Jan Blacher, Ph.D., SEARCH Director, is a nationally known family researcher, advocate, and columnist, developed her vision for the SEARCH Center based on more than 30 years of research with hundreds of Southern California families who had children with ASD and other developmental disabilities, many of whom were Spanish-speaking. Her research has resulted in better understanding of family adjustment, and of how behavioral challenges, common in autism, affect families. Notably, her research focuses on positive as well as negative impacts on families.  Recent work includes: 1)  Smooth Sailing, a teacher-directed intervention to improve student-teacher relationships with young children with ASD; 2) Understanding Mental Health Impact of the Transition to Adulthood; 3) The documentary film, Autism Goes To College, based on the Autism 101 project at SEARCH.

Katherine Stavropoulos, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Special Education in the Graduate School of Education at UC Riverside, and the Assistant Director of SEARCH. Dr. Stavropoulos conducts translational studies to explore the reward system in ASD, as well as how anxiety contributes to social deficits in ASD. Recent work includes: 1) Measuring brain activity before and after a behavioral intervention for teens with ASD; 2) Studies of social motivation and anxiety in young children (ages 3-6) and school-aged children (ages 7-12) with and without ASD. Dr. Stavropoulos is a licensed clinical psychologist and helps train PhD students in administration and interpretation of screening measures for ASD.

Elizabeth Baker, B.A., is a doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UCR, specializing in the identification of neural correlates of social communication and reward processing in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). She earned her B.A. in sociology and psychology from UCLA. Currently, Liz is examining neural differences in reward processing in adolescents with ASD to measure treatment efficacy. Additionally, she is interested in developing ways to integrate qualitative research to further inform her work, such as stakeholder perspectives. Of particular interest to her is understanding how caregiver expectations inform adaptive functioning in late childhood.

Giselle Berenice Salinas, B.A., is a fifth-year doctoral student in the Special Education program at UCR. Giselle previously earned her B.A. in Psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills where she worked on a research project focused on the support and family involvement of university students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Her research interests focus on the transition to adulthood of individuals with ASD specifically the college experience, support systems, and the Latinx and Spanish speaking family experiences. She is currently involved in the Collaborative Family Study (CFS) exploring the transition period of young adults transitioning from high school into adulthood.

Michelle Heyman, B.A., is a fourth-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UCR, focusing on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Michelle previously earned her B.A. in Psychology and minored in Neuroscience at the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to working at the SEARCH Family Autism Resource Center, Michelle worked as a Lab Coordinator at the Center for Autism and the Developing Brain (CADB); where she worked with minimally verbal children with ASD within an intervention-focused study. Michelle has experience in both assessments and intervention with school-aged children with ASD. She is currently working on the Smooth Sailing Research Study and conducting assessments within the SEARCH clinic.

Tricia Choy, B.A., is a fourth-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UCR. Prior to joining the SEARCH Center, she was a lab manager at the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Lab at Columbia University studying socio-emotional and brain development in children with early caregiver adversity. She was also a research assistant and behavioral coach at UCLA PEERS Clinic, an evidence-based social skills intervention for youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other social difficulties. Tricia earned her B.A. in Psychology from UCLA. Her research interest focuses on underlying neural correlates related to social skills and empathy development and how the family unit impacts socialization in youth with ASD. She is involved in the Smooth Sailing research project exploring the transition into early schooling for young children with ASD.

Katie Fullerton, B.A., is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Special Education program at UCR. Katie previously earned her B.A. in both English and Psychology at UC Berkeley, working in developmental psychology research labs, such as the Language and Cognitive Development Lab with Dr. Mahesh Srinivasan and the Gopnik Cognitive Development Lab with Dr. Alison Gopnik. After graduating, Katie worked for a non-profit organization for nearly five years as a behavior interventionist, providing Applied Behavior Analysis to children with ASD and their families. During this time, she was also a study manager and research assistant on research projects targeting abduction prevention with children with ASD as well as variables in services provided to clients that achieve optimal outcomes on standardized assessments. She is currently involved in the Smooth Sailing research project, exploring transition into school for young children with ASD and a teacher-directed intervention to improve student-teacher relationships to aid the transition.

Chanel Nettle, M.A., is a forth-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UCR. Chanel previously earned her B.A. in Psychology with a double-minor in Applied Developmental Psychology and Disabilities Studies at UCLA. At UCLA, Chanel was a research assistant at the Childhood Anxiety, OCD, and Tic Disorders program and was a child development intern at UCLA's Early Childcare and Education center. After graduating, Chanel worked at UCLA as the clinic coordinator and research lead for UCLA's Parenting and Children's Friendship program, as well as a therapist for UCLA's Early Childhood Partial Hospitalization program. She also worked as a private in-home behavioral interventionist and as a therapist at a Speech and Language Pathology clinic. She is currently involved in the IES-funded Smooth Sailing intervention project (Blacher, P.I.), working with general education teachers in the early grades who have autistic children in their classrooms. She is also the media/outreach coordinator for the documentary Autism Goes to College. 

