Disparities in Autism Ascertainment in Black Children

Free webinar at 1 p.m. Eastern time (US), Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Learn about disparities in autism ascertainment in Black children and accessible treatment models that can help reach underserved populations.

About the speaker:

Aisha S. Dickerson, PhD, MSPH, is an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is an environmental neuroepidemiologist with primary research interests in environmental risk factors for neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Specifically, she studies combined environmental and occupational exposures across the life course and subsequent individual and transgenerational neurological outcomes, including autism spectrum disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and dementia. Between earning her BS and MSPH, Dr. Dickerson worked for the Jefferson County Department of Health where she served on emergency response teams after Hurricane Katrina and during the H1N1 (Swine Flu) pandemic. Prior to joining BSPH, she also completed postdoctoral training at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Currently, her research investigates joint environmental and psychosocial stressors in under resourced communities. She is the PI of an NIEHS-funded study of gene-environment interaction with parental occupation exposures and autism in offspring. She also has several ongoing studies of joint exposures utilizing data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study (NHATS), the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), and the Environmental influences of Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) project.