Kate McLaughlin (she/her) is a Speech-Language Pathologist specializing in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for individuals with complex communication needs. She believes that autonomous communication, inclusion, and self-determination are fundamental human rights. Kate teaches OTs and SLPs the practical strategies they need to support their clients’ autonomous and authentic connection using strengths-based strategies.

V Tisi (they/them) is an Autistic, Disabled, and Queer Taiwanese-Chinese-Venezuelan American clinician- and educator-activist. Their area of specialty is intersectional justice for multiply marginalized neurodivergent people. V teaches trauma-informed practices to support the social-emotional development and wellness of Autistic people. V is dedicated to pushing the needle forward on a more culturally responsive, equitable, and depathologized field of speech-language sciences. V has practiced speech language pathology in early intervention and schools, and is an adjunct faculty member at San Francisco State University teaching culturally responsive practices with an anti-racist and anti-ableist lens.

Lydia X. Z. Brown, Esq. is an abolitionist advocate, organizer, attorney, strategist, and writer whose work focuses on interpersonal and state violence against disabled people at the intersections of race, class, gender, sexuality, faith, language, and nation. Their other interests include carcerality and institutional violence, asexuality as queerness, algorithmic harm as an accelerating force of systemic injustice, and the ableism-racism nexus of transracial and transnational adoption. Lydia is an adjunct lecturer in the Women’s and Gender Studies Program and the Disability Studies Program at Georgetown University, as well as Self-Advocacy Discipline Coordinator for the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Fellowship program. They are also an adjunct professorial lecturer in American Studies in the Department of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies at American University. Lydia is Policy Counsel for Privacy & Data at the Center for Democracy & Technology, focused on algorithmic discrimination and disability, as well as Director of Policy, Advocacy, & External Affairs at the Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network. They are the current co-president of the Disability Rights Bar Association, a commissioner on the American Bar Association’s Commission on Disability Rights, and Disability Justice Committee representative on the National Lawyers Guild board. Lydia founded the Fund for Community Reparations for Autistic People of Color’s Interdependence, Survival, and Empowerment, a project of collective care, redistributive justice, and mutual aid, and they are currently creating Disability Justice Wisdom Tarot. Often, their most important work has no title, job description, or funding, and probably never will.

Caroline Musslewhite (she/her) is a Speech-Language Pathologist with more than 45 years of experience ‘in the trenches.’ She specializes in providing AAC and literacy consulting in schools, homes, and communities. She believes passionately that everyone – YES EVERYONE, including individuals who use AAC – can make progress in their own literacy journey. She believes that literacy and AAC learning can (and should) be effective, efficient, and engaging! Caroline has presented thousands of workshops throughout the world and is on a mission to change how SLPs approach literacy, illuminating the needs of emergent readers. Caroline is a founding member of the Board of Directors for the International Society for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (ISAAC).

Kelly Mahler (she/her) is an interoception groupie and is passionate about using supports that facilitate discovery and validation of each person’s unique inner experience. She believes that this in turn empowers people with self-understanding, self-regulation, health and well-being. Kelly earned a Doctorate in Occupational Therapy from Misericordia University, Dallas, PA. She has been an occupational therapist for 20 years, serving school-aged children and adults.

Kim Clairy (she/her) is an Autistic occupational therapist, international speaker, consultant, author, and self-advocate. Kim broke through many barriers as she defied a healthcare system that said, “your autism is severe; you need to live in a nursing home.” Kim’s healthcare experiences forged a passion to educate providers through sharing her personal journey and professional expertise. She educates on many facets of autism across the lifespan including the intersection of autism with eating disorders, ADHD, sensory processing dysfunction, and trauma.