As a late-diagnosed neurodivergent scholar, I quietly struggled through my K-12, undergraduate, and graduate school experiences. Although I did well academically, I always felt different and sometimes struggled in secret on things that others seemed to take for granted. I was a night-before-it’s-due kind of student and was chronically late to class or meetings, and I experienced friction in group projects and research teams without knowing why. I learned to mask—to hide my awkwardness (sort of) and to comply with unwritten norms—but at great personal cost. Ultimately, success came, but so did burnout.

In my role as director of a PhD program, I soon realized that these issues were all too typical in my students as well. I began using my own experiences and my ongoing research into neurodivergence to help my students understand how to work with their brains, not against them, to set and achieve academic and personal goals. I’ve helped numerous students to identify pain points in their work, strategize solutions, and prioritize wellbeing to maximize effectiveness. If this sounds like it could be helpful for you, let’s talk!