Laurie Ackles, DSW, LMSW
Since 2010, Laurie has served as Director of the Spectrum Support Programs, leading the development of nationally recognized programming focused on improving the retention, graduation, and employment outcomes for autistic students at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Dr. Ackles’ research interests include working to integrate evidence-based, trauma-informed practices and implementation science principles into supports and programming for autistic college students and job seekers. Laurie is a trailblazer in her work related to helping college students on the autism spectrum prepare for successful employment after graduation. Ackles speaks nationally and has authored several publications. She is a higher education consultant with College Autism Spectrum, and serves on the Advisory Board for the College Autism Network and the Neurodiversity Federal Workforce Project.
Robert D. Austin
Robert D. Austin is a professor at Ivey Business School and an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Medical School. Previously, he was a professor at Copenhagen Business School, dean of the faculty of business at the University of New Brunswick at Fredericton, and an associate professor at Harvard Business School. He is author or co-author of nine books, and has published widely in top journals, such as Harvard Business Review, Information Systems Research, MIT Sloan Management Review, and Organization Science. In addition, he has written more than 100 published cases and notes and is the designer of three Harvard online products and two popular Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) running on the Coursera platform. Outside his academic career, he has held management positions at Ford and Novell and served as CEO of the largest executive education provider in northern Europe. He began researching neurodiversity employment in 2007; his current research on neurodiversity employment best practices is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada).
Andrew Begel
Andrew Begel is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Software Research department at Carnegie Mellon University. Prior to this, he spent over 16 years as a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA, USA. His research focuses on the use of AI and HCI to increase the accessibility of technology for those with physical and cognitive disabilities. He also studies the communication and collaboration effectiveness of software engineers in collocated and distributed development. His most recent work has been to study and help people on the autism spectrum obtain employment and facilitate social interaction, to help blind software developers collaborate with their sighted colleagues, and to use effective computing and biometrics (including eye tracking) to better understand how software developers do their work. He is a Distinguished Member of the ACM.
Kate Broeking
As the founder and principal coach at VocaWell, Kate is committed to expanding access to high-quality job coaching services for professionals with disabilities, neurodivergence, and mental health conditions. In 2019, she pioneered the first corporate job coaching program by creating Amazon’s Work Wellness Coaching team. This innovative program systematically developed pragmatic, data-driven solutions that addressed real-life challenges reported by employees with disabilities. She also led various disability inclusion efforts across the company, and was a founding member of Amazon’s Neurodiversity Community Group. Inspired by her experiences and her program’s success at Amazon, Kate furthered her mission and broadened her impact across the tech industry, culminating in the creation of VocaWell. Her team’s targeted strategies span from executive function techniques to accommodations and assistive technology, all designed to yield lasting, positive impacts for employees.
Beyond her business, Kate serves on the Board of Directors for Disability Law Colorado and is an active member in the country’s first Neurodiversity Chamber of Commerce.
Susanne Bruyere
Susanne M. Bruyère, Ph.D., CRC, is currently Professor of Disability Studies and the Academic Director of the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, ILR School, Ithaca, N.Y. Dr. Bruyère has served as Project Director and Co-Principal Investigator of numerous federally-sponsored research, dissemination, and technical assistance efforts focused on employment and disability policy and effective workplace practices for people with disabilities. She is a past president of the Division of Rehabilitation Psychology (22) of the American Psychological Association, the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association, and the National Council on Rehabilitation Education. She holds a doctoral degree in Rehabilitation Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association (Divisions 14 and 22), the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, and has served as an Executive Board Member of the Division of Rehabilitation Psychology (22) American Psychological Association, a past-chair of GLADNET (the Global Applied Disability Research and Information Network on Employment and Training), and a past-chair and current Board Member of CARF (rehabilitation facility accreditation organization).
David D. Caudel
Dr. Dave Caudel is the associate director of the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation at Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee. Diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome in 2009, Caudel is a neurodivergence advocate, speaking to a variety of organizations, including the U.N. and autism conferences internationally. For much of his life, he struggled to find his place in the world, and has had a number of careers, including videographer, soldier in the U.S. Army, journalist, photojournalist, magazine editor, public affairs specialist, truck salesman, and corporate stints from customer service to loss prevention, just to name a few, before deciding to give, “this college thing a try.” He received his Ph.D. in Physics at Vanderbilt University in 2017. He serves on the advisory committee for the Center for Discovery, Innovation, and Development (CDID) at Children’s Specialized Hospital in New Jersey, the Clinical Advisory Panel on Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities for BlueCare Tennessee, the Vanderbilt University Diversity Council and the All Access Inclusion Network, and is a founding member of the Vanderbilt Autism and Neurodiversity Alliance. His research interests include gamma spectrometers for astrophysics applications and meaningful employment for adults on the spectrum by finding novel, innovative ways to measure their strengths, talents, and passions, then match those to specialized business needs, as well as determining the programs and training needed to maximize success in the workplace.
