Kristen Gillespie-Lynch (Assistant Professor) received a Bachelor’s Degree in General Studies from Indiana University, an MA in Psychology from Queens College CUNY and a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from UCLA. Building upon her experiences working as a caregiver for children with autism, she examines the strengths and weaknesses associated with autism across the lifespan. By combining cross-sectional and longitudinal designs utilizing eye-tracking, behavioral coding, and surveys, she attempts to bridge the gap between conceptions of autism associated with the medical model and the neurodiversity movement.