Dena Gassner, MSW; Ph.D. Candidate Dena is a Ph.D. candidate in Social Work at Adelphi and is in her 6th year as an adjunct at Towson University in Health Sciences. She is an appointed member of the Review Board for the Autism Intervention Research Network in Physical Health (AIR-P) and is a member of the AIR-P Gender, Sexuality, and Healthcare Node with UCLA. Her GS&H team is presenting at the May INSAR international conference in Stockholm, addressing maternity and autism. She is completing her second year as an appointed member of the federal Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) advising the White House on autism funding priorities for research. With AASET, she has published three PCORI publications. She will return to this work with UNC as the Study Staff Training Coordinator and as the Implementation Outcome Assessor examining cognitive behavioral therapy versus mindfulness to address autistic suicide. She has published multiple book chapters and journal articles and her presentations include NYU London, The United Nations (Geneva and US), Cambridge, University of Birmingham, Russia, Fonden Samrådet-Denmark and Scotland among other places. In 1999 she was awarded the Cathy Pratt Professional of the Year Award from the Autism Society of America.