Speaker's Profile

Dr. Cynthia Anderson is Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer of Avela Health. Her career has centered on a stubborn gap in behavioral health: effective, evidence-informed care exists, but far too few people and families ever get sustained access to it. Closing that gap, takes more than good science — it takes leaders willing to continuously iterate and improve on how care is delivered. She has spent her career doing exactly that, building and leading clinical organizations that pair technology with collaborative research and treat the practical barriers to uptake as a design problem rather than an excuse. Dr. Anderson also has tackled this issue in research and her studies have been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the Institute of Education Sciences. She has authored more than 80 peer-reviewed publications, books, and book chapters, including a substantial body of work on care for autistic individuals and their families.