Dr. Shafali Jeste is a behavioral child neurologist specializing in autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders. She is the Chief of the Division of Neurology, Co-Director of the Neurological Institute and the Las Madrinas Chair at CHLA and Professor, Neurology and Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Dr. Charlotte DiStefano is a clinical psychologist with expertise in minimally verbal children with ASD and related neurodevelopmental disorders. She is a clinical instructor in Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences.

Marian Castro is a Health Services and Behavioral Research Associate in the Training and Research to Empower NeuroDiversity (TREND) Lab at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). Marian recently graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Science in Biopsychology. She has participated in many volunteering and research opportunities that strengthened her passion for clinical psychology. Coming from Venezuela, Marian is interested in studying mental health stigma among Latinx/Hispanic communities, depression and anxiety. Marian’s career goals are to pursue clinical training and advanced research methodologies in clinical psychology, with a focus on studying mental health stigma in diverse communities.

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Dr. Katherine Gotham is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rowan University and Director of the Social, Emotional, and Affective Health (SEAHL) Lab. Dr. Gotham investigates emotion processing and emotional health problems in the context of the autism spectrum, using behavioral and psychophysiological methods. The SEAHL Lab aims to use that knowledge to develop more effective treatments to support emotional health in neurodivergent adolescents and adults. Dr. Gotham works closely with the TREND Lab to understand social and identity factors in the pathway to depression in autistic adults. Learn more about Dr. Gotham and her lab.

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Dr. Autumn Kujawa is an Associate Professor in Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University and Director of the Mood, Emotion, and Development (MED) Lab. Dr. Kujawa's research aims to reduce the burden of mood disorders on youth and families. In particular, she examines how children and adolescents process and respond to emotion, the ways in which alterations in emotional processing contribute to the development of mood disorders, and how this knowledge can be translated to improve interventions. Her work focuses on a range of emotions, including reward responsiveness, threat reactivity and regulation, and sensitivity to social feedback, and takes a multimethod approach incorporating physiological, brain circuit, and behavioral measures. With the TREND Lab, Dr. Kujawa examines EEG methodologies with autistic youth and potential neural indices of reward responsivity and associations with depression. Learn more about Dr. Kujawa and her lab.

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Dr. Alexandra Bettis is an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Director of the Regulating Emotions and Stress in Teens (REST) Lab. The REST Lab investigates key mechanisms underlying effective interventions for adolescent mental health to improve the current prevention and treatment evidence base. Dr. Bettis’ program of research includes theoretical and empirical investigations of coping and emotion regulation processes in youth and families, both in and outside the context of interventions for high-risk youth. Dr. Bettis works closely with the TREND Lab to engage community partners in improving suicide prevention programs for neurodivergent youth. Learn more about Dr. Bettis and her lab.

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Zachary “Zack” Williams is a MD/PhD candidate with autism in the Neuroscience Graduate Program and Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University. He is also an affiliate of the Vanderbilt University Frist Center for Autism and Innovation, co-chair of the Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health (AIR-P) Autistic Researchers Review Board, co-chair of the INSAR Autistic Researchers Committee, as well as the co-founder of Autism PROMnet. He received his BS in psychology from Yale University in 2017, where he was heavily involved in autism research at the Yale Child Study Center. Zack's current research focuses on the sensory manifestations of autism in adulthood, the assessment and treatment of co-occurring physical and mental health problems in autistic adults, and the development of novel questionnaires and clinical measures to assess core and associated features of autism across the lifespan. He works closely with the TREND Lab to investigate social risk and protective factors for depression in autistic youth and potential intervention approaches. You can follow him on X at @QuantPsychiatry.