Alison Singer

Alison Singer is Co-Founder and President of the Autism Science Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to funding innovative autism research and supporting the needs of people with autism. As the mother of a 28-year-old daughter with profound autism and legal guardian of her older brother with profound autism, she is a natural advocate. Singer served on the United States Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) for 12 years, where she chaired the Safety and Housing Workgroups, and served on the committee responsible for writing an annual strategic plan to guide federal spending for autism research. She currently serves as chair of the executive board of the Seaver Autism Center at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, as well as on the boards of the Yale Child Study Center, the Marcus Autism Center at Emory University, and the University of North Carolina Autism Research Center. She also serves on the external advisory board of the CDC’s Center for Developmental Disabilities and on the New York State Immunization Advisory Committee. In addition, Singer serves on the board of directors of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR) and chairs the INSAR Communications Committee. In 2012, the American Academy of Pediatrics named her an “autism champion.” In 2017 she received the INSAR “Outstanding Research Advocate” award and in 2018 she received the New York Families for Autistic Children Research Advocacy Award.

Prior to founding the Autism Science Foundation in 2009, she served as executive vice president of Autism Speaks and as a vice president at NBC. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale University with a B.A. in Economics and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 2020, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Emory University.

From 2018-2021 Alison served on the Board of Education of the Scarsdale Union Free Public School district, including 3 semesters as Vice President of the BOE. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the JCC of MidWestchester and as President of its Towards Tomorrow Special Education Pre-School.