About our leadership team
Our team is comprised of passionate professionals who are committed to transforming the workplace by promoting neurodiversity and creating inclusive environments for individuals with unique cognitive abilities. With extensive experience in the field, our leaders bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise in career screening, human resources, and workforce development. We are driven by the belief that by fostering a neuro inclusive work culture, businesses can stand out more in a competitive market, increase productivity and innovations by maximizing the potential of every employee. Get to know our exceptional leadership team and join us on our mission to empower employers with the tools and resources they need to create a more inclusive and productive workforce.
Board of Directors
Maisie Soetantyo, M.Ed.
BioMaisie Soetantyo, M.Ed. is the founder and chairman of the board for Autism Career Pathways, a 501(c)3 organization with the mission of expanding the hiring and long-term retention rates of autistic individuals. This nonprofit marks the realization of a lifelong dream for Maisie, who has been working with autistic children and adults for almost thirty years.
“These children, now adults have worked incredibly hard through early intervention and teen/adult transition programs to make themselves more attractive to employers, and yet they arrive at the crossroads of adulthood to find that the business community doesn’t know what to do with them. This is why creating an autism employability project has become such a passion for me. I desperately want to figure out how to fill in the glaring gap between employers who need loyal, capable workers and these under utilized neurodivergent adults.”
Maisie started her journey in the field of Autism as a behavioral interventionist in 2001 as an undergraduate at UCLA, however, she realized that aiming to change her clients’ autistic identity did not help them to attain quality of lives in meaningful ways. After receiving her certification in Relationship Development Intervention program, she has been coaching parents and professionals for the past 20 years. Maisie also obtained a M. Ed. in Instructional and Curriculum Design.
Her late diagnosis of Autism empowers her to work towards changing the narrative on autism spectrum disorders definition, away from a deficit model. It is her mission to create a training curricula for neurodivergent individuals of all ages with emphasis on strength-based and person-centered approach. Maisie believes that “Before you can be anything, you have to be you first”.
Peter Dunlavey
BioPete is a certified, 20+ year experienced family consultant supporting families, children and young adults living with autism and other related disorders. As a parent coach, he provides relationship-based solutions to families via Online Workshops, Parent Training and Distance Consulting. He also provides Adult Services to individuals on the spectrum seeking to improve their capacity to develop meaningful personal and professional relationships.
Clients say he easily connects with fathers, helping them understand the guiding process, and how to build strong connections at home with their autistic children. Pete finds it most rewarding to work with adolescent and young adults on the spectrum, helping them take on the responsibility for their own self agency and to explore their own special interests and career pathways.
He currently also serves as a member on the Board Directors for the 501(c)3 Autism Career Pathways, where their mission is to increase the employment rate for neurodivergent individuals by creating resources and training curriculum designed alongside autistic adults.Pete has been successful in the special educational field, joining the CATCH Clinic, LLC as Director of Business Development and Operations as well as providing relationship-based programs for a variety of families. He earned his RDI® Certification from the Connections Center in 2007 and has maintained it since.
During the late nineties, he worked for the Center for Autism and Related Disorders [CARD] as a behavioral therapist working with children with ASD. There he also served as the regional office manager for the CARD San Jose office, over-seeing client accounts, school district contracts as well as the hiring, training and supervising of a clinical staff of 25-35.
In another life, Pete spent seven years as a program manager for the event marketing group of a large Bay Area technology manufacturing firm, where he planned and executed the production of national trade shows exhibits, corporate training sessions, seminars and webinars for a 200+ sales and marketing staff.
Pete earned his B.S in Marketing from the San Jose State College of Business, with a concentration in Business Technologies (IT Management, eCommerce).
Fazal Gupta
BioFazal holds a Bachelor Degree in Technology from DAIICT and an MBA from the University of Chicago.He currently serves as the Director of Product Management for Workday, a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications for finance, HR, and planning.Founded in 2005, Workday delivers financial management, human capital management, and analytics applications designed for the world’s largest companies, educational institutions, and government agencies.
”We are very happy to have Fazal on our team because of his personal connection to autism and our shared passion to increase autism employability”, says ACP President Maisie Soetantyo. “Along with his expertise in the tech world and connections to various Bay Area companies, we can make a bigger impact in figuring out employability for people with differing abilities.
Mission
Empowering businesses to collaborate with neurodivergent talent to maximize their competitive advantage.
Vision
ACP envisions a fully inclusive business culture that allows neurodivergent career seekers to pursue their ideal career goals while connecting employers to a uniquely talented and untapped labor pool to grow their organization.
