2024 Conversation on Ageing: Understanding, embracing and supporting Neurodiversity as we age

Speaker 1: Professor Sandra Thom-Jones

Sandra Thom-Jones, MBA, MPH, PhD is an autistic author, artisan, academic and advocate. She is the author of Growing in to Autism (MUP, 2022) and Autistics in Academia (Cambridge University Press, 2024), and a passionate champion for the inclusion of autistic people in all aspects of society. Sandra worked for more than two decades in the university sector as a researcher and senior leader, most recently as Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research Impact at ACU. She now works as a consultant providing a range of services for autistic people – as well as professional development, research and consultancy services for education, employment and healthcare providers – through her website Autistic Professor. She is also an Honorary Professor at the University of Wollongong. Sandra has undertaken numerous research projects in partnership with the autistic community on the experiences of autistic people, and the knowledge and attitudes towards autism in the broader community; including research that won the Autism CRC’s 2019 and 2021 awards for research translation and 2022 award for inclusive research.

Speaker 2: Professor Mark Bellgrove

Mark Bellgrove is Deputy Head of School (Research) and a Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience in the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University. He is also Co-Chair of Monash Neuroscience, a university-wide collective of over 600 neuroscience researchers. At Monash he leads a multidisciplinary team studying the biological basis of attention and cognitive control. His research achievements have been recognized with awards from NARSAD (USA), the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia and Biological Psychiatry Australia. In 2021 he was elected to Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia (FASSA). In 2021 he was also recognised as Supervisor of the Year within the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University. In 2023 he was awarded the Vice Chancellor's prize for Research Engagement and Impact for the development of Australia's first NHMRC-approved clinical practice guideline for ADHD.

His programme of research is funded by both the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and Australian Research Council (ARC). He currently holds an NHMRC L2 Investigator Grant. In 2016 he founded the Australian ADHD Professionals Association (AADPA), an interdisciplinary group devoted to advancing evidence-based diagnosis and treatment of ADHD in Australia. He recently led the development of the Australian evidence-based clinical practice guideline for ADHD, following an NHMRC approved process (approved October, 2022).

Read our media release about this Conversation on Ageing

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