2008 Autism Expo Guest Speakers

Robert Parish is an award-winnint journalist with four nationally broadcast public TY documentaries about autism spectrum disorders to his credit. He has produced more than one hundred digital video projects about ASD for educational distribution and host a bimonthly program on Autism One Radio. Robert is also the host/creator of "In the Tank Cincinnati". Robert's son Jack has been an inspiration to him, his family, and many others. Thousands visit his educational website each month.

Julie Brant has been an RDI Program Consultant-in-training and the President of The Hope Source, Inc since 2006 . Relationship Development Intervention (RDI) is the product of an ongoing program of clinical development and research begun in 1996 by Dr. Steven Gutstein. Our mission is to produce powerful methods to remediate the core deficits of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Our goal is to provide individuals with ASD the cognitive, emotional, communicative, and social tools to obtain the quality of life, which their disorder typically deprives them of.

Tom Jacobs is a partner with Lutz, Cornetet, Meyer & Rush and has over fifteen years of experience as a litigator. Areas of concentration include education law, special education law, disability law, commercial litigation, contract law, labor & employment law, and construction law.
Tom's Special Education Law practice primarily involves the representation of disabled children and their parents. He also provides both consultative and mediation services to schools and gives presentations concerning Special Education Law throughout the Greater Cincinnati Area to parents, educators, and attorneys.

AndreaHansen received her Masters of Arts degree in Speech-Language Pathology at the University of Cincinnati (2006). Her interests include stuttering, phonology, autism, apraxia, alternative and augmentative communication, and early intervention. She enjoys using a child-directed therapy approach, built on the foundation of research based treatments and home programming. Andrea has provided services in individual treatment sessions in addition to co-treatments with physical and occupational therapists. She currently works in a private school with Applied Behavior Analysts (ABA) for children with autism and in private practice, treating a variety of disorders and age groups, including children with autism and children using PECs/AAC devices. Andrea is certified by American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) and licensed in the State of Ohio. In her spare time, she enjoys speed skating, hiking, swimming, and reading with her husband and family pets.