Medical and Science Advisory Committee

Members of the Autism Speaks Medical and Science Advisory Committee’s expertise spans the field’s broad range of research. Their work includes advances in behavioral interventions, medicine development, the treatment of autism-related health conditions, and the genetic and environmental factors that influence autism.

The committee plays a pivotal role in reviewing research proposals and providing guidance to further Autism Speaks’ mission to be a catalyst for life-enhancing research breakthroughs by advancing research into causes and better interventions for autism spectrum disorder and related conditions.

Committee Chair

Thomas W. Frazier, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychology, John Carroll University

Committee Members

Brian Boyd, Ph.D., director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project, associate professor in the Department of Applied Behavioral Science, University of Kansas

Joseph Buxbaum, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry, neuroscience and genomic sciences, and director of the Seaver Autism Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Edwin Cook, M.D., professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, University of Illinois, Chicago

Daniele Fallin, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Mental Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Stelios Georgiades, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences and co-director of the McMaster Autism Research Team, McMaster University

Connie Kasari, Ph.D., professor of human development and psychology in the Graduate School of Education & Information Studies and the Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences, Semel Institute, University of California, Los Angeles

Catherine Lord, Ph.D., director of the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain, Weill Cornell Medicine

Herbert Pardes, M.D., executive vice chairman of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital Board of Trustees

Vikram Patel, Ph.D., M.B.B.S., Pershing Square professor of global health and Wellcome Trust principal research fellow, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; professor in the Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; co-founder and member of Managing Committee, Sangath

Joseph Piven, M.D., director of the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities, University of North Carolina

Stuart Savitz, founder of the Law Offices of Stuart M. Savitz LLC

Stephen Shore, Ed.D., clinical assistant professor at the Amman School of Education, Adelphi University

Jeremy Veenstra-VanderWeele, M.D., director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeon