News and Knowledge

Margaret Gorman, who began working as OAR’s programs and outreach associate in August of 2019, will leave OAR on June 18 to pursue a Master of Fine Arts degree in television writing at Stony Brook University. To say that she will be missed is an understatement.

“Margaret has been an absolute pleasure to work with in her almost two years at OAR,” noted Kimberly Ha, director, research and programs, “Margaret has made contributions to the organization that go beyond the scope of her job. One of many examples that comes to mind is the friendship guide she developed in celebration of OAR’s 19^th birthday.”

As she reflected on her time at OAR, Gorman described it as a period of opportunity to grow, learn, and make an impact. She is leaving with expertise in how to manage long-term projects, experience gained, she notes, through the incredible support and investment of her OAR colleagues. “I learned a lot about creating strategic timelines, keeping stakeholders engaged, managing expectations, and analyzing completed projects to see how the process can be improved in the future.”

The accomplishments she is proudest of are the self-determination webinar and the Friendship Tip Sheets. “Self-determination skills are really important to emphasize for autistic kids, because oftentimes non-autistic people assume that autistic people can’t or shouldn’t be in control of their own lives,” Gorman says. “We were really lucky to get to work with Deborah Hammer and her students, who gave an incredible, engaging presentation.”

The Friendship Tip Sheets address the issue of autism acceptance from a proactive standpoint, she points out. “It’s one thing to be aware of autism and understand that bullying is wrong, but it’s another to understand how autistic people navigate the world and what actions you can take to make the world a better place for them. It was wonderful to work directly with members of the autistic community to develop the tip sheets, and the end result is a great resource for use with the Kit for Kids program.”

In Gorman’s view, the best part of the job was the opportunity to get to know and work with families who needed help and resources. “It feels great to be able to connect a family to a resource that will really help them with a problem that they’re facing,” Gorman says. Getting to know families’ needs and those of autistic individuals gave her the knowledge needed to be creative in coming up with resources and initiatives that OAR could develop to meet those needs.

As she notes, she has always been “interested in disability justice and accessibility, especially in terms of neurodiversity. I really appreciated that OAR tackles issues that are important to autistic people right now – things like sex education, mental health, and employment. Through our resources and through the studies we fund, OAR directly helps autistic people and makes these issues part of the larger conversation about autism so that we can all address them together.”

In commenting on Gorman’s contributions, OAR executive director, Mike Maloney, said, “Margaret didn’t just do excellent work for us. She made what we do better. We wish her the same success in her graduate studies and career beyond.”