Ann Palmer has spent the last 20 years working in the field of autism as the Parent Support Coordinator for Division TEACCH and the Director of Advocacy and Chapter Support for the Autism Society of North Carolina. At TEACCH she developed a parent mentor program supporting over 800 families. At the ASNC she established support groups around the state and coordinated 50 groups of family members of individuals with ASD. She is currently a Family Faculty member at the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Ann is the parent of an adult son with autism. She lives in Cary, North Carolina.