Kristen Gillespie-Lynch

Kristen Gillespie-Lynch is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the College of Staten Island (CSI) and the CUNY Graduate Center. Dr. Gillespie-Lynch is the Director of CSI’s Advanced Certificate Program in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Building Bridges Project REACH, a participatory mentorship program for autistic college students at CSI. When they were still in graduate school, an autistic colleague, Dr. Steven Kapp, and Dr. Gillespie-Lynch did one of the earlier studies about the neurodiversity movement. One of the key findings from that study was that people on the autism spectrum recognize unique benefits of being autistic but also desire supports to help them adapt. Therefore, she is currently conducting participatory research, by collaborating with neurodivergent people, to adapt and evaluate programming to improve the lives of autistic people. Dr. Gillespie-Lynch leads and evaluates a mentorship program for autistic college students at CSI (Building Bridges Project REACH), an NSF-funded Game Design and Employment Workshop for autistic teenagers and young adults at Tech Kids Unlimited, and online autism trainings that have been used to increase autism understanding and acceptance among students and educators internationally. Dr. Gillespie-Lynch also does research about autistic identity development, the writing skills of autistic and non-autistic college students, and factors that shape stigma towards autistic people internationally.