Missing and Autism
Description
People with autism face unique challenges that can make them more vulnerable to wandering, exploitation, and miscommunication with law enforcement. We talk to Tanja Conway-Grim, Senior specialist ND coach and Alan Nanavaty, Executive Director at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children about the resources and mechanisms on how to keep people with autism safe.
Guests
Tanja Conway-Grim is a specialist senior coach supporting neurodivergent people in the workplace. She mentors coaches new to neurodiversity coaching and provide consultancy to organisations around neurodiversity in the workplace/university.
Tanja creates & facilitates training on all aspects of neurodiversity, missing people and suicide prevention for a wide range of services and organisations. She is on the autistic spectrum and has ADHD & dyspraxia (DCD). Tanja has lived experience of going missing and growing up in care.
Tanja regularly speak at conferences on neurodiversity and missing people. She is a National Autism Training Programme certified trainer.
Tanja chairs the South-East Regional Counter-Terrorism Advisory Group. She chairs the Out of Court Resolution Multi-Agency Scrutiny Panel. She is a Trustee for Locate International, an advisor for Safe and Found Online, Lived Experience Group member for Missing People and sits on the East Sussex Autism Partnership Board.
Alan S. Nanavaty is an Executive Director within the Missing Children Division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), Alexandria, VA. Mr. Nanavaty has served in this capacity since April 2017 and has program oversight of NCMEC’s AMBER Alert Secondary Distribution, long-term missing children cases, forensic resources, Native American & Indigenous community outreach, as well as a specialized team providing on-site assistance to law enforcement. Prior to his current position, Mr. Nanavaty served as Chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Crimes Against Children program before retiring after 22 years of service. In this role, Mr. Nanavaty collaborated with domestic and international law enforcement and non-governmental organizations to implement proactive strategies to protect children. Mr. Nanavaty holds a Masters of Science in Applied Behavioral Science degree from The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.