Register Today For The Summit
Schedule Reminder
Day 1
The Kickoff Call
Friday, Aug 21 | [time / ~1 hr]
We set the stakes, meet the room, and get you primed for the work ahead, so you walk into Day 2 ready to go all in.
Open to Everyone
Day 2
The B.R.I.D.G.E. Intensive
Saturday, Aug 22 | [time / 4 hrs]
Four hours inside the full AIB B.R.I.D.G.E. model. Real classroom scenarios, reflection, and practical moves you can use immediately.
Open to Everyone
Day 3
The Inner Circle
Sunday, Aug 23 | [TBD]
Implementation, coaching, and your first look inside the AIB Educator Community & Certification. The room goes deeper, for the people ready to keep going.
All-Access & Members Only
Autism in Black® Presents....
THE INAUGURAL 2026 AUTISM IN BLACK EDUCATORS SUMMIT
The Autism in Black Educators Summit is a virtual experience created for educators and professionals who are responsible for teaching, supporting, advocating for, and building meaningful relationships with Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
This summit centers teachers, special educators, paraprofessionals, school counselors, school psychologists, therapists, instructional coaches, administrators, district leaders, and other professionals who are navigating autism while also navigating race, culture, identity, bias, classroom expectations, family engagement, discipline, trust, and belonging.
This is not just another autism summit.
This is a space for educators who want to better understand the intersection almost no one is trained to see.
Summit Dates: August 21 to 23, 2026
A SUMMIT FOR THE EDUCATORS BEHIND THE SUPPORT
Supporting Black autistic and neurodivergent students does not happen in isolation.
It happens in classrooms where educators are making decisions about communication, behavior, expectations, belonging, and support.
It happens in IEP meetings, team conversations, discipline decisions, parent conferences, lesson planning, and the everyday moments where students are either understood or misunderstood.
It happens when teachers, specialists, counselors, administrators, and school teams are trying to recognize the whole student, including race, culture, identity, neurodivergence, strengths, and lived experience.
The Inaugural Educators Summit was created to help educators become more culturally responsive to Black autistic and neurodivergent students, focusing on an intersection the brief describes as one that almost no one is trained to see.
Built around the B.R.I.D.G.E.™ framework, this three day virtual experience gives educators a shared language and framework for examining bias, recognizing student needs, understanding identity, designing more affirming environments, growing trust, and elevating Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
JOIN THE SUMMIT
The 2026 Inaugural AIB Educators Summit brings together focused, culturally responsive teaching for the educators and professionals who teach, support, advocate for, and build relationships with Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
Whether you are navigating classroom expectations, student behavior, communication differences, family engagement, bias, discipline, identity, trust, or school based advocacy, this summit was created with you in mind.
Why is this Summit For You?
Too often, autism training focuses on the diagnosis without fully addressing how race, culture, identity, bias, and neurodivergence shape a student’s experience in school.
But educators need a framework.
School teams need shared language.
Administrators need tools to recognize how systems and expectations can create barriers.
Families need professionals who understand the whole child.
And Black autistic and neurodivergent students deserve learning environments that are culturally responsive, affirming, strengths based, and built on trust.
The Autism in Black Educators Summit was created to help educators become more culturally responsive to Black autistic and neurodivergent students, focusing on what the marketing brief calls “the intersection almost no one is trained to see.”
Through the B.R.I.D.G.E.™ framework, this summit will explore what it looks like to examine bias, recognize student needs and strengths, understand identity, design more supportive learning environments, grow trust with students and families, and elevate the voices and experiences of Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
PRACTICAL STRATEGIES
Real world tools to help educators recognize bias, better understand Black autistic and neurodivergent students, design more affirming learning environments, build trust with students and families, and respond with greater cultural awareness and intention.
Honest Conversations
Culturally responsive conversations about bias, identity, discipline, classroom expectations, family engagement, trust, ableism, anti-Blackness, belonging, and the realities Black autistic and neurodivergent students experience in educational spaces.
SUPPORT FOR THE EDUCATORS
A summit experience designed to remind educators that they are not expected to figure this work out alone. This is a space to learn, reflect, ask better questions, strengthen your practice, and feel connected to a larger community committed to supporting Black autistic and neurodivergent students with greater cultural responsiveness and care.
This summit is more than an event.
It is an invitation to pause, reflect, learn with intention, and strengthen the way educators understand and support Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
Across three days, we will explore the intersection of race, culture, identity, autism, neurodivergence, bias, trust, and educational practice, while using the B.R.I.D.G.E.™ framework to help educators build more culturally responsive and affirming learning environments.
POWERFUL CONVERSATIONS FOR EDUCATORS SUPPORTING BLACK AUTISTIC & NEURODIVERGENT STUDENTS
At Autism in Black®, we know that supporting Black autistic and neurodivergent students requires more than information.
It requires educators who are willing to examine bias.
It requires classrooms that make room for identity, communication differences, and belonging.
It requires school teams that build trust with students and families.
It requires educational systems that move away from deficit based thinking and toward culturally responsive, affirming support.
This summit will help attendees think more deeply about what it means to recognize the whole student, design more supportive learning environments, grow trust, and elevate the voices and experiences of Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
That language is directly aligned with the summit’s stated goal of helping educators become more culturally responsive and with the B.R.I.D.G.E.™ framework: Bias, Recognize, Identity, Design, Grow Trust, and Elevate.
