Hi! My name is Ben. I am an education reform professional, disability rights advocate, and individual with Autism, and I work around the world to help develop collaborative solutions to issues of systemic change at the local, national, and international levels. I spend much of my time traveling between New York City, Valencia, Spain, and Istanbul, Turkey, working on a range of policy, technology, and development projects in the education sector. I offer professional consulting, research, training and program development services to individuals and organizations in developing community and peer-based support networks for marginalized groups.

I have worked in New York City for several years as a consultant to schools and organizations such as NYPS Special Education District 75, GRASP -- the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership, Brooklyn Special Needs Consulting, and the Brooklyn Center for the Independence of the Disabled, as well as private families and individual service providers, developing peer and community support groups to help children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders learn social skills important for building healthy relationships, strengthening independence, participating actively in their communities, and increasing their overall quality of life. I am able to benefit from my own experience with ASD by helping provide other professionals with a unique perspective when developing programs and reaching out to their own students, as well as acting as a positive role model for youth often confused and anxious about their own challenges of growing up with Autism. My hope is to help empower the youth I work with to develop their own internal communities of mutual support, by helping to develop and implement policy, technology, and institutional supports of such a network.

Currently, I am working towards my Ph.D in International Peace, Conflict, and Development Studies at the Universitad Jaume I, Spain, combining research on education reform efforts in Istanbul and throughout the Middle East with some of the projects I have worked on in New York over the past several years. This research will culminate in technology and policy proposals to help bridge some of the critical transitional gaps between school, work, and life that remain a major challenge to youth around the world, while providing a range of needed services and solutions to businesses, educational institutions, and communities around the world.

If you would like to learn more about any of the projects I am working on and how you or your organization can get involved, please take a look at my projects page or contact me for more information.

Thank you,

Ben Fox