By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. appointed 21 new members to a committee that advises the secretary on autism-related policy and research.

One of the new members, John Gilmore, told The Defender that the committee’s “first order of business” is to “answer the many unanswered questions about autism.”

The Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) provides “advice and recommendations” to Kennedy on federal activities related to autism. The committee helps increase public awareness of those activities, including federal policies and government-funded research.

Dr. Sylvia Fogel, an assistant in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and mother of a son with autism, will chair the committee, The Defender has learned.

Other new members of the IACC include:

• Lisa Ackerman, co-founder of The Autism Community in Action.
• Elizabeth Bonker, Executive Director of Communication 4 ALL, board member and Secretary of the Autism Society of Florida and a member of Autism Society’s Council of Autistic Advisors. Bonker types to communicate.
• Laura Cellini, lead coordinator and website editor for the Autism Innovation Coalition.
• Krystal Higgins, Executive Director of the National Autism Association.
• Daniel Keely, an autistic high school senior with a strong interest in aerospace engineering and aircraft design.
• Caden Larson, a nonspeaking autistic man and board member of Children with Autism Deserve Education.
• Elena Monarch, Ph.D., CEO and neuropsychologist of the Lyme and PANS Treatment Center.
• Dr. Elizabeth Mumper, a pediatrician, and founder and CEO of the Rimland Center for Integrative Medicine.
• Bill Oldham, founder of Autism First, a family support and therapy organization for autistic children, and of the Thought Leadership and Innovation Foundation.
• Jennifer Philips, founder of Make a Stand 4 Autism.
• Honey Rinicella, executive director of the Medical Academy of Pediatric and Special Needs (MAPS).
• John Rodakis, founder and President of N of One: Autism Research Foundation.
• Toby Rogers, Ph.D., a fellow at the Brownstone Institute whose research focuses on regulatory capture and corruption in the pharmaceutical industry.
• Dr. Daniel Rossignol, a board-certified family physician and Chief Medical Officer of the Autism Discovery and Treatment Foundation.
• Tracy Slepcevic, organizer of the Autism Health Summit.
• Katie Sweeney, Executive Support Manager for MAPS.
• Ginger Taylor, former executive director of the Maine Center for Vaccine Choice.
• Lisa Wiederlight, a Maryland-based advocate for autistic people and mother of a young adult with autism.
• Walter Zahorodny, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics at Rutgers – New Jersey Medical School.

“It is wonderful news that there are now people on this committee who are truly motivated to solve many of the existential autism issues, including prevention, treatment, education, employment opportunities, long-term care and housing,” said Mary Holland, Children’s Health Defense CEO.

However, the new members held an initial orientation last week.

IACC’s charter requires the committee to consist of at least three members who are autistic, three who are parents or legal guardians of someone on the spectrum, and at least three members who represent organizations active in autism advocacy, research or service.

It’s unclear if the new members fulfill these criteria or if more members will be named. An application process, announced in the Federal Register in September 2025, closed earlier this month.

The committee’s meetings are open to the public.

‘We are picking up the pieces following a generation of profound failure’

The IACC’s recommendations are nonbinding. But according to STAT, the group “wields significant power” as it “coordinates all autism-related programs in the federal health infrastructure.” The committee coordinates nearly $2 billion in federal funding.

“A small coalition of people on IACC could influence the direction of federal funding and orient private organizations in crucial ways,” STAT reported.

IACC also “presents strategic plans regarding the country’s autism research, services, and policy to Congress and combs through thousands of autism studies published each year to highlight the most important findings,” STAT reported.

Rinicella, one of the new members, said that past iterations of the IACC failed to deliver significant progress. While the IACC’s work “has helped align agencies, it has not consistently translated into measurable improvements in medical care, access or outcomes for individuals with autism and their families,” she said.

Gilmore, the executive director of the Autism Action Network, said that with its new lineup of members, the IACC can help deliver progress on research into the potential causes of autism. That research has stagnated in recent decades, he said.

