Welcome

Yasamin Bolourian, Ph.D., currently serves as the Director of Outreach and Dissemination at the UCLA Tarjan Center, a University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD). In this role, she ensures effective sharing of the center's knowledge and resources with the community to benefit those who need them most. 

 

Dr. Bolourian earned her B.A. in Sociology from Boston University, followed by an M.A. in Psychology from Pepperdine University and a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of California Riverside. She further honed her expertise through a postdoctoral research training program at the same institution, developing and implementing a teacher training program for elementary school educators working with students with autism. Her clinical experience includes various settings, such as an outpatient hospital clinic and a university-based screening center. She also provides coaching to autistic youth, caregivers, and educators to support positive educational and social outcomes and navigate school and service systems.

 

Dr. Bolourian is actively engaged in research across multiple areas, including innovative professional development programs for educators, postsecondary outcomes for neurodiverse students, and service pathways for autistic youth and their families in community and school settings. She has published numerous articles on these topics, catering to both the scientific community and general public. Her commitment to spreading knowledge about autism extends to presentations to educational and family audiences, as well as trainings to college faculty. During her tenure at UC Riverside, she spearheaded initiatives aimed at reducing disparities and promoting equity in services for families of youth with developmental disabilities in Inland Southern California.

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 Dr. Bolourian is proficient in "gold standard" assessment measures for autism evaluation, including the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-2 (ADOS-2). She is also certified in the UCLA PEERS Program, an evidence-based social skills intervention for autism. Notably, she serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Intellectual Disability Research and is the Co-Chair of the Autism Spectrum Disorders Special Interest Research Group for the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD). Dr. Bolourian is a fellow of the University of California Leadership Education in Neurodiversity (UC-LEND) Program, and her postdoctoral position receives funding from the Institute of Education Sciences. Her work has received support from various organizations, including the California Department of Developmental Disabilities (DDS), UC Riverside Center for Health Disparities Research (HDR), and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD). 

 

For more information about these and related projects, please visit the Projects Page, or click on the links below.