole lot of hard-learning research on the Autism Spectrum Disorder. Even though her Video Message was for an excellent event that happened years ago, I’m glad to know the raised funds from ROAR help out with autism research.

Portia Iversen

Author and Founder of the Innovative Technology For Autism (ITA) program at CAN

Video: Portia's Book Signing

Michael’s Thoughts: Not only am I impressed that she is a mother of a son who’s diagnosed with autism but she has wrote a book chronicling her experience with her son titled: Strange Son, which made her into a great author so I’m proud to declare that she has done very well for her son. It is also impressive that she & her husband co-founded the foundation: CAN (Cure Autism Now), along with establishing AGRE (Autism Genetics Resource Exchange), which both has turned out successful so she really did great with her work on autism along with being in a good family with her husband & her son. She also did good at her book-signing with explaining a bit about autism, her book, and her son.

Temple Grandin

Educator, Scientist, Writer, Biologist, Scientist

Biography: Temple's Bio

Video: Temple discussing ASD

Michael’s Thoughts: I’m very proud that someone with autism like Temple had worked on helping out the autistic communities along with how HBO had an award-winning film based on Temple’s life. I’m very impressed with Temple’s Mother: Eustacia Cutler, who worked hard on good treatments for her daughter. Am I amazed that she’s a high-functioning autistic person just like myself especially along with her animal books. she also wrote books about her interior life as an autistic person. She has done excellent work on Autism to be recognized by lots in the community. I’m also proud that she did very well in her video for TED discussing Autism Spectrum Disorder & she even discuss parts in her life for it. so I say Temple Grandin has really done a lot of good things for the autistic community.

Sally Rogers

Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, UC Davis MIND Institute

Video: Sally's Interview

Michael’s Thoughts: I believe that her work in doing good authoring, good writing, and reviewing for journals her efforts for the autistic community is going good plus she also did good in her interview explaining a bit about autism.

Martha Herbert

Neuroscientist and Researcher, Harvard Medical School

Biography: Martha's Bio

Video: Martha Speaking

Michael’s Thoughts: I have to say that studying autism for years & writing an excellent public-oriented book, The Autism Revolution: Whole Body Strategies for making life all it can be, was very nice of Martha Hebbert which includes her hard work for the autistic community especially within some in her approaches. She also has done very well in speaking about autism & her book when she got to be on Fox & Friends.

Dr. Stephen Shore

Professor of Special Education
Adelphi University

Biography: Stephen's Bio

Michael’s Thoughts: I gotta say that I'm impressed with this fellow advocate who went through a lot with his autism and it was nice that he received support from many others in his life. I'm happy for Stephen having a job as a college professor of special education at Adelphi University as I'm sure he'll hold onto that job for a long time. It was nice of him to write unique books involved in helping to understand autism so I'll hope everyone shall enjoy their reading of his books. I'm very impressed with Stephen's involvement in many autism-related organizations which made me hope that I can do good for similar organizations myself just like he did. I like that he uses music as a way to connect with autistic children, especially nice serene piano music. Stephen has done a lot from speaking at conferences, doing presentations, traveling across the world, and even having his own website for his goals in making wonderful lives happen for the autistic community which is similar to what I'm aiming for with my own project.