Emily (she/they) is the Director of the University Honors Program, the Emma Louise LeBlanc Burguieres/BORSF Endowed Professor of Social Sciences, and Full Professor in the Psychology Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Emily is also the Director of the Louisiana Contextual Science Research Group, which supports collaborative contributions from students and professionals from all over the world. They have co-authored three books on acceptance and commitment therapy for struggles with eating and body image, along with chapters and journal articles on contextual behavioral science, social justice, clinical behavioral processes, and psychological flexibility. Emily has led more than 100 training workshops for professionals around the world, and serves as a peer-reviewed ACT trainer. They also practice as a Clinical Psychologist and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, focusing on clinical behavior analysis.

Sarah (she/her) is an educational, child and adolescent psychologist. She is President-Elect of the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI), Founder & Director of Smithsfield Clinic, co-founder & co-director of New England Centre for OCD and Anxiety (Ireland branch), and co-founder of Maynooth University research company www.RaiseYourIQ.com. She is a peer reviewed ACT trainer and a longstanding member of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. In ACBS, she is a Foundation Board Member, former Chair of Membership Committee, steering committee member for the Neurodiversity Affirming Research & Practice Steering SIG, Chair of the Community Education pillar for the ND SIG and Chair of the Fellows selection sub-committee. Elected to PSI Council in 2022, she sits on numerous Committees and Working Groups (WGs) including being co-chair of the Professional Conduct Committee for psychologists in Ireland, Governance Reform Committee, Postgraduate Accreditation Committee, Autism WG, Property WG and Communications & Events Committee. She has co-authored numerous professional practice documents in Ireland (e.g., PSI Response to the Green Paper on Disability Rights, Professional Practice Guidelines for Assessment & Treatment of ADHD in adults and children, upcoming Professional Practice Guidelines for Autism Assessment in Adulthood, PSI response to HSE’s Autism Pathways Proposal and is currently working on re-defining Disability for Irish psychology). Dr Cassidy has been involved in joint research initiatives to develop and implement neuro-affirming psychoeducation and ACT therapeutic programmes for ADHD adults and university students. She is also the PSI Educational Psychology representative to the Children’s Rights Alliance for the Children’s Ombudsman. She is in the Division of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychologists (American Psychological Association) and long time member of the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Dr Cassidy has conducted psychological assessments for nearly 25 years for the Irish Department of Education and for the Health Service Executive. She specialises in neuroaffirming assessment for Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Intellectual Disability and a wide range of social, emotional, behavioural and mental health difficulties. She lectures in Child, Educational and Counselling Psychology, nationally and internationally. She has been involved with the professional training of teachers, guidance counsellors, specialist educators, psychologists and behaviour analysts & multi-disciplinary therapists for almost 20 years. She is a reviewer for several scientific journals, has authored a wide array of scientific papers and book chapters based on her PhD research developing the SMART training programme and the applications of evidence based science to cognitive interventions. She has designed a widely used neuro-affirming children’s mental health programme (MAGPIES) integrating RFT and ACT, has co-authored two best-selling books on supporting anxious children and teens and has 5 more books currently contracted. Dr Cassidy is also a very proud mother to three magnificent children, a wife, a mentor to students and early career psychologists and a late diagnosed member of the Neurodivergent Community. She believes passionately in equitable, collaborative, scientific and compassionate support for humans.