Meet Professor Dawn Adams, the newly-appointed Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre Endowed Chair.
Professor Dawn Adams, a leading researcher in wellbeing and mental health for Autistic people, has been appointed as the Olga Tennison Endowed Chair at the Olga Tennison Autism Research Centre. In this role, she will extend and develop high-level strategic external partnerships, mentor academic staff at all levels and foster research excellence both within the Centre and the University more broadly. This is in addition to progressing her own research program on wellbeing for Autistic people.
Coming from the Autism Centre of Excellence at Griffith University, Professor Adams has specific expertise in working with education professionals, including school psychologists, teachers and teacher aides. She trained as a clinical psychologist and while practicing, saw clients who were denied access to mental health supports, simply because they were Autistic. This realisation of the deep inequities and injustices that Autistic people face when accessing everyday services led her to pursue a career in research.
I saw children with Individual Education Plans that focused on social skills driven by neurotypical norms, rather than creating environments where they could thrive and learn in the way that best suited them. I wanted to be part of changing this, and that comes through research to prove that change is needed and to show the pathway for change.
Dawn is passionate about translating research into practice and regularly presents research findings to community groups. She believes that the Autistic and Autism communities should drive the research agenda and be actively involved in every aspect of the research process.
Asked about the changes she has seen in autism research in the last 10 years, Dawn highlighted the importance of lived experience of Autistic people in shaping research questions, research methods and understanding of research data.
Participatory research is the most effective way to conduct research that leads to real-world outcomes that matter the most to Autistic people, she says.
An example of this philosophy in practice is the Bloom parent group program which was co-produced with the Autistic and Autism Communities. The content of this program was based on the views of Autistic children and their parents who told Dawn and her team what helps Autistic children to ‘live their best life’. Community organisations (Autistic and non-Autistic led) as well as Autistic researchers were part of writing the grant, developing the research question and research design, in delivering the program and in the evaluation of the program. This commitment to participatory research was recognised by the Autism CRC in 2024 with an award for Inclusive Research Practice.
