Who We Are

Board of Directors

Jill Escher

President

Jill is an autism research philanthropist (Escher Fund for Autism), real estate investor who provides low-income housing for adults with developmental disabilities, former lawyer, and mother of two children with nonverbal autism. In her role as an advocate, she is past president of the board for Autism Society San Francisco Bay Area and, in her role as a promoter of innovative research has served on the governing council of the Environmental Mutagenesis and Genomics Society. She loves hiking with her son and ice skating and skiing with her daughter, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Amy Lutz, PhD

Vice President

Amy S.F. Lutz is an advocate and writer based in Pennsylvania. Amy's work has been featured in The Atlantic, Slate and Babble, among others, and she writes about autism at Inspectrum for Psychology Today. She is also the author of Each Day I Like It Better. She is one of the founders of EASI Foundation: Ending Aggression and Self-Injury in the Developmentally Disabled, and her advocacy has taken her before the FDA, IACC (Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee) and ISEN (International Society for ECT and Neurostimulation. Dr. Lutz was awarded a PhD in History and Sociology of Science at University of Pennsylvania in 2022. She is the mother of five children, one of whom has a severe form of autism.

Gloria M. Satriale, , Ed.D, JD, LBS-PA, ACRE, QM, MCPP

Secretary

Based in Pennsylvania, Dr. Gloria Satriale is President of Mission for Educating Citizens with Autism and the Executive Director of Preparing Adolescents and Adults for Life (PAAL), a unique community-based educational transition program for teens and comprehensive habilitation and residential program for adults diagnosed with ASD. Dr. Satriale presents and trains nationally and internationally on a wide variety of educational and instructional issues affecting autism and has particular expertise in Applied Behavior Analysis, Community Based Instruction, and assessing and increasing quality of life and happiness in severely affected individuals with autism. Dr. Satriale has served as a consultant to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Department of Education, Office of Dispute Resolution, the Advisory Panel for Access and Aging for AT&T, and many advocacy and educational programs. Dr. Satriale has held a Gubernatorial Appointment to the Advisory Committee to the Governor’s Cabinet on Disabilities for Pennsylvania and was an appointed participant in the White House Summit on Autism under President Obama. She has testified before committees of Congress and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania legislature. She currently serves as Secretary to the Board of the National Council for Severe Autism. Dr. Satriale is a practicing attorney and fifteen-year veteran of the United States Department of Justice who has served as a Special Education Due Process Hearing Officer. Dr. Satriale holds adjunct faculty positions at two universities teaching master's and doctoral level students in coursework relating to clinical best practices in autism, ABA, and special education law. She is a Licensed Special Education Teacher, Licensed Behavior Specialist in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is Board Eligible for the National Certification as a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst and holds a number of other clinical certifications including certification as a trainer of crisis prevention and intervention techniques from the Marcus Center for Autism. Dr. Satriale wrote and produced the advocacy video "A Voice for Severe Autism" which is critically acclaimed. Dr. Satriale’s second of five children, Nick, now 32, is severely affected by autism.

Denise Lombardi

Treasurer

Denise Lombardi is the parent of a sixteen-year-old son with autism and multiple disabilities, as well as the sister of a person with multiple disabilities. She is Founder and President of the Hurleyville General Store, a business based in upstate New York that focuses on improving economic opportunities for people with disabilities. She currently serves as a stakeholder advisor on multiple autism related councils including SPARK for Autism Community Advisory Council and Participant Access Committee, and Columbia University Center of Excellence in ELSI Research (PNB Genetics). She formerly served as Finance Chair of the NYS Association for Behavior Analysis as well as a member of the NYS OPWDD Request for Proposals Review Committee, and as a member of the Long Island Family Support Services Advisory Council. Prior to founding the store, Lombardi worked as a certified public accountant.

Alison Singer

Member

Alison Singer is Co-Founder and President of the Autism Science Foundation, a non-profit organization based in New York City dedicated to funding innovative autism research and supporting the needs of people with autism. As the mother of a 20-year-old daughter with autism and legal guardian of her older brother with autism, she is a natural advocate. Since 2007, Singer has served on the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC), which is charged with writing an annual strategic plan to guide federal spending for autism research. She serves on the executive boards of the Yale Child Study Center, the Seaver Autism Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the Marcus Autism Center at Emory University, and the University of North Carolina Autism Research Center, as well as on the external advisory board of the CDC’s Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, the New York State Immunization Advisory Committee, and the Simons Foundation SPARK advisory board. In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics named her an “autism champion.”  In 2017 she received the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) “Outstanding Research Advocate” award. Singer serves on the board of directors of INSAR and chairs the INSAR Communications Committee. Prior to founding the Autism Science Foundation in 2009, she served as executive vice president of Autism Speaks and as a vice president at NBC.

Lisa Parles

Member

Lisa McCauley Parles is a partner in the Springfield, New Jersey law firm Parles Rekem, LLP and the parent of a 28 year old with severe autism.  Her practice focuses on representing individuals with disabilities and their families in the areas of special education, transition and adult services, residential placements and guardianships.  In addition to representing individuals with disabilities and their families, she has also represented numerous not for profit organizations in the disabilities community.

Lisa is a frequent lecturer and has appeared in a number of broadcasts, including Nightline and World News Tonight. She has participated as a panelist and moderator for numerous continuing legal education seminars. Lisa was an invited expert on the United States General Accountability Office’s panel in Washington, D.C. entitled “Youth With Autism – Transitioning to Adulthood” in 2016.  She has also been an invited speaker before the New Jersey State Senate Legislative Oversight Committee as well as the New Jersey State Assembly Human Services Committee.  She was an invited speaker at the United Nations for World Autism Awareness Day 2017.   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWMrvr18EvY).  She successfully advocated for changes to New Jersey’s Statewide Transition Plan in order to ensure that a full array of services and choices are available to the developmentally disabled.

Lisa served as the Director of the Leadership Studies Program at Seton Hall University Stillman School of Business and an adjunct Professor in both the undergraduate and MBA programs.  She began her career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Sex Crimes/Special Victims Bureau of the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.  She earned her B.A. with honors from Hamilton College and her J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law-Newark where she served as a General Editor of the Law Review.

Lee Elizabeth Wachtel, MD

Member

Lee E. Wachtel, MD, is the medical director and an attending child psychiatrist of the Neurobehavioral Unit at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. She also directs consultation-liaison psychiatry services for the Rehabilitative Unit. She is an associate professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Maysoon Salah

Member

Eileen Lamb

Member

Eileen Lamb, author of "All Across The Spectrum" and “Be The One,” is the founder of The Autism Cafe. She’s also a writer, photographer, and podcast host. Born in France, Eileen now lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and two sons, Charlie (8) and Jude (6). On her blog, she shares the ups and downs of raising a severely autistic child while being on the autism spectrum herself.

Arthur Westover, MD

Member

Arthur Westover, MD, is an associate professor and outpatient psychiatrist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where he is the Director of Adult Autism Services.

Shaji Haq, Ph.D., BCBA-D, NCSP

Member

Dr. Haq is Director, Severe Behavior Services Department, Easterseals Southern California

Lori Ireland

Member

Lori Ireland is the mother of a young man with profound autism, and is the president of the Ireland Family Foundation.