Kari Dunn Buron Author & Editor

Kari Dunn Buron recently retired after 33 years of working as a special education teacher in the public schools. She received her master s of science degree from Illinois State University. Kari is the designer and coordinator of the autism spectrum disorders certificate program at Hamline University (a graduate program for educators) in the Twin Cities. She is one of the founding members of the MN Autism Network, a statewide network of ASD educational consultants. In Kari developed and continues to work as the coordinator for Camp Discovery, a camp for youth with Asperger Syndrome. In 2003, she received a Self-Designed Bush Leadership Fellowship that allowed her to spend a year interviewing and working with therapists and researchers in the area of social cognition and autism across the world. Kari has given national and international presentations on a variety of topics concerning ASD. She is currently working with the Hearing and Service Dogs of Minnesota to create guidelines for using dogs as co-therapists. Mitzi Beth Curtis is an autism resource specialist in Minnesota and serves as an adjunct instructor for Hamline University's autism certificate program. She has worked in special education, supported employment, and residential programs for individuals with disabilities since 1978. Her youngest sister, Maria, sent her on this journey with her birth in 1963.