|
Richard Spurling, President
& Founder
Richard was born in Sweden
and grew up in England and Belgium. He attended Florida Atlantic University where he played Division I tennis. For
the past ten years he has been teaching and managing tennis programs in Florida, Boston and Cape Cod. Richard earned
his MBA from Babson College where he focused on entrepreneurship. Richard and his family live in Los Angeles
CA where he has expanded ACEing Autism. He is married to Shafali Jeste and they have two young boys, Nischal and Kiran.
Shafali Spurling Jeste, Co-Founder Shafali grew up in La Jolla, California
where she enjoyed playing tennis for her high school team. She earned a BA in philosophy at Yale and then earned her MD from
Harvard Medical School. Her interest in child behavior led her to pursue a career in behavioral child neurology, with
a focus on developmental disorders such as autism. Her research, funded by NIH, is focused on understanding the brain
basis for autism and on identifying early markers of autism in infants. After completing her training at Children's Hospital,
Boston, she now works at UCLA and has continued to work in the Center for Autism Research and Treatment. She designed
ACEing Autism with her husband, Richard Spurling, after seeing first hand the tremendous need for adequate recreational services
and resources for children with autism. She is enthusiastic about expanding this successful program to the Los Angeles
area this year!
Vanessa
Vogel-Farley, Treasurer
and Director of Operations Vanessa grew up on a family dairy farm in
rural Wisconsin; she then went on to college at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, where she studied Chemistry, Biology
and French. She joined Dr. Charles Nelson's research lab during her
last year of undergraduate studies after completing a directed research project at the Center for Neurobehavioral Development.
This experience got her interested in the processes associated with brain development during the neonatal period into adolescence
and that factors that can affect normal development. Currently, she is the Clinical Research Coordinator for the Division
of Developmental Medicine Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, Children’s Hospital Boston, where she has the amazing
opportunity to work on Dr. Nelson's collaborations with scientists from MIT and Harvard examining several clinical populations,
including autism.
Charlotte (Ellie) Reece, Secretary and
Volunteer Recruitment
Ellie
grew up on a farm in the Midwest town of Columbia, MO where her mother ran a large Therapeutic Riding Program for adults and
kids. She was active in tennis throughout her youth and played all four years of high school. After her family
moved to Martha’s Vineyard, where she finished high school, she attended the University of Richmond where she received
a Bachelor’s in Sociology and Business Administration. Ellie began working at Children's Hospital Boston in the Neurology
Foundation in 2004 and received her Masters of Public Health from Tufts University School of Medicine in 2007. She is
currently the Practice Administrator for the Neurology Foundation at Children's Hospital Boston.
Mira
Tamir Spiegel, Program
Development
Mira brings a parent perspective to ACEing Autism. As the mother
of a daughter with autism, she understands the challenges associated with finding quality recreational programs that can bring
out the best in children on the autism spectrum. A lifelong tennis enthusiast, Mira played tennis and squash competitively
in college for Tufts University and spent many summers teaching tennis to children through the Park & Recreation Commission
in her hometown of Needham, MA. She has an MBA from the Roberto C. Goizueta Business School at Emory University and is currently
a Senior Director of Marketing Research for Imagitas, a Pitney Bowes Company. Mira and her husband, Rob, live in Needham with
their two young children, Zoe and Aaron.
Rachel
Richer, Program Development Rachel grew up in Trumbull, Connecticut. She attended Clark University where she received her Bachelor of Sociology
degree, specializing in Human Services. After college she moved to Boston where she managed a group home for adults
with special needs and them moved into an administrative position as Program Coordinator for Brandeis Women's Studies Program.
She currently lives in Framingham with her husband Daniel and children Max and Ella . Max was diagnosed with PDD-NOS
at 22 months and Rachel is very involved with his heavy schedule of activities and therapies with tennis being one of
the favorites as it is a great forum for his physical and social development. Lee Mavros Rushton, Volunteer Coordinator Lee grew up in Hanover, Pennsylvania, and played tennis on her high school team. She moved to Boston in 1998 to attend
Boston University, where she earned her B.A. in Psychology. She recently earned her Masters in Counseling
Psychology from Framingham State College. She is the Project Coordinator for the Simons Initiative on Autism and the Brain
at MIT, where she organizes recruitment, assessment of potential participants, and helps conduct testing of subjects, among
other things. Lee came to the SIAB from working in the direct service field providing therapy and training to children
with autism and their families and schools. She was trained in ABA at the New England Center for Children and worked
to perfect these skills and others in behavior-based and child-centered domains (ie Floortime, Verbal Behavior, Discrete Trial
Training, etc) at Educational Consultants of New England (now Milestones, Inc.).
Seth
Rogers, Volunteer Recruitment Seth was born and raised in Gainesville, Florida along with two brothers.
He is graduating this year from Brandeis University with a Bachelor's degree and is pursuing graduate school in psychology
next fall. Seth is captain of the Brandeis University Varsity Men's Tennis Team, wherein he has earned honors as a featured
athlete in the athletics department and university newspaper athlete of the week. Seth has served as co-president of
the Brandeis Student Athletics Advisory Commitee as well as a mentor and tutor to area middle school students. He has
also worked as the head tennis professional for the Squirrel Island Athletic Association in Squirrel Island, Maine.
Seth has been volunteering with ACEing Autism since its inception in the Fall of 2008.
Lindsey
Schantz, Grant Writer and Marketing
Lindsey Schantz
grew up outside of Boston and played tennis for Sharon High School. She continued her tennis career at Hamilton
College where she was the first Hamilton player to be named a Division 3 ITA All-American. After earning a BS in
psychology, with a focus on motivation, Lindsey's interests in tennis, psychology, and human motivation led her
to join the coaching ranks as the Assistant Men's and Women's Tennis Coach at Brandeis University. A master's degree
in the Psychology of Movement and Sport from The Pennsylvania State University followed, during which time Lindsey published
research on the impact of goals on athletic performance and examined youth sport involvement. Most recently, Lindsey
served as a HR Consultant and was responsible for leading research, publishing articles, and giving presentations on employee
development to Fortune 500 organizations. Her interest in the intersection of sports, business, and performance
makes her a great addition to the ACEing Autism board.
Michelle Lawrence, Webmaster Michelle grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. She attended the University
of Waterloo where she completed her Bachelor of Mathematics degree, specializing in Business Administration and Computer Information
Systems. After working in the Toronto financial industry as both a Computer Programmer and Business Architect she decided
to stay home and raise her children, Natalie and Sean. Sean was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and
developmental coordination disorder at age 3. In 2006, her family moved from the Toronto, Canada area to Needham, MA.
|
