Nicky Palmer received her B.A (with honors) degree in Psychosocial Studies from the University of East London in the United Kingdom in 1996. She went on to secure a position as an Assistant Program Coordinator at the National Autistic Society in London, which enabled her to focus on ASD early on in her career. During her time at the NAS, Nicky examined the effects autism had on individuals and their families. She focused on developmental treatments to understand this complicated disorder, which has enabled her to support families to grow. Within the last ten years she has worked in California as a family consultant to provide treatment options and direct support to them. Nicky has also supported families in crisis, trained staff and provided professional consultation at various social service agencies. She has been employed at UCLA and FACT, supporting people to enhance their social emotional development.

In 2003, Nicky received her Masters Degree in Marital Family Therapy. She pursued her clinical training at Children’s Institute International to focus on mental health. Broadening her expertise enabled her to examine and treat mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. While obtaining her clinical training, she worked as a supervisor and MFT Intern for a private disability agency. Nicky is a Licensed Marital Family Therapist in the state of California.

Monique E. Lewis was born in southern California where she currently resides. She is presently a Ph.D. student of Marriage and Family Therapy in the department of Counseling and Family Sciences at Loma Linda University. She received her Master of Science degree in Marriage and Family Therapy in 2004 from LLU. Monique completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology and Social Behavior at the University of California, Irvine, with a minor in Cognitive Science, where she was a McNair Scholar. Monique has combined her interest in therapy with her love of dance by pursing supplemental educational courses in Alternative Training in Dance and Movement Therapy at Loyola Marymount in 2008. These efforts have resulted in the creation of Motivation through Movement, a movement program started by Monique that uses dance as a therapeutic means to inspire young minority children.

Her academic presentations span issues of cultural diversity, notions of gender within couple relationships, and familial well-being. Her publications include a co-authored article and a book chapter, Gendered Power in Cultural Contexts: Part II. African American Couples in Family Relations and Pulling Together: African American Couples Manage Social Inequalities in Couples, Gender, and Power: Creating Change in Intimate Relationships. Her current professional work focuses on families with a person diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and how they can utilize support services and parent consultation. Specifically, she aims is to improve the quality of life of minorities and other underprivileged groups directly impacted by ASD.

Monique’s current training, research interest and career goal can serve to assist minority and underserved families, impacted by ASD in identifying and acquiring support services.  She considers that as Marriage and Family Therapy focuses on the systemic implications of mental health conditions, that the field is ideally suited to provide culturally competent quality of care for minority and underprivileged families impacted by ASD.  Monique hopes that her efforts can serve as a model for how marriage and family therapists can best address the needs of the minority and underprivileged families and their autistic children. Her experience and studies have demonstrated that minority and underprivileged children with ASD and their families have unique needs and challenges, such as substance abuse, depression and anxiety that require specialized attention from the mental health community.  In particular, this group has limited access to effective treatment and quality services. Monique believes that specialized attention is therefore needed to remedy the disparities that continue to plague minority and underprivileged families dealing with ASD.

Joseph Mainez began his career with autism in 2003 at a private autism-focused agency.  He worked as a supervisor of staff, a social skills group leader, an adaptive skills specialist and was a vital part of the training of newer staff.  Joseph has spoken at and attended autism-oriented conferences, as well as, has become a Facilitated Communication trainer.  In January 2009, Joseph was awarded the Jim B. Gluthe award by the Autism Society of America Greater Long Beach/Whittier/San Gabriel chapter for outstanding contribution by an individual to the autism community.  In early 2009 he began as an autism specialist at ASD Consultancy and has assisted families and individuals age 3 through adult work to achieve their goals, cope with anxiety, communicate more effectively and organize themselves.  Joseph has received training and has practiced most intervention methods for ASD, including TEACCH, Floortime, Social Stories, Comic Strip Conversations, The Alert Program, and other functional communication strategies.  Joseph has recently joined the board for the Autism Society of America Greater Long Beach/Whittier/San Gabriel chapter and hopes to continue making a difference within this community.