Schedule For The Summit
Day 1
The Kickoff Call
Friday, Aug 21 | [7pm EST / ~1 hr]
We set the stakes, meet the room, and get you primed for the work ahead, so you walk into Day 2 ready to go all in.
Open to Everyone
Day 2
The B.R.I.D.G.E. Intensive
Saturday, Aug 22 | [11am EST / 4 hrs]
Four hours inside the full AIB B.R.I.D.G.E. model. Real classroom scenarios, reflection, and practical moves you can use immediately.
Open to Everyone
Day 3
The Inner Circle
Sunday, Aug 23 | [11am EST ]
Implementation, coaching, and your first look inside the AIB Educator Community & Certification. The room goes deeper, for the people ready to keep going.
All-Access & Members Only
Summit Dates: August 21 to 23, 2026
CENTERING CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE SUPPORT
This summit centers what it takes to truly see and support Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
We are focusing on the daily decisions educators make around communication, behavior, discipline, classroom expectations, identity, family engagement, access, and belonging.
The goal is to move beyond simply knowing about autism and toward understanding how race, culture, identity, and neurodivergence intersect in the educational experience.
STRENGTHENING EDUCATOR PRACTICE
From classroom teachers and special educators to counselors, therapists, coaches, administrators, and district leaders, this summit explores how educational practice can be strengthened through reflection, cultural responsiveness, trust, intentional design, and a deeper understanding of student identity.
The Autism in Black B.R.I.D.G.E.™ framework gives educators a shared structure for examining bias, recognizing student needs, honoring identity, designing more supportive environments, growing trust, and elevating Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
BUILDING MORE AFFIRMING SCHOOLS
Culturally responsive education is not the responsibility of one teacher.
It requires classrooms, teams, schools, and systems that are willing to learn and grow together.
This summit will help attendees think more deeply about what it looks like to create educational environments where Black autistic and neurodivergent students are not simply accommodated, but understood, affirmed, respected, and given the opportunity to thrive.
That reflects the brief’s overall direction for the summit: affirming, warm, professional, empowering, and community rooted.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
This summit is for educators, school professionals, advocates, and leaders who want to better understand and support Black autistic and neurodivergent students through a culturally responsive lens.
You should attend if you are a:
* General Education teacher
* Special education teacher
* Paraprofessional or instructional aide
* School counselor or school psychologist
* Speech language pathologist, occupational therapist, or related service provider
* Instructional coach or student support specialist
* Principal, assistant principal, or school administrator
* District leader or professional development coordinator
* Early childhood educator
* College or university educator
* Education student or trainee
* Autism professional or disability advocate
* Parent, caregiver, or family member who wants to better understand culturally responsive education
* Professional seeking deeper conversations about race, identity, bias, autism, neurodivergence, trust, and belonging
The summit is specifically positioned to help educators become more culturally responsive to Black autistic and neurodivergent students, which the marketing brief describes as “the intersection almost no one is trained to see.”
Whether you are just beginning this work or looking to strengthen your current practice, the B.R.I.D.G.E.™ framework offers a structured way to examine bias, recognize student needs, understand identity, design more affirming environments, grow trust, and elevate Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
Meet Your FACILITATOR
Maria Davis-Pierre LMHC
Maria Davis-Pierre, LMHC, is the founder of Autism in Black® and the sole facilitator of the Inaugural Autism in Black Educators Summit.
As an autistic adult, parent of autistic children, licensed mental health counselor, educator, and advocate, Maria brings together lived experience and professional expertise to help educators better understand the realities facing Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
Throughout all three days of the summit, Maria will guide attendees through the Autism in Black B.R.I.D.G.E.™ framework, creating one connected learning experience focused on bias, recognition, identity, intentional design, trust, and elevation.
This is intentionally a solo summit.
One voice. One framework. Three days.
Rather than moving between disconnected presentations, attendees will have the opportunity to learn directly from Maria as she builds each conversation on the last and helps educators think more deeply about what culturally responsive support looks like for Black autistic and neurodivergent students.
Here are your speakers
Ahmani Peets
Anthony Peets
Antonio Tolson
Christian Toney
La Shona Johnson
Dr. Patrice Douglas
Johnnie Alexander
Justin Best
Dalbin Osorio
Steph Anderson
Kwentin Shelton
Tiana Townsend
STILL WONDERING IF THE SUMMIT IS FOR YOU?
If you have ever wondered how to better support a Black autistic or neurodivergent student while also navigating classroom expectations, communication differences, behavior, discipline, family engagement, or your own assumptions, this summit was created for you.
If you are trying to become more culturally responsive, build stronger trust with students and families, reduce harm, recognize bias, or create learning environments where Black autistic and neurodivergent students feel seen and supported, you are not alone.
This summit will offer practical, honest conversations about the realities educators face while also creating space for reflection, growth, accountability, trust, and more affirming educational practice.
The Inaugural Autism in Black Educators Summit is your invitation to be part of a three day learning experience built around the Autism in Black B.R.I.D.G.E.™ framework and focused on what the brief calls “the intersection almost no one is trained to see.”