History

The Neurodiversity Initiative began with the creation of Tuesday Night Flight in 2014 by Linda Holloway, Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation and Health, Lisa Deer, graduate student, and Traci Cihon, associate professor of behavior analysis.  This was first an adult-led support group and later became a student organization. 

Conversations between John Murphy and UNT president Neal Smatresk, and also with Dr. Holloway, Lauren Mathews, and other members of the advisory council, resulted in several training sessions for faculty and staff over the past several years on topics such as making faculty searches more accessible to neurodivergent candidates and working effectively with neurodivergent colleagues.

With the support of President Smatresk, Holloway, Mathews, Lisa Deer, and graduate student Shanielle Henslee created the UNT ENGAGE program, with funding from the Texas Workforce Commission, to provide support for neurodivergent students during their studies and career placement help.

Holloway, Mathews, Lucy Gafford, director of UNT WISE, Shahla Ala’i, associate professor of behavior analysis, and graduate students Grayson Butcher and Alex Davidson developed Blue Zone Training to help faculty and staff members work more effectively with students and colleagues who may be on the autism spectrum.

Pres. Smatresk's support enabled us to invite Dr. Margaret Price to speak on campus in Sept. 2018.

In 2019, Pres. Smatresk endorsed Holloway and Murphy as co-coordinators of the Neurodiversity Initiative with the goal of ensuring that neurodiversity is included in campus-level discussions of diversity. In spring 2019, Murphy started the Spectrum Support and Self-Advocacy Group for faculty and staff members who are on the autism spectrum. With the support of Pres. Smatresk, other administrators, and the faculty of the division he chairs, Murphy went public in spring 2019 about his autism spectrum diagnosis. This aligns this initiative with the spirit of "nothing about us without us," which means that organizations involved in autism research, awareness, and support should include autistic people. 

Related to this initiative are UNT's ongoing efforts to encourage collaboration among autism researchers in a variety of academic departments and UNT's Kristen Farmer Autism Center.

Another goal of the initiative is to promote discussion about a new interdisciplinary minor in disability studies.