Alex Newson, PhD

Alex is a neurodivergent and disabled researcher, advocate, and educator who received her doctorate in special education from the University of Oregon. She is a recipient of Project COLEAD – an OSEP-funded leadership grant focusing on autism, evidence-based practices, diversity, and collaboration across universities. Her current research interests include equitable neuroinclusive research methodologies, collaborative school-based mental health, and the promotion and empowerment of disabled and neurodivergent educator and student lived experiences and perspectives. Her passion for this research stems from her experiences as a special educator to youth with co-occurring disabilities, mental health needs, and trauma histories. She has seen how the use of trauma-informed neurodiversity-affirming practices with neurodivergent and disabled individuals is more than just best practice, but a social justice issue. Her current projects focus on Autistic educator experiences of burnout, disabled and neurodivergent student perspectives of inclusion, belonging, and accessibility in higher education, and training educators on ways to implement neurodiversity-affirming practices in K-12 settings. 

Before beginning her doctoral studies, Alex received a Master of Science at the University of Oregon in Special Education with K-12 licensure under Project STEP – an OSEP-funded personnel preparation grant focusing on low-incidence disabilities. Alex taught in private and public school settings in the Pacific Northwest as a certified Special Educator and educational assistant. As an educator and researcher, Alex hopes to bridge the gap in current educational systems to better empower practitioners to disrupt their communities while holding systems accountable.

Institution: University of Oregon

Project Title: Double Burnout? Exploring Experiences of Autistic and Educator Burnout Among Autistic Educators

Project Overview: The proposed study will use an participatory-social justice design integrating community based participatory research (CBPR) approaches. Phase one will include semi-structured interviews with 10-30 autistic educators focusing on questions such as “Describe your experiences with burnout as an autistic educator”, and “When do you feel most effective/engaged as an educator? What was happening for you, the environment, and who were you with?”. With the assistance of Autism Community Partners, the team will use reflexive thematic analysis to create themes from the interviews.

The themes will be used as a foundation to codevelop a survey with ACPs in a Community of Practice (CoP) model. The Phase 2 survey will be sent to Autistic Educators’s via Qualtrics with Likert and open-ended responses. AEs will be asked to carefully review the themes found in Phase 1 interviews as well as provide specific recommendations to address the barriers and enhance the facilitators to autistic mental health. The goal will be to create a list of recommendations, in laymens terms, that can be distributed and disseminated to the Autistic community, educators, school districts, and educational centers.

Connect:
Twitter: @alex_newson_
Bluesky: @alexnewson.bsky.social 

Collaborating Institutions

University of Alberta
George Mason University
Bowling Green State University

Project Mentors and Contributors

Dr. Heather Brown, Dr. Jodi Duke, Dr. Victoria Van Uitert, Kieran Rose, and Dr. Jackie Ryan