Editorial Team
The CJAE Editorial Board is composed of 8 Autistic individuals passionate about equity, specifically equity as it relates to the autism community. Below you will find a short introduction to each of CJAE’s Managing Director and Editorial Board members.
Dr. Mackenzie Salt: CJAE Editorial Board Member and Editor-in-Chief
Dr. Mackenzie Salt was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome when he was 13 years old. Since then he has tried to help the ASD community both in his professional life and his personal life. He sat on the leadership council of a local chapter of Autism Ontario for almost two years while a graduate student and he more recently served on Autism Canada’s ASD Advisory Committee for three years. Dr. Salt completed his PhD in Cognitive Science of Language in 2019, studying the communication abilities of Autistic adults and developing a new method of studying language abilities in ASD by examining interactions between autistic adults. Dr. Salt is currently a member of the McMaster University Autism Research Team (MacART) and has worked with a number of community and non-profit organizations conducting research and service evaluation for the benefit of Autistic adults as well as the broader Canadian autism community.
Dr. Cameron Winter: CJAE Editorial Board Member
Dr. Cameron Winter was born in 1991 and diagnosed Autistic in the first grade. He attended Trent University for his undergraduate degree, then the University of Guelph for his master’s degree. He obtained his PhD in history at Waterloo University.
Gerald Beaulieu: CJAE Editorial Board Member
Gerald Beaulieu originally comes from Welland, Ontario. He studied at the Ontario College of Art, graduating in 1987. In 1988 he moved to Prince Edward Island, where he now lives and works as an artist. He has received numerous Canada Council for the Arts and Prince Edward Island Council of the Arts awards and a number of national awards. He has had over 80 solo and group exhibitions across Canada, the U.S. and Europe. He discovered he was Autistic at age fifty-five a few years ago. His interests include travel, social justice and chemistry. He has a collection of most of the chemical elements on the periodic table.
Terri Robson: CJAE Editorial Board Member and Treasurer
Terri has a Bachelor of Education (Secondary - Music Major & English Minor). She also has a 2-year Music Business Diploma. She is a Certified Journeyman Partsperson. She has also completed many courses towards a professional accounting designation. Terri is the founder and owner of Awkward Spirit: Looking Beyond the Mask. She is an international speaker on Asperger Syndrome and growing up without a diagnosis. She is the founder of the Adult Asperger Support Group in Red Deer, Alberta, and has mentored several young people with Asperger’s. She has worked at a variety of jobs throughout her life. Terri received the Premier’s Council on the Status of Persons with Disabilities Award of Excellence for Public Awareness in Alberta in 2016. She has been a volunteer with Lions Clubs International for many years and received a number of awards.
Ryan Collis Ph.D Student: CJAE Editorial Board Member
Ryan Collis is a PhD student in the Faculty of Education at York University, working in the intersection of autism, expertise, and Science Fiction to discover future imaginaries where autistic students are truly supported. He holds degrees in English (BA, Queen’s ‘99), Computer Science (BScH, Queen’s ‘00), Education (BEd, OISE ‘05), and Science and Technology Studies (BScH, York ’19; MA, York ‘20). Ryan has been a high school teacher in the York Region District School Board since 2006, is a Member at Large of the executive of the Canadian Committee of Graduate Students in Education (CCGSE), and serves as the Graduate Student Officer of the Canadian Educational Researchers’ Association (CERA). Ryan lives with his wife and son in Ajax, Ontario.
Dominic Couture, M.A.: CJAE Editorial Board Member
Dominic Couture was born in 1988 in Amqui (QC). He was diagnosed autistic on May 1st 2014. Mr. Couture holds two master’s degrees from the University of Ottawa: in World’s literatures and cultures (2020), and in Bilingualism studies (2023). He also completed a qualifying year in linguistics at the same university in 2021. He now works at the University of Ottawa as a language accessibility specialist, in addition to being a member of the editorial Board for CJAE. Moreover, he has been a speaker on autism for Dr. Claudine Jacques - professor at the Université du Québec en Outaouais – and he is also a collaborator for Dr. Jacques’ laboratory, LUDICA. Mr. Couture’s areas of interest include linguistics and languages, autism, books, writing, food, coaches and writing systems; video games, his favourite songs, history and genealogy; as well as zoology.
Stephen Bedard: CJAE Editorial Board Member
Stephen Bedard is originally from St. Catharines, Ontario. He has studied at Brock University and McMaster University, and most recently earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Acadia University. He is a co-pastor, with his wife, at Brookfield Baptist Church in Brookfield, Nova Scotia and a chaplain in the Canadian Armed Forces reserves. He has written both academic and popular level articles in the area of disabilities, especially at the intersection of religious faith. He has three children with autism and was diagnosed with autism himself as an adult.
To get in contact with the editorial board, please email CJAE.board@gmail.com.
