Gyasi Burks-Abbott is a writer, public speaker, and autism self-advocate. He’s on the faculty of the LEND Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and UMass Boston’s Institute for Community Inclusion. LEND, which stands for Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities, is an interdisciplinary program that provides treatment for children with disabilities and training for healthcare professionals. Gyasi graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN with a BA in English and psychology, and he has an M.S. in Library and Information Science from Simmons University in Boston. As part of a fellowship at the Institute for Community Inclusion, Gyasi created a website of autism in adulthood resources. Recently, Gyasi collaborated on an article for the Developmental Disabilities Network Journal about remote meetings with legislators in D.C. called “Virtual Advocacy: Lived Experience Takes Center Stage During and After Pandemic.”He also contributed to the Association of University Centers on Disabilities Policy Blog: a short piece on what can be learned from the pandemic called “Disability in the Time of Corona” and some reflections on the intersectionality of being both black and autistic called “A Double Consciousness, If You Can Keep It.” In addition to serving on the Autism Society’s Strategic Planning Committee, Gyasi is also an advisor to the Advocates for Autism of Massachusetts, a Citizen member of the Massachusetts Developmental Disabilities Council, and a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Persons with Disabilities. He lives in Bedford, Massachusetts.