Congratulations to Dr. Sean Cleary, selected as the 2020 Nashman Center Community Engaged Faculty of the Year.
Dr. Cleary has over ten years of experience in community engaged scholarship, including teaching and research. For example, through the Adelante Center, he and other GW faculty and students worked with recently arrived immigrants from Central America. This included youth development programs as well as programs that helped parents find resources and develop a supportive network among themselves.
Cleary's more recent work has involved partnership with a community of young autistics and their families and caregivers.
A team consisting of twelve non-speaking autistic young adults, their families, their therapists from Growing Kids Therapy Center, and five faculty (three from GWU, two from other institutions) began meeting regularly to discuss possible initiatives with GW. The focus of these initiatives is to give non-speaking autistic young adults and their families a voice in the development of new research, courses, and innovative projects aimed at supporting the transition from adolescence to adulthood for community members who are autistic.
The first success of this partnership is a new course at GW, PUBH 6299: The Autism Experience: A Public Health Perspective, taught by Cleary. The community team of young autistics worked with Dr. Cleary over the course of a year to have input in the content and design of the course. The twelve adults with autism (and a few others) attend the class regularly as participants , discussing issues such as education, employment, independent living, healthcare, and family support. The GW students in the course deepened their relationships further, through individual service-learning at GKTC and SPARC. Through these relationships, the GW students then collaboratively design and implement research and advocacy projects, using a CBPR framework. Many of these projects have been recognized by Nashman Center awards.
Donna Tonini Budway, the Volunteer/Intern Coordinator with Specially Adapted Resource Club (SPARC) where many of Cleary's students volunteer shared the following:
Participating in the course at GWU has had a tangible impact on the 15 non-speaking autistic young adults that were invited to participate in the course. From the beginning, the young adults were involved in the development of the course through a series of meetings to decide on topics to be covered and which sessions they would like to attend. Topics selected were of great relevance and interest to our community, e.g. housing, employment, current research and perspectives of autism around the world. In addition to the classroom lectures and opportunity to participate, our students were also encouraged to dive into the curriculum and assignments with the GWU students. Weekly readings and the invitation to blog and discuss the topics each week gave our autistic students a unique opportunity to share their insights and experiences with their neurotypical peers.
One extraordinary outcome from the course was the engagement the GWU students with our community outside of the classroom.... During spring break, one student arranged to take a group of the autistic students for a tour of the campus. Another student initiated an opportunity to receive training on the letterboard and other assistive technology utilized by this group of students. Not only has the participation of the GWU students greatly enhanced our classroom experience at SPARC, but the opportunity to be on campus and engage with the student body at GWU has been nothing short of life altering.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, participating in the course provided a voice for members of the community to be shared with the students and faculty, giving them influence on the direction of research that affects them. We are very grateful to have been part of this amazing collaboration. As one of the autistic students shared at the end of the semester in response to the student presentations, “I feel hopeful that there is an increased understanding of our population.”
Listen to a podcast about this course.
View the Nashman course report.
GWToday Article on The Autism Experience
Read a 2018 interview with Cleary in this Faculty Spotlight Blog post
- Aiswarya Bulusu, second place winner of the 2019 Nashman Prize for Community Based Participatory Research: "Dental health assessment in autistic youth: Results from a national study of children’s health"
- Carly Cox, winner of the Fall 2020 Symposium on Community Engaged Scholarship Audience Choice Award: "How the Mental Health system Can Better Serve Young Adults with Autism"
- Sydney Bornstein, recipient of the Fall 2020 Symposium Exemplar Award: "Transition to Adult Healthcare Among Non-Speaking Autistic Young Adults"
