The Kind Theory symbol. It's two interlocked infinity symbols (which are each shaped like sideways 8s), symbolizing endless connection and neurodiversity.

If everyone is moving forward together, the path becomes easier to walk on! Together we can do so much.

An effective team is the pillar of every organization. And that is what we at Kind Theory stand for too. We are a team of diverse and motivated individuals who are dedicated to working towards promoting neurodiversity education.

Our team consists of individuals who have the lived experiences of being neurodivergent themselves. Through their experiences and knowledge, we continue to work to make the neurodivergent voices heard. Not just that, our team consists of members who are culturally and neurodevelopmentally diverse as well, bringing an entirely new experience to the Kind Theory cause. We are partnering with organizations that are working for the same cause. All of us believe in the power of inclusion and the beauty of neurodiversity.

Together with Kindness, Collaboration, and Openness to innovative ideas, we do not just learn from each other, but we also inspire each other to do better.

Samar Waqar

Founder/Executive director

Samar Waqar is the Founder and Executive Director of Kind Theory. She also serves as a Neurodiversity Advocate, Advisor and Consultant. Samar is a brown South Asian Muslim woman who is neurodivergent and a parent to neurodivergent kids. She has experience in education, information analysis and operations management. Her passions include neurodiversity education, disability rights, improving accessibility and social justice.

Dr. Laura Z. Weldon

Board chair

Laura Z. Weldon, ND, MS is a neurodivergent naturopathic physician who loves exploring how people think, feel, sense, and connect. Dr. Weldon earned a doctorate in naturopathic medicine and a master’s degree in integrative mental health. Her interdisciplinary research currently focuses on the pathophysiology and treatment of autistic burnout, and her work advocates for a neurodiversity paradigm shift across both medicine and society.

Morenike Giwa Onaiwu

Board member

Morenike Giwa Onaiwu is a global advocate, educator, disabled person of color, and parent of children on the autism spectrum. She is A prolific writer and social scientist/activist whose work focuses on intersectional justice, meaningful community involvement, human rights, and inclusion, Morénike is recognized as a leader in various social justice activism endeavors.

Jeff Owens

Board member

Jeff Owens is Director of Technology at Semaphore Mobile, a neurodiversity advocate, and a parent of a neurodiverse child. He has a masters degree in piano performance and pedagogy from Baylor University where he also played on the men’s varsity tennis team. Jeff runs the Autism-101.com resource website for newly diagnosed and self-identified autistic people. He was diagnosed with both Autism and ADHD as an adult.

Jessie Garcia

Board Secretary

Jessie is a neurodiversity affirming Speech-Language Pathologist. She has a passion for inclusion, communication rights, and celebrating differences. She grew up with a neurodivergent sibling and that relationship instilled compassion, understanding, and the importance of advocacy from a young age. She is determined to listen with an open heart and mind, and follow the lead of the neurodivergent community. 

DANIA Malik

GRAPHICS AND SOCIAL MEDIA ASSOCIATE

Dania Malik is a dedicated business bachelor’s student with a passion for the corporate world. Driven and always eager to expand her knowledge, Dania has found her niche in graphics and social media. Embracing the dynamic nature of the digital realm, she seized the opportunity to work as a Graphics and Social Media Associate. Passionately aligned with the mission of Kind Theory, Dania actively contributes to their cause, championing a world that celebrates and supports neurodiversity.

Amun Malik

Operations and Communications Specialist

Amun Malik is an enthusiastic student majoring in psychology, energetic and keenly motivated to learn and experience new things.  She enjoys working with kids and believes in empowering and accepting neurodiversity, so when the opportunity to be a part of Kind Theory came, she took it in a heartbeat.

Ayesha

Program Development and Content Lead

Ayesha is a Psychologist with a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology and a strong passion for shipwrecks, astronomy and history.

Labelled “oversensitive” all her life, it was only when she met Kind Theory that she finally realised how it wasn’t her who was the problem, but the world around her that was never ready to embrace her for who she was.

She always felt different, but misunderstood. From dealing with different diagnoses to finally realising how she was wired differently, she found solace. 

