Cultural Sensitivity in Autism: Q&A With Ashlee Yates Flanagan, PhD, Bridge to Faculty Trainee

By Kate Knab

Editor's Note: The Bridge to Faculty Program — created and facilitated by the Office of Academic Training and Outreach Programs — prepares diverse postdoc fellows and early-stage scientists for a tenure track faculty position.

In this Q&A, meet one of our 2024 Bridge to Faculty Trainees, Ashlee Yates Flanagan, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences under the mentorship of Julia Parish-Morris, PhD. Her research focuses on culturally sensitive methodologies in autism, Black mothering across contexts, and examining the role of policing of Black psychological development.

If you would like to apply for the 2025 Bridge to Faculty Program, see this announcement for complete eligibility requirements and application procedures. Submit your application via REDCap by Jan. 15, 2025.

Tell us about your background and what inspired you to choose a career in research and academia?

I attended Dillard University, which is a historically Black college and university in New Orleans, Louisiana, and majored in business. My parents have incredible work ethic and instilled concepts anchored in independence and hard work into me as a child, so I felt choosing business would help me make money to sustain myself. 

Reflecting on my undergraduate experience as an emerging adult, I knew if I could have chosen any major based on passion, it would have been psychology. When I was accepted to New York University (NYU) for my master’s in counseling, I met a mentor who gave me great advice and encouraged me to follow my passions in terms of research questions. I joined research labs focused on the psychological developmental experiences of Black youth and children, while training to be a clinician, and once I graduated from NYU, I worked full-time as a researcher during the day. In the evenings, I worked as a therapist where I pursued my clinical hours for licensure.

After a few years of working as researcher and therapist, I joined the School Psychology doctoral program at Tulane University, and that's where I cut my teeth on understanding research design from a leadership perspective as a principal investigator, which deepened my research experience. 

In my fourth year as a PhD student, I completed a practicum at The Autism Center at Children’s Hospital of New Orleans. I found myself engulfed in autism research and the clinical assessment of autism. There's this saying in the autism field that if you've met one person on the spectrum, you've only met one person. I find that still to be true. The heterogeneity of autism fuels my curiosity, and that catapulted me into autism clinical work and research at CHOP.

It's a competitive and rigorous path to professorship. How will the Bridge to Faculty Program help you navigate it?

I was afforded a wonderful opportunity through the Diversity Fellowship in Academic Science through CHOP, which has given me protected research time. 

My research productivity has grown because I've had the opportunity to focus on my own research questions. I've done more talks, more guest lectures, and produced more papers. I'm feeling quite prepared to go into a faculty role, and the Bridge to Faculty Program provides me with more support from an expert level to obtain a faculty position successfully. 

I have amazing mentors. Their insights help shape my decisions as an early career researcher. I think many would say that the path toward faculty can be isolating because you’re in your own head a lot. To be able to open up and talk to people within your network is incredibly helpful from a mentorship perspective.

As an early career researcher, you may not always have access to such senior and deeply accomplished faculty without a program infrastructure like Bridge to Faculty. It’s been an amazing opportunity to have mentors including David Mandell, ScD, a leader in the autism research community at the University of Pennsylvania; Brian Boyd, PhD, the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of Education; Elizabeth Drame, PhD, a professor of Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee; Wanjiku Njoroge, MD, a psychiatrist and Medical Director of the Young Child Clinic at CHOP; Jami Young, PhD, a clinical psychologist and Associate Chair of Research in the Department Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; and Julia Parrish Morris, PhD, a senior-principal scientist in the Center for Autism Research.

What led you to choose a research focus in autism and cultural sensitivity? What do you aim to achieve with your research?

I specialized in clinical autism work before I got into autism research, and I wanted to have my clinical efforts mirror my research efforts. I also knew from research that Black autistic youth are severely understudied. I spent years looking at racial socialization and racial identity development from a qualitative perspective, but there was a wide gap in knowledge and a strong need to explore those topics in Black autistic youth.

In terms of my research projects, one of the things that we are trying to improve on and what leaders in the field are calling for is more culturally responsive research, especially in autism, and more culturally sensitive research in other understudied populations. 

I’ve studied the historical development of policing in the United States for years, and we know there is a complex relationship between law enforcement and Black communities in this country. There is also a complex relationship between law enforcement and individuals with disabilities and diverse individuals. We need to understand what kinds of interactions Black autistic youth are having with police, what their concerns are, and how to improve interactions between Black autistic youth and law enforcement. I recently completed the largest published qualitative study to date in the United States that focuses on the experiences of Black autistic youth with police officers. The study incorporates narratives from 43 caregivers about their concerns for Black autistic children when they interact with the police, what they're hopeful for, and what they think some solutions could be for more effective policing. The findings were recently published in Autism, and I'm excited to translate our knowledge from the lab into the community by meeting with police officers, meeting with City Council members here in Philadelphia, and thinking through ways that we can create better trainings for officers.

This is the first study of its kind to be published, but I'm confident it will not be the last. It is imperative that we continue to examine and understand these underrepresented experiences from the autistic lens.

What have you enjoyed most from your experience so far in the Bridge to Faculty Program?

The mentorship. I have an excellent career mentorship committee, which has been pivotal in my professional development and my research design and implementation.

I have received helpful advice ranging from learned lessons from their careers, considerations about expectations and negotiations, to concrete support and collaborative efforts on research concepts and grants. Additionally, my primary research mentor, Dr. Parish-Morris, has modeled mentorship in a way that consistently inspires how I hope to mentor others. Specifically, as a mentor, I hope to move in authenticity, amplify underrepresented voices, promote and credit others’ expertise and research, provide opportunities to advance trainees while also guiding them through the opportunities, and lean into professional and scientific ambition.

How do you recharge and reset after you leave campus?

Spending time with my family is an immediate reset. Getting home and playing with my daughter and hearing about her day, makes my day, every day. Additionally, I enjoy playing tennis and going for walks in my neighborhood with my family. Philadelphia has beautiful architecture and murals that I enjoy walking past and admiring.

Where do you see yourself professionally in the next five years and in the long term?

My long-term career goal is to become an independent researcher and a community change agent and collaborator. Regarding research, my program utilizes culturally responsive qualitative methodologies and mixed methods to investigate phenomena related to autism, Black identity development, and Black mothering. I aim to improve and develop methodological screening tools and approaches to better engage and serve underrepresented families in research, especially in autism research, and to develop representational research on Black autistic experiences to inform future screening tools and interventions.