Hayley McAvoy, M.A., is a forth-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UCR, focusing on research involving autistic students. Hayley earned her B.A. in Psychology at UCLA with minors in Applied Developmental Psychology and Disability Studies. Prior to UCR, she worked with children with ASD in a variety of settings: as a therapist at the Early Childhood Partial Hospitalization Program at UCLA, as an in-home therapist, as a behavior technician, as a therapist for a Speech and Language clinic, and, most recently as a paraeducator in an inclusive elementary school. Her research interests revolve around education/training for teachers, paraprofessionals, and parents of autistic students.  Currently, she is involved in the IES-funded Smooth Sailing intervention project (Blacher, P.I.), examining the relationship between teachers and their autistic students.

Katharine 'KOB' O'Brien, Ed.M., is a third-year doctoral student in the Special Education program at UCR. Katharine previously earned her B.A. in Biochemistry and East European/Eurasian Studies at Bowdoin where she worked on a research project on mRNA transport proteins within pathenogenic fungi.  After working in biomedical research, KOB pivoted into teaching, earning her Ed.M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education before spending seven years as a teacher in general and special education science classrooms, including five years at a therapeutic day school for students with autism.  Her current research interests derive from her autistic lived experience, and are focused on adolescent assessment, the transition to college and career, and incorporating the neurodiversity paradigm into academia. 

Cameron Alexander, B.S., is a third-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at the University of California, Riverside. He holds a B.S. in Human Development, with minors in Education and Psychology, from the University of California, Davis and a M.A. in Education (School Psychology) from University of California, Riverside. Prior to joining SEARCH, Cameron served as a research coordinator and lab manager for an Institute of Education Sciences grant at the UC Davis School of Education and MIND Institute Collaborative Autism Research in Education (CARE) Lab. His research interests include utilizing biomarkers and neurological activity as tools for the early detection of autism in young children. He is also interested in the use of biomarkers to better understand and measure emotion regulation in children with varying neurodevelopmental disabilities. 

Megan Ledoux, M.A., BCBA, is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Special Education program at UCR, focusing on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and a graduate student researcher at the SEARCH Family Autism Resource Center. Megan earned her M.A. in Special Education with an emphasis on Autism from San Diego State University. While earning her M.A., Megan served as a researcher and coach for the CSESA Project (Center on Secondary Education for Students with Autism), collaborating with high school educators to support their students with autism in the classroom. Her current research interests continue in the area of  the transition from high school to adulthood with emphasis on mental health outcomes, as well as working on the team to assess the impact of a teacher-directed intervention for improving student-teacher relationships.

Ann Marie Martin, B.S., is a fifth-year doctoral student in the Special Education program at UCR and is currently a graduate student researcher at the SEARCH Family Autism Resource Center. She previously earned her B.S. in Psychology from UCSD. Ann Marie is a bilingual assessor and has experience in assessment and intervention for school-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Ann Marie's research interests include minority culture, bilingualism, language acquisition, and ASD.

Yasamin Bolourian, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside, where she also earned her Ph.D. in Special Education, specializing in Autism Spectrum Disorders.  Dr. Bolourian completed the UC-LEND progam, designed to develop leaders in the field of autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities across the lifespan. In addition, she has extensive training in autism screening and assessments at the SEARCH Center. Her research focuses on examining outcomes of college students on the autism spectrum, as well as co-occurring mental health issues among youth with autism. Her postdoctoral work involves developing and piloting a three-component teacher-focused program that promotes positive relationships for general education teachers and their students with autism in early school years (PI: J. Blacher).

Ainsley Losh, B.S., is a fifth-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UCR. Ainsley previously earned her B.S. in Neuroscience and English from the University of Michigan. Prior to joining the SEARCH Family Autism Resource Center team, she worked at the University of Michigan STEPS Autism Treatment Program as an SLP clinical assistant and served as the research coordinator for the TRANSCEND Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital studying functional connectivity in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) using MEG neuroimaging. She is currently involved in the Smooth Sailing research project exploring the transition into early schooling for young children with ASD, and the development of a teacher-directed intervention to improve this transition.

Elina Veytsman, B.A., is a fifth-year doctoral student in the School Psychology program at UCR, specializing in social skills interventions for adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorder. Elina is a graduate student researcher at the SEARCH Family Autism Resource Center, where she facilitates the UCR PEERS for Teens social skills groups. She was previously the clinic coordinator of the UCLA PEERS Clinic. Elina completed the UCLA/UCR LEND (Leadership and Education in Neurodevelopment Disabilities) fellowship program in 2018. She earned her B.A. in psychology with a minor in education from UCLA. Her current research projects include examining the effects of the PEERS intervention with Latino families of teens with ASD, and investigating the family and youth experience during the transition to adulthood for young adults with ASD and intellectual disabilities (Collaborative Family Study).