
Join us for “Neurodiversity Rising: Eliminating Bias in Hiring”…
Join us for “Neurodiversity Rising: Eliminating Bias in Hiring”
Announcing panelists for our free
October 14th virtual conference
Finn Gardiner, Jayanti Owens and William Gilreath on neurodiversity and intersectionality
All those wanting to build, and be part of, a more equitable, inclusive workforce are invited to register for our free, upcoming conference, “Neurodiversity Rising: Eliminating Bias from Hiring.” Neurodivergent keynote speakers, Dr. Temple Grandin and NY State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, will be joined by a diverse panel of experts offering valuable insights and unique perspectives.
The event’s panel discussion, “Intersectionality and the Future of Neurodiversity Hiring,” will focus on first-hand experiences of neurodivergence and intersectionality, eye-opening research, and ways to identify and avoid bias in talent acquisition.
Job seekers can learn from autistic advocates who have navigated the hiring process en route to employment, while employers and recruiters will be empowered to rethink hiring practices in pursuit of inclusion.
Learn about our incredible panelists, below, and don’t miss your chance to hear this important dialogue.
Finn Gardiner (he/him/his)

Finn Gardiner is a disability rights advocate with interests in educational equity, intersectional justice, comparative policy, and inclusive technology. He holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Tufts University. He is currently the Communications Specialist at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University.
Gardiner also recently finished a fellowship in Leadership and Education on Neurodevelopmental and Developmental Disabilities—LEND—at the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s E.K. Shriver Center.
Learn more about him at finngardiner.com.
Jayanti Owens (she/her/hers)
Assistant professor of sociology and international and public affairs at Brown University

Jayanti Owens’ research focuses on social stratification and inequality in education, families, and labor markets. Using surveys, experiments, and administrative records, she investigates the causes and consequences of uneven educational and labor market rewards and penalties along lines of gender, race/ethnicity, and immigrant status. In particular, she is interested in differences in behavior presentation and perceptions of these behaviors by key decision-makers in contexts ranging from families and classrooms to workplaces.
Owens’ research has been funded by organizations including the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Social Science Research Council. She received a BA from Swarthmore College, where she was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, and a joint Ph.D. in Sociology and Demography from Princeton University. Prior to coming to Brown she was a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Owens has worked in the Education Policy Center of the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. and Mathematica Policy Research in Princeton, NJ.
Learn more about Owens at her personal website: www.jayantiowens.org.
William Gilreath (he/him/his)
Senior Member of Technical Staff, VMware

William is a multifaceted senior software developer, computer scientist, lover of cats, and writer with many years of development experience. He enjoys working with software—developing, testing, writing, and analyzing—and programs in Java for work and fun. William participated in the career preparation and skill-based hiring program with VMware and Neurodiversity in the Workplace.
In his spare time, William writes not only code and technical articles, but also narrative prose including novels, short stories, book chapters, and poetry. On his website, he showcases some of the algorithms, code, programming languages, research papers, and web apps he has created, written, and published.
Learn about William at https://wgilreath.github.io/WillHome.html. He can be reached by email at will.f.gilreath@gmail.com.