Stephen DeStefani
Stephen currently leads the Enterprise Neurodiversity Program across Well Fargo. The program delivers meaningful employment opportunities for a deeply underserved community through accessible and modernized sourcing, selection, and onboarding processes. The program also delivers employee focused outcomes aimed at enriching the lives and experiences of our employees by creating strong support structures that foster well-being, enhanced accommodations, equity, and inclusion
Stephen is an active member of the national board of directors for the Autism Society of America and a recipient of the 2023 CAREERS & the disABLED Magazine: Employee of the Year Award for professional and advocacy efforts.
Kathy Dow-Burger, M.A., CCC-SLP
Kathy Dow-Burger, M.A., CCC-SLP is the University of Maryland Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences (HESP) Friedman Family Director of Neurodiversity and Autism Transition Services (NATS). She is a nationally-certified, Maryland State licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP) and newly-promoted full Clinical Professor who has extensive experience in the evaluation and treatment of autism and other communication disorders across the lifespan as well as an advocate for accessibility and use of accommodations and Universal Design for Learning for neurodivergent people. She manages the NATS programs as well as the clinical instruction and supervision of HESP graduate and undergraduate students engaged in their speech-language pathology practicum.
Brandon Germer
Brandon Germer is a Senior Director Analyst in Gartner’s Office of the CIO Research. Mr. Germer advises senior and executive business leaders on strategy, execution, and operating models through written research, conferences, workshops, and 1 to 1 interactions.
Prior to joining Gartner, Brandon was a business strategist, data & analytics consultant and practice leader, and technology leader. During that time, he held a CIO position at a food and beverage company. He has also held positions in the financial services and CPG industries. His strategy work has included strategic plan development for large insurance providers and modernizing the I&T and enterprise strategy functions of companies undergoing digital transformation.
Christine Moeller
Christine worked as an academic librarian for seven years prior to joining the PhD Program at the UW iSchool, primarily working as an instructional design librarian. Their current research examines the workplace experiences of neurodivergent librarians with the goal of making libraries and eventually other workplaces (like academia itself) more inclusive of neurodivergent people like themself. They earned an MLIS from the University of Iowa, a MSIS from UW, and completed additional coursework on instructional design at the University of Wisconsin – Stout.
Tracy Powell-Rudy
Tracy Powell-Rudy is Vice President of Corporate Engagement for Integrate Autism Employment Advisors’ , a nonprofit that helps organizations become neuroinclusive employers. She is contributing author of The Neurodivergent Candidate, Recruiting Autistic Professionals, co-author of the Journal of Intelligence article Examining the Use of Game-Based Assessments for Hiring Autistic Job Seekers and co-author of the recently published SIOP (Society for industrial and Organizational Psychology) article The Power of Partnership: Intentionally Building the Neurodiversity Science-Practice Bridge. Prior to joining Integrate, Tracy was Vice President of a premier global executive search firm focused on CEO/Board through VP level searches. Earlier in her career Tracy worked in technology and telecommunications managing the Northeast Internal Telecom organization for a fortune 100 corporation. Tracy graduated summa cum laude from Manhattanville College with a BS in Psychology and has an MS in Telecommunications and Computing Management from NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering. She is the mother of an autistic young adult daughter and identifies as late-diagnosed herself.
Joe Riddle
Joe Riddle leads Neurodiversity in the Workplace (NITW), a non-profit consultancy that designs and implements neurodivergent inclusion practices at partner organizations. NITW works with more than 30 enterprise partners including Dell Technologies, Bank of America, Walgreens, and many more. Utilizing experience in the corporate world along with a Master’s in Public Health, he has spent the last several years advocating for systems change in the neurodivergent inclusion space.
Linkedin Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephtriddle/
Alexander Stern
Alexander Stern is a senior workplace coach at The How Skills and is a fervent advocate for the neurodiverse community, to which they also belong. They believe in approaching workplace coaching from a strength-based perspective to support people in finding how they best think and operate so that they can thrive in their life roles.
Alexander holds a Master’s in Teaching and over a decade of experience and service in education and coaching professionals. They are National Board certified and have been trained as a mentor. Alexander has cotaught English Language Learner and Special Education classes as well as an identity-focused elective math class aimed at improving self-efficacy for individuals who had historically not felt confident with traditional support methods. Their experience as a teacher-leader and coach in schools and corporations has equipped them with expertise for how to support neurodiverse individuals to be successful and confident by learning how they best learn and work. Alexander utilizes the strengths and passion they developed in these varied education experiences to The How Skills in service to the employees they support.
Teresa Thomas
Teresa Thomas is The MITRE Corporation’s Program Lead for Neurodiverse Talent Enablement and has a long history of advocacy for neurodiverse populations. She has been a house parent in a group home for adults with high support needs, is now a parent of an adult on the autism spectrum and is active in the MITRE Corporation’s Inclusion and Diversity programs.
Teresa brought together an advisory council consisting of private organizations, universities, self-advocates, and federal agencies to develop and pilot the Neurodiverse Federal Workforce program. She also designed and now spearheads MITRE’s internal neurodiversity internship program. Both programs focus on providing opportunities and support for neurodistinct individuals in cybersecurity and other technical roles.
She is passionate about the topic and speaks widely about MITRE’s programs, and neurodiversity in general, and is regularly interviewed as a subject matter expert in the area. She speaks often at federal agency events and has been featured at the National Cyber Summit, the RSA Conference, and on Bloomberg TV.