10th Annual Southeast Adult Autism Symposium
2026 Speaker Information
Read below to find out more information about the speakers and presentations we will feature at this event. Speakers are listed alphabetically by last name.
Laura S. Coleman, B.A. and Dr. Opal Ousley, PhD
Autism and the Creative Mind
Description: This talk will be divided into two parts, the first covering research into creativity and the autism spectrum, and the second focusing on examples of autistic artists from across the lifespan. This will include visual arts, music, poetry, and other performance-based arts. The impact will be to shine a spotlight on how autistic passions and creative pursuits align, to inspire autistic self-expression and encourage participation in the arts.
Speaker Biography: Laura Coleman has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Emory University and currently serves as a Clinical Research Coordinator for the SPARK Study at Emory University and Marcus Autism Center. She is passionate about autistic adult self-advocacy and has a strong interest in the creative arts. She was recently recognized for her advocacy and contributions to neurodiversity inclusion efforts at the Marcus Autism Center with an award named in her honor for Inclusion and Belonging. Dr. Opal Ousley is an Assistant Professor at the Emory Autism Center with more than 30 years of experience working with autistic individuals across the lifespan, from infancy to adulthood. Her clinical work currently focuses on psychotherapy with adults on the autism spectrum, including those with AutDHD. Her research involves interdisciplinary collaborations in nutrition, genetics, and pain.
Aimee Dukes, Ph.D.
30 Years of ASD Evaluations: From the Past to the Present
Description: Coming Soon
Speaker Biography: Coming Soon
Claire Kraft
Your Circle Is Your Ceiling
Description: Your Circle Is Your Ceiling explores how agency, self-direction, and selectivity shape personal outcomes. This talk shows why who you allow into your life directly affects your growth, confidence, and opportunities. Attendees will learn how to recognize supportive vs. limiting influences, trust their judgment, set boundaries, and choose relationships that elevate rather than restrict their potential.
Speaker Biography: Claire is a software engineer at BCBST. Claire has lived independently for 4 years now. She has two cats named Garfield and Nermal. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, climbing, and solving the Rubik’s cube.
Stewart Lee, MS AgEd, PHD (ABD)
AI and the Autistic Brain: Powerful Tool or Hidden Risk?
Description: Artificial intelligence tools are rapidly becoming part of everyday life, and many autistic adults are already using them as cognitive support tools. This session explains what AI actually is, demonstrates practical ways it can support planning, communication, and executive functioning, and explores potential risks including misinformation, privacy concerns, and replacing human interaction with AI systems that feel socially responsive. Participants will gain a balanced understanding of how AI can help—or harm—when used without awareness.
Speaker Biography: Stewart Lee, MS AgEd, PhD (ABD), is an autistic and ADHD educator, speaker, and coach who focuses on helping neurodivergent adolescents and adults understand how their brains actually work. With more than a decade of experience in education and leadership, he combines lived experience with systems thinking to explain the hidden cognitive demands many autistic adults experience. Stewart translates complex topics like executive functioning, cognitive load, and masking into practical insights for autistic adults, caregivers, and professionals.
Rebecca H. Miller, CELA and Amy B. Boulware LAP MSW
Planning for Special Needs: What Comes Next at Age 18 and Beyond
Description: As individuals with disabilities transition into adulthood, families are often faced with a new set of important legal and financial decisions. This session will walk through how to navigate government benefits like SSI and SSDI, along with key planning tools such as special needs trusts, ABLE accounts, and powers of attorney. We will also talk through conservatorships and how to determine the right level of support, with the goal of helping families feel informed, prepared, and confident moving forward.
Speaker Biography: Rebecca Miller is a member of the estate planning section at Chambliss. Rebecca uses her knowledge and expertise to give families peace of mind during some of life’s most difficult moments. She works with clients in both Tennessee and Georgia on elder law and special needs planning and care coordination, as well as solving disputes involving large estates and complicated assets. Clients count on her to guide them through conservatorships, both contested and uncontested, sometimes advising on whether a conservatorship is even necessary and who might be ideal to appoint.
Amy Boulware is an elder care and special needs care manager and a Tennessee Licensed Advance Practice Social Worker (LAP MSW). For over 30 years, she has devoted her time to serving elders, people with disabilities, and their families through advocacy and geriatric and special needs care coordination. Amy helps clients navigate a world of senior and disability services and provides hands-on assistance, from advising on geriatric-related matters like Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance — to working with parents of adult children with disabilities as they age.
McCracken Poston Jr.
Representing The Zenith Man: The Intersection of Neurodivergence and Criminal Justice
Description: I wrote a book after representing a man charged with murder who was not yet diagnosed with ASD. While we did not have the benefit of a diagnosis pre-trial, his diagnosis over two decades later did make me realize the misunderstanding and misjudgment that my client suffered all the way through the process. There are millions out there not-yet diagnosed who could suffer the same fate, and with a worse outcome.
Speaker Biography: McCracken Poston Jr. is a criminal defense lawyer in Georgia and Tennessee. A former state representative and prosecutor, he faced the challenge of his career with Alvin Ridley - an undiagnosed neurodivergent TV repairman accused of keeping his wife locked up and then killing her. Poston wrote of the challenge of representing Ridley, and how the two men learned how to work together toward the goal of clearing Ridley.
Christopher J. Quarto, Ph.D., PLLC, Kathy Quarto & Luke Quarto
Living Together as Adults: Family Relationships in Adult Autism
Description: This interactive, discussion-based session explores family relationships when an autistic adult lives at home with parents. Led by a psychologist, his spouse, and their autistic adult son, the session centers on lived experience rather than lectures. Topics include autonomy and support, communication breakdowns and repair, boundaries, and redefining independence. Attendees will gain practical insights, shared language, and a deeper understanding of both autistic adult and parent perspectives for everyday family life.