Content Contributors

Emily Morson

Emily M. is a writer fascinated by the infinite variety of human minds. She grew up inexplicably different and was diagnosed as an adult with several forms of neurodivergence, including ADHD and an auditory discrimination disability. Feeling as if she were living life without a user manual, she set out to create her own. In the process, she met other neurodivergent people on similar quests. She began working with them, advocating for inclusion, accessibility, and autism acceptance.  Seeking to understand how neurodiverse minds work, she became a cognitive neuroscience researcher. Her favorite research topic: what do children learn from their intense, passionate interests? Wanting to help neurodivergent people more directly, she trained as a speech/language therapist. Ultimately, she turned to writing, combining research with personal experience to explain autism and ADHD and champion acceptance – because everyone is happier when they are seen and accepted for who they are. She envisions a world where neurodiverse people have equal opportunities for education, loving relationships, and meaningful work. She also blogs about autism and ADHD research at Mosaic of Minds. You can chat with her on Twitter: @mosaicofminds.

Swarit Gopalan

I am an 11-yr old autistic, nonspeaker that uses letterboard to spell/keyboard to type to communicate.I live with my family in Florida and go to Invictus Academy for school. 
 
I find a lot of solace in expressing myself through poetry. Music and nature also help me stay in the present, there is nothing better for me than to have my movement create a symphony with nature and to truly enjoy the sights and sounds. Living in harmony with nature is my life’s mission.
 
Right from the time of diagnosis, we are only told about all things we cannot or will not be able to do. Along with the check that is written to the doctor for the diagnosis, it often feels like our agency is written off too, especially without a reliable communication mechanism.  
 
Time to change the paradigm with more non speaker voices. It has always been a dream to share my thoughts and perspectives with the world so that I can be one of the catalysts to creating a better understanding of non speakers in general. 
 
My hope is that my words will help change the world from sympathy and pity for those like me to one of deeper understanding of our lives and allyship to ensure our rights.

Hasan Ahmed

Call him “H”.
“H” likes good people, stories and travel.
 
“H” can hear.
“H” can listen.
“H” can question.
“H” can learn.
“H” can openly discuss.
“H” can play.
“H” can make mistaking-ly horrible boo-boos.
What works with “H” is some trust, love and laughter.
Next time you see me, try trusting my words. Not my body.

Sherri Liska

Sherri Liska is an consultant and advocate in the fields of autistic accessibility, education, and joy. As the owner of Freely Divergent Neurodiversity Consulting, she takes a gentle and welcoming approach to helping professionals and families improve their connections to their autistic clients, students, and loved ones.
 
When she’s not monologuing about the importance of developing non-pathologizing diagnostic criteria for autism, you can find her proofreading social media copy, designing websites, voice acting, joyously tracking the relationships in her latest JRPG obsession, and fostering senior cats. Is the AuDHD THAT obvious?

Ashvita Kunder

Ashvita is a 10-year-old artist, musician, singer, baker and self-appointed ‘Head’ of her Prep School for rescue puppies.

Born with a unique perspective on the world, Ashvita navigates life with autism, using music and art to connect and express in a way her words can’t.

Her artwork reflects her connection to nature and her love for animals. She was awarded winner of the Washington State sponsored art contest WA529, in 2022.

She is a singer (Grade – I certified from Trinity College London) and is part of Columbia Children’s Choir, Seattle. She’s been playing the piano since age 6 and plays the clarinet with her School band.

Ashvita is a devoted advocate for the environment. She spends her time fostering rescue puppies helping them get ready for their forever homes. She is also the designated “Spider and Earthworm Rescuer” at School.

Ashvita finds baking therapeutic and she is especially good with cakes and breads.

Note on ASD:

Ashvita receives ADA accommodations at School. She faces challenges with social perception, understanding of mental functions such as belief, intentions, deception, imagination, and pretending; She struggles to understand mental-physical distinctions, reading facial expressions and social norms. She can become anxious in such situations and self isolates as an attempt to cope. Another area of significant difficulty is social reciprocity and social interactions leading to limited social communication. Ashi demonstrates flat expressions, echolalia and idiosyncratic speech, complex hand movements and limited eye contact.

Previous Contributors

Brittney Geary

As a neurodivergent school psychologist and self- advocate, Brittney Geary, MEd CAGS utilizes her experience as an autistic, ADHD, learning-disabled person to inform her professional practice. 

She has over a decade of experience having served as a consultant and research assistant in autism research, a coach for neurodivergent adults, a school psychologist in several public school districts, a mentor and a volunteer for several neurodiversity-affirming organizations internationally. Additionally, she is familiar with supporting others in managing commonly co-occurring physical, mental, and neurological health conditions. 

