Heather Anne McIntosh (www.heatherannemcintosh.com) is a writer, mother of five children and wife. For the past fifteen years, Heather has taught graduate courses both at UCLA and Harvard University in the areas of computers, psychology and writing. Heather has published her essays in the anthology My Dad Is My Hero: Tributes to the Men Who Gave Us Life, Love, and Driving Lessons and the Bennington Review.Heather is known for her writing on the topics of autism, parenting, reading and literacy. Heather has her MFA in Creative Writing & Literature form Bennington College, where she studied with writers Sven Birkerts, Phillip Lopate, Susan Cheever, Dinah Lenney and Bernard Cooper. Over the past two decades, Heather also studied with writers Kerry Madden, Bernadette Murphy and Ruth Herman. 

AUTISM EXPERTISE

Heather has spent the past twelve years immersed in the world of autism and the treatment of autism. Heather has been trained in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) by The May Center, New England Center for Children (NECC) and The Lovaas Institute. She has attended numerous autism conferences, worked with many children and parents as an advocate and program consultant, and even lectured to the Massachusetts Senate about autism and ABA. Heather’s son Christopher appeared with Heather on 60 Minutes Australia in 2000 in a segment on autism and recovery.

TEACHING/ PROFESSIONAL

For the past fifteen years, Heather has taught at the graduate level in the areas of computers, psychology and writing. From 2003 until her move to New York in 2009, Heather taught as an Adjunct Professor at UCLA in the graduate psychology department. Prior to that, she taught at Harvard University from 1994–2001. Over the past twenty years, Heather has worked as a designer and writer in the technology industry. She currently works for Yahoo! as a designer and writer for their advertising products. Previously Heather was a designer at Google leading design projects for social networking and other products. Heather is considered an expert in online advertising. She is a frequent public speaker in the field of software design, and has authored several studies as an expert witness in copyright litigation.

EDUCATION

Heather holds an MFA in Creative Writing & Literature from Bennington College, as well as a BA in Information Technology from Boston College, where she graduated cum laude. Heather is a member of the Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society. She’s completed additional graduate work in writing at Harvard University, Boston College, UCLA and USC. Heather is the primary inventor on two software design patents.

Heather is currently writing a memoir about recovering her children from autism. She can be reached by email at heather@heatherannemcintosh.com. Heather is represented by Christy Fletcher of Fletcher & Company.