Empowering Families, Sharing hope

I am a researcher, writer, and advocate working at the intersection of family life, autism and related disabilities, and social systems. My work is shaped by lived experience, grounded in social science, and driven by a commitment to public understanding and structural change.

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As a parent to two sets of twins—including older children with high-support autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability—I navigate daily the realities of care, access, and institutional complexity. Rather than treating these experiences as anecdotal, I approach them as sites of inquiry, asking how cultural expectations, policy decisions, and social structures shape family life, mental health, and long-term outcomes.

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My current work includes qualitative research, interviews, and analysis focused on how families experience disability across systems of education, healthcare, and public policy. I document patterns that emerge between caregiving demands, resource availability, and social narratives surrounding disability, with particular attention to voices that are frequently excluded from formal research and policy discussions.

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Alongside this work, I continue my academic training in anthropology and political science, where I develop research methods and frameworks that support ethical, community-informed inquiry. This education strengthens my advocacy efforts and informs how I translate research into accessible reports, policy briefs, and public-facing analysis.

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This space exists to bridge gaps—between lived experience and research, between families and institutions, and between policy rhetoric and everyday reality. At its core, my work is about building knowledge that is careful, accountable, and rooted in community, while amplifying perspectives that are too often overlooked or dismissed.

— Ashley Valdes