Boston, MA, April 9th – 11th, 2025, with the Profound Autism Alliance. The Profound Autism Summit conference brings together leaders from the areas of research, medicine, treatment, advocacy, and education to discuss the needs and support of those with Profound Autism across disciplines and throughout the lifespan. lifespan.
Speakers include:
- Dilshad Ali – Dilshad D. Ali is a freelance editor and journalist and a senior columnist at Interfaith America magazine and at the Fetzer Institute. She writes on the intersection of faith, family and autism at The Muslimah Next Door. Ms. Ali has also worked in autism advocacy for more than two decades, as her eldest son is profoundly autistic.
- Shanna Bahry – Dr. Bahry is a board-certified, doctoral-level behavior analyst (BCBA-D), and licensed behavior analyst in Massachusetts (LABA) and Rhode Island (LBA). She has been working with individuals with autism spectrum and related disorders for over 15 years, across a wide range of ages, abilities, and severity of challenging behavior, in a variety of settings.
- James Bath, MD – Dr. James Bath is a board-certified Family Medicine Physician, serving patients with autism spectrum disorder and offering primary care services at the Lurie Center in Lexington, MA. Dr. Bath focuses on caring for patients of all ages through life’s many transitions with a collaborative approach.
- Cathy Boyle – Cathy Boyle is the president of Autism Housing Pathways. She served for over a decade as a commissioner of the Winchester (Massachusetts) Housing Authority and the Winchester Housing Partnership Board. Cathy has completed over 60 hours of housing counseling training through HUD-approved intermediaries.
- Colleen Brennan – Colleen was a carefree music and fine arts major at the University of Nebraska when she met her (former) husband. Five years after getting married, she delivered Matthew. She never anticipated that the next thirteen years of her life would be consumed by his profound autism. In those days there were not a lot of choices and like all of us, she scrambled from website to website, book to book and contact to contact trying to survive and help her child live a somewhat normal existence. When he passed due to complications caused by epilepsy, her marriage collapsed, and she once again had to scramble for survival.
- Dr. Timothy Buie – Senior Physician and Pediatric Gastroenterologist, Co-Director GI-Autism Clinic, Boston Children’s Hospital, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School. Timothy M. Buie, M.D. is a Senior Physician in the Pediatric Gastroenterology, Nutrition and Hepatology Department at Boston Children’s Hospital and Co-Director of the GI-Autism Clinic. Prior to that position, he worked in the pediatric gastroenterology department for 18 years at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children based in Boston, MA. He also served as the Director of Gastrointestinal and Nutrition at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Lurie Center for Autism. Dr. Buie is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He completed his training in Pediatric Gastroenterology at Yale University School of Medicine.
- Nathan Call – PhD, BCBA-D, has been at Marcus Autism Center since 2006, where he has held many positions as a clinician and leader of clinical programs. He currently serves as the Vice-President of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for Marcus Autism Center. Dr. Call is also a Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Chief of the Division of Autism & Developmental Health in the Emory University School of Medicine.
- Captain William A. Cannata, Jr – Westwood Fire Department. Bill is a retired member of the fire service after 35 years. Bill was an officer with the Westwood Fire Department for fifteen years, and a Massachusetts Fire Academy instructor for 15 years. Bill became a member of Autism and Law Enforcement Education Coalition (ALEC) in November 200, and in January of 2006, he became the statewide coordinator of ALEC. ALEC currently educates first responders in Massachusetts and other states about Autism Spectrum Disorder and how to better understand a person who is on the spectrum. Bill is also the parent of a child with ASD.
- For more speakers, please visit the link below.
To register or or more information visit www.profoundautismsummit.org/ or contact susan.parziale@profoundautism.org