She is passionate about promoting disability awareness through sharing lived experience, education and valuable resources, and would love to connect with like-minded individuals & organizations who share a common goal to embrace neurodiversity and enable neurodivergent individuals to lead more authentic lives.

Kameko Thomas

Kameko Thomas is an intersectional, invisibly disabled neurodivergent Black woman writer, speaker, and consultant working to create access and improve life for people of diverse neurotypes. She is the Founder, Principal Writer, and CEO of Vonem Creative Media

Rofay Mishaguyas

Video Editor

Rofay Mishaguyas is a non-binary, neurodivergent, entertainer, and creator of eclectic content. Rofay started as a DJ on a California radio station in 2010 with the show “FUN ZONE.” “‘Doctor Demento’ was retiring as I was starting my show, and my name is a tribute to him,” says Rofay. “Rofay comes from the Hebrew word for ‘healer’ and ‘mishaguyas’ is from they Yiddish for ‘craziness, silliness, nonsense’ and it was the closest I could get to honoring him without taking his name directly; plus I always hated my birth name.”

After a few years, Rofay could be found on stage at various community theatres. Eventually, Rofay returned to college, earning an AA in Theatre Arts (2018) and a BA in Film & Theatre Production (2020). 

In 2019, Rofay started a media production company, KTK Multimedia, LLC. “I’d actually been making short films since high school, and doing other media production since I was 10. It was time to make money doing what I loved, but I got started just as the pandemic hit,” Rofay says, “it was a rough way to start so I focused on growing as an entertainer.” 

In April 2021, Rofay received a diagnosis a diagnosis of Autism, and ADHD. “Suddenly things that didn’t make sense in my life….did,” Rofay says, “and my world just started opening up. Every day I learn more about what it is to be who and what I am, and I don’t hide it.” Rofay talks freely about being neurodivergent, saying, “I found out because others were willing to be open. Hopefully, I can help others as I was and as I grow.”

Rofay is excited and honored about getting involved with Kind Theory. “I can’t remember how I found Kind Theory…it might have been YouTube or Facebook, but I remember watching their YouTube videos and being enthralled. To be asked to join their team… I don’t have the words to express how honored I am.” 

You can find more “Rofay” on “The Mishaguyas Network” via mishaguyas.net

Amy Burden

Amy Burden is a Family Nurse Practitioner, Health Content Writer, and an ally to the neurodivergent community. She has a passion for helping people and enjoys volunteering her time to advocate for education, accessibility, and kindness.

Matthew Rushin

My name is Matthew Rushin, I’m 24, I am Autistic (with ADHD), and I advocate for the mental health of teens and adults.
 
Being that I have gone through everything I’ve gone through, I see a need to prevent this from ever happening to anyone else. Thus, the need for a strong push in the mental health community.
 
I specialize in cognitive therapy, and humanizing the way we look at ourselves.

Jamie Shields

Accessibility Consultant

Hi, my name is Jamie. I’m a Registered Blind ADHD Rhino. Rhinos are just chubby unicorns with bad eyesight. Honestly google it, they’ve some of the worst eyesight in mammals. 

My pronouns are he/ him and I’m a gay man who lives in the not so sunny Northern Ireland. I live with my eyes, I mean my partner David, my stepson Zak and our two furbabies Woody and Jessie.    
I’m Registered Blind but please don’t pity me or treat me less or more because of it.
I’m ADHD. They say neurodivergent people think outside the box, I could never see the box, so I like to say I not only think outside the box, but I have to reimage it completely.
I’m a chaotic passionate person who speaks faster the more excited I get, please feel free to tell me to slow down. When I discuss accessibility, inclusion, actually anything DEI, (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion), my passion explodes and my eyes light up. 
I spent most of my life struggling to gain and retain employment simply because of the fact I have a Disability. For years I stayed silent and allowed society to disable me. 
But no more. 
Over the last 3-4 years I found my voice, I found my passion, and I realised my disability was not a hindrance but a whole new world of possibilities. I now work supporting organisations to create truly inclusive cultures by putting accessibility at the heart of their business. I’m a speaker, educator, trainer, freelancer, podcaster, and content creator, this list is extensive and seems to be ever-mounting. I’m rambling, but that’s me in a nutshell, a Registered Blind ADHD Rhino who loves to talk, educate and make the inaccessible accessible.  And I’m so excited to work and meet you all.  Let’s fall down ADHD rabbit holes, let’s hyperfocus, let’s break barriers, and together take accountability for accessibility.