Gilmore told The Defender:

“When the IACC was founded in 2000, we officially did not know what the cause or causes of autism were. There were no treatments, there was no prevention, there was no cure and the autism rate was thought to be about 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 children.

“Twenty-five years later, we still officially do not know what the cause or causes of autism are, there are no treatments, there is no prevention, there are no cures, but the autism rate is thought to be about 1 in 31. We are picking up the pieces following a generation of profound failure.”

According to STAT, autism researchers and advocates “worry” that the IACC’s new members will use the committee as “a vehicle to spread misinformation” about autism and to direct federal research dollars into “long-debunked claims,” including that vaccination is linked to autism.

Gilmore, who has an adult son with autism, dismissed those concerns.

“My son will be 26 in a few days,” he said. “None of the major questions about autism we were asking when he was first diagnosed in 2001 have been answered. Nothing new has been developed. Nothing new of use to families dealing with autism has been produced. We must change that.”

After 15 years of looking, researchers haven’t identified genetic cause of autism

Gilmore said he “would like to see the IACC focus on environmental causes of autism, including vaccines, as opposed to the almost exclusive focus on heritable genes.”

He said that after more than 15 years of looking for a genetic cause, researchers still haven’t identified one.

Rinicella said she would like the committee to focus on “advancing recommendations that lead to measurable improvements in health outcomes, safety, communication access and quality of life for people with autism, rather than producing reports that do not translate into real-world change.”

She said the IACC’s new members will not promote “ideology or predetermined conclusions.” Instead, they will support the current administration’s push for autism research encapsulating the “principles of evidence-based policymaking, transparency, accountability and disability rights.”

New federal autism initiatives include search for root causes

The new members are joining the IACC while several new autism-related initiatives are underway.

In April 2025, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced plans to study the causes of autism. Later that month, Kennedy announced that the federal government launched a “massive testing and research effort” to determine what causes autism.

A 20-page strategy report issued by the White House’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission listed research into the root causes of autism among its 128 recommendations for ending the childhood chronic disease epidemic.

In September 2025, HHS said it would study all possible causes of autism, including vaccines, and NIH announced $50 million in funding for 13 such studies.

That month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added a warning label to Tylenol and acetaminophen products over a possible autism link.

The FDA also approved leucovorin, a medication commonly used in cancer treatments to counter the harmful side effects of other drugs, as a treatment for some autism symptoms.

Recent studies suggest link between vaccines and autism

A peer-reviewed paper published last month in Molecular Neurobiology that reviewed 519 studies determined that autism is not a genetic disorder.

The authors of the paper concluded that autism may arise from a dynamic and potentially modifiable set of biological drivers, including immune system disruption, environmental exposures and gut-brain physiology.

A comprehensive review of 300 studies published in October 2025 identified vaccination as the leading “modifiable risk factor” for autism.

Another study published last year found that vaccinated children have a 170% higher chance of being diagnosed with autism compared to unvaccinated children.

Holland said the IACC’s members have important work ahead of them, as autism’s societal toll will increase as growing numbers of autistic children enter adulthood.

“The human and financial costs of autism are real and rising, and they will soar when the first generation of autism parents die off and the adults with severe autism require full-time care,” Holland said.

Related articles in The Defender

• ‘Honesty at Last’: CDC Says ‘No Evidence’ to Support Claim that Vaccines Don’t Cause Autism
• ‘Uncompromising and Relentless’: HHS to Study All Possible Causes of Autism, Including Vaccines
• RFK Jr. Launches ‘Massive Testing and Research’ Into Autism Epidemic
• Autism Not a Genetic Disorder, New Peer-Reviewed Study Shows
• 1 in 31 Kids Had Autism in 2022 — Up From 1 in 36 in 2020

The post New Advisers to RFK Jr. Seek to Answer ‘Many Unanswered Questions About Autism’ appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.

 

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