Speaker Biography: Christopher Quarto is a licensed psychologist who conducts psychological evaluations for adults who suspect they are autistic. He has provided therapy and assessment services to children, adolescents and adults in community mental health, psychiatric hospital and private practice settings for 30+ years. Dr. Quarto formerly taught in the professional counseling program at Middle Tennessee State University and has received numerous teaching and professional awards. He is the host of the popular podcast series, "Adult Autism: A Spectrum of Uniqueness."
Kathy Quarto is a former teacher and currently the music director at St. Henry Catholic Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Luke Quarto is a writer and author of the book “Flowmosaic” (available on the Lulu Bookstore) as well as an artist and musician.
Jordan Salzano, B.S.
Embracing Change and Pivoting Your Passion on the Autism Spectrum
Description: Change can be a stressor for people with autism and associated sensory processing difficulties. As many people, like myself, prefer routine and structure, it’s challenging. However, there’s no way to live a life 100% free of change: we all face it. This session will discuss how people with autism can get more comfortable with/accepting of change by means of overcoming barriers that autism and sensory processing difficulties can impose.
Speaker Biography: My name is Jordan Salzano, and I’m from Long Island, New York. I am an aspiring motivational speaker with a niche in both autism/self-advocacy and general motivation, a published self-help author, a self-help podcast host, and a self-help content creator. I published my debut self-help book, The Everlasting Hunger for Improvement, in December 2020, and am publishing my second self-help book, Dead Ends on a Direct Road, in early 2026. I've spoken at national autism conferences in 2024 and 2025. Helping people live their best lives possible has been a passion of mine for many years, and I want to continue to do this via on-stage, on social media, in published books and works, and more.
Meredith Sinclair, MS, CRC
Navigating Relationships as a Neurodivergent Adult: Practical Tools for Communication, Boundaries, and Connection
Description: This session provides neurodiversity-affirming, practical strategies to help Autistic and Neurodivergent adults build healthier, more fulfilling relationships. Participants will explore common relationship challenges, including differences in communication styles, difficulty interpreting implied meaning, and navigating new social situations without clear or familiar “social templates.”
Speaker Biography: Meredith Sinclair, M.S., CRC is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and the founder of LIFE Behavior Consulting. She supports neurodivergent adolescents and adults in building communication, executive functioning, and relationship skills through a neurodiversity-affirming, strengths-based approach. Meredith has extensive experience helping autistic adults navigate relationships, increase self-awareness, and develop practical tools for meaningful, authentic connection. Her work focuses on real-world application and empowering individuals to build lives aligned with their goals and values. Meredith also brings a neurodivergent perspective to her work, deepening her understanding of the individuals she supports.
Emily Walsh, MA, LPC-A
From Fixing to Understanding: What Autistic Adults Need From Their Families
Description: In this lived-experience–centered session, Emily Walsh shares her journey as an autistic adult and the ways her parents supported her both growing up and into adulthood. Through personal stories and research-informed strategies, this presentation helps family members better understand the autistic lived experience and offers practical, affirming ways to provide support that promotes autonomy, mental health, and authentic connection.
Speaker Biography: Emily Walsh is an Autistic adult and Licensed Professional Counselor Associate in South Carolina. She specializes in mental health therapy for Autistic and otherwise neurodivergent adults. Additionally, she runs The Autism Social Spectrum of Columbia, a monthly social hangout group for Autistic adults. She has worked in the Autism community since 2013, teaching Autistic individuals life skills, presenting all over the United States at conferences on her experience as an Autistic adult and topics related to Autism and independent living, and participated in multiple committees and councils related to advocating for the needs of the disability community.
Alex Watts, MSW
Sexual Communication, Sexual Exploration, and Autism
Description: This presentation aims to address the common misconception that autistic individuals do not want sex or may not have the capacity to through a review of literature, research and personal experience. Exploration of autistic autonomy and sexual communication structures posit that discussion and provision of resources to best support autistic individuals sexually and otherwise are essential in sexual health. Attendees should leave with knowledge about capacity to consent (and how to support capacity to consent), the importance of sexual education, and why creating alternative sexual structures for autistic individuals is important.
Speaker Biography: Alex Watts is a masters social worker who works in community behavioral health. Being a late-diagnosed autistic adult, understanding autism was an important focus in his collegiate career and led to four conference presentations on autism and BDSM. He is currently working on research illustrating connections between neurodivergence and chronic invalidation. Through his career as a social worker and autism advocate, Alex aims to increase understanding of differing sexual needs and communication structures, especially within the context of neurodivergence.
Camille Winningham and Jude Afolake Olobodun
Autistic Pride
Description: Autistic Pride Chattanooga exists to amplify, center, and empower autistic voices—especially in conversations about autism. This session explores the importance of autistic leadership and what changes when autistic people help shape decisions that impact their lives. Attendees will gain practical strategies to meaningfully include autistic voices in programs, services, and community spaces.
Speaker Biography: Camille Winningham is an autistic advocate and community organizer with a background in behavioral health, substance use treatment, and systems navigation. She began studying Psychology at Louisiana State University, got distracted, and ultimately earned a degree in Philosophy with a concentration in Religious Studies. Her career has included work in inpatient mental health, opioid treatment programs, and recovery support, informed by both professional training and over two decades of personal recovery. Identified as autistic later in life alongside her children, her work now focuses on advancing neuroaffirming practices, autistic leadership, and community-based support for autistic adults. Jude is Autistic Pride Chattanooga's Intersectional Justice Ambassador.