Advisory Board

Dan Geschwind, Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine
Dr. Geschwind is director of the Neurogenetics Program and the Center for Autism Research and Treatment (CART) and co-director of the Center for Neurobehavioral Genetics at UCLA.

Charles Nelson III, Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Richard David Scott Chair in Pediatric Developmental Medicine Research Children's Hospital, Boston. His specific interests are concerned with the effects of early experience on brain and behavioral development, particularly as such experience influences the development of memory and the development of the ability to recognize faces. Nelson studies both typically developing children and children at risk for neurodevelopmental disorders, and he employs behavioral, electrophysiological (ERP), and metabolic (MRI) tools in his research.

Harvey Rubin, Public Relations Director
Certified tennis teaching professional since 2005 and former staff instructor at Cheviot Hills Sports Center. Eight years as USPTA official tour photographer and have volunteered with ACEing Autism for the past 16 months in LA.Because of my professional involvement with ATP and WTA tournaments, I have been able to secure a presence for ACEing Autism at tournaments in the way of booths and donations for our fundraisers.

Jason DeCosta, Social Media
After Jason earned his certificate from Grove School of Music in 1991, he decided to pursue his music ambitions which ultimately led to a major label signing (Island Def Jam & Geffen Records) with two of his bands (Hot Sauce Johnson & Rumblefish). Jason toured for over 4 years straight and visited more than 40 states. His songs have appeared in major motion pictures, TV, & international radio.  In 2001, Jason accepted the position of production manager and promotion director at the world famous Roxy Theatre in Hollywood.  In 2006, Jason was promoted to GM and handled a staff of over fifty employees. During the decade, Jason also did the marketing and graphics for the Viper Room, Malibu Inn, M productions and the Roxy.  Jason is an avid sports enthusiast and healthy lifestyle aficionado and was named “2006 NTRP Player of the Year” (Inside Tennis magazine) and won the Southern California NTRP Grand Prix tennis masters tournament two years in a row (2006-2007).

Lauren C. Lamanna, Speech-Language Pathologist, MS, CCC-SLP
Lauren received her Masters degree at Northeastern University in 2004.Throughout her career Lauren has provided speech, language, and social therapeutic services to children, of all ages, across a variety of clinical settings.  Lauren has a particular interest in functional language development of young children on the Autism Spectrum. While living in Rhode Island, Lauren worked with the birth-three population where she helped to develop play-based groups for children with ASD. Currently, she works at a private school in the Boston area, which specializes in educating children with Asperger’s Syndrome and other social-emotional and language based learning disabilities. On a personal note, Lauren is a life-long athlete and her husband is a collegiate tennis coach. ACEing Autism serves as a perfect venue for Lauren to combine her professional and personal interests.