Neurodiversity Affirming Voices

Kelsie Olds is the Occuplaytional Therapist, dedicated to protecting play, empowering parents, changing the world for our children She is a mom of two, bringing play ideas for kids and adults of all ages and abilities.

Sydney Zarlengo (they/them) is an openly queer, disabled, autistic, trans non-binary actor, composer, youtuber, educator, media analyst, and disability advocate. They write music and make YouTube videos about their experiences being autistic, disabled, gay, nonbinary, and, in general, a human. Sydney received a BA from Mount Holyoke College in 2023 with a double major in psychology and theater and a thesis in accessible theater education. They also completed a semester-long physical theater intensive at Accademia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy.

Em Hammond of NeuroWild is an autistic mother, illustrator, and speech-language pathologist, with a strong social media presence. She creates great and simple graphics and memes about autism supports and advocacy on Facebook and Instagram.

Alfie Kohn writes and speaks widely on human behavior, education, and parenting. The author of fourteen books and hundreds of articles, he lectures at education conferences and universities as well as to parent groups and corporations. Kohn’s criticisms of competition and rewards have been widely discussed and debated, and he has been described in Time magazine as “perhaps the country’s most outspoken critic of education’s fixation on grades [and] test scores.”

Greg Santucci (he/him) is a pediatric occupational therapist and the founding director of Power Play Pediatric Therapy in NJ. He is the creator of the Model of Child Engagement, a lecturer, consultant and still a practicing OT, maintaining a caseload in the public schools and outpatient therapy centers. Greg has spent over two decades as an OT listening to and validating the thoughts, emotions, behaviors and opinions of the kids he works with, and challenging systems to do the same: something that’s often overlooked when addressing “behaviors”. When not advocating for children, he’s usually on a soccer field somewhere cheering on his two kids. Greg is self-diagnosed ADHD and a sensory hot mess, so he has a deep understanding of the importance of sensory validation throughout development.

Meg Ferrell (Proctor) (she/her) is an occupational therapist who cares deeply about person-affirming therapy. At Learn Play Thrive, she hopes to springboard as many OTs and SLPs as humanly possible into offering neurodiversity-affirming therapy with ease. Meg has supported thousands of therapists to become confident, effective OTs and SLPs who use strengths-based strategies with their Autistic clients and support their clients’ sense of belonging and identity.

Dr. Mona Delahooke is a best-selling author and child psychologist who aims to reduce suffering and increase resilience for children and families. Her paradigm-shifting model offers a new way of understanding emotional and behavioral challenges, incorporating the latest neuroscience and resilience research to support relationships. Dr. Delahooke is challenging the education system to update its practices from focusing on behavior to promoting relational safety.

Dr. Ross Greene and Collaborative & Proactive Solutions (CPS)! Dr. Greene is a clinical psychologist, and he’s been working with children and families for over 30 years. His influential work is widely known throughout the world.

Kristy Forbes is an Australian based autism & neurodiversity support specialist with experience working with clients both nationally and internationally. This includes neurodivergent people and their families; and professionals who wish to support them, such as educators, psychologists, pediatricians, allied health professionals, support workers and integration aides. Her work is informed by her extensive professional experience as an educator (Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary teaching), as an integration aide to children with social, emotional and behavioral differences, and as a childhood behavioral and family support specialist. Kristy has degrees in Political Science, Education, Literature, Film and Art.

Chloé Hayden is an award-winning motivational speaker, actor, performer, author, influencer, content creator, and disability rights activist and advocate, the heart of which these all intersect being her passion for creating change, celebrating diversity, and pushing towards a better future.

DeDevon Price, Ph.D. is a social psychologist, writer, activist, and professor at Loyola University of Chicago’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Price’s work has appeared in numerous publications such as Slate, The Rumpus, NPR, and HuffPost and has been featured on the front page of Medium numerous times. Price lives in Chicago, Illinois, and is the author of Laziness Does Not Exist: A Defense of the Exhausted, Exploited, and Overworked.

Dr Jac den Houting (they/them) is a research psychologist and autistic activist working in pursuit of social justice. Jac is committed to creating real-world change that benefits autistic people, in the areas that matter most to the autistic community. Jac believes that autism research can be most meaningful and impactful when it is conducted by and with the people it is intended to serve – autistic people.

DescSara Sanders Gardner's work in the autism and disability fields began in 2001, and includes creating and directing an internationally recognized neurodiversity college access program at Bellevue College in Washington State, U.S., and designing and delivering Autism and Neurodiversity Cultural Responsiveness live training workshops for Microsoft's Neurodiversity Hiring program since 2015, as well as e-Learning across 7 countries for Amazon Web Services, among many other institutions and corporations.

Lyric Rivera is a trans-nonbinary, Autistic, self-advocate, who runs the internationally recognized NeuroDivergent Rebel blog.

Lyric is also the Owner of NeuroDivergent Consulting, and author of the best-selling business ethics book, Workplace NeuroDiversity Rising, praised in Forbes as “an excellent ‘how to manual’ based on lived experience and professional competence.”