• Mission • Advisory Board • Brochure • Application • History • Awards

AHA's Advisory Board members were drawn from past AHA speakers and professionals in the autism community. We consider ourselves fortunate that, since our beginnings in 1988, our group has had such outstanding speakers and made so many lasting friendships. Occasionally advisory members will submit articles for our newsletter and, as they do now, answer questions from us. We are delighted to be able to draw on the expertise and experience of such knowledgeable and terrific people.

Advisory Board Members

Staff & Volunteers

AHA Board of Directors

Pat Schissel, LMSW - Executive Director and President of the Board

Pat Schissel, LMSW is the Executive Director and President of the Asperger Syndrome and High Functioning Autism Association, Inc. (AHA), a support and education advocacy group for parents and professionals, with members across the state, country and world. She facilitates support groups, manages the AHA website and the AHA eNews, a worldwide listserv, and is the coordinator of AHA’s two yearly conferences. For six years she was an adjunct associate professor at Adelphi’s Ammon School of Education and Long Island University’s CW Post Campus in their CASE program where she taught undergraduates and graduates about Asperger Syndrome and related conditions. She also served as a Board of Education Trustee for close to twenty years. Ms. Schissel is a graduate of Adelphi University’s School of Social Work and is on their Autism Task Force. She is on the editorial boards of the Autism Spectrum News and the Autism Spectrum Quarterly and writes a monthly column on autism-related issues for the Long Island website 516/631ADS. She is on the founding board for Westbrook Preparatory School, the first therapeutic residential school in New York State for adolescents with Asperger Syndrome and related conditions which opened in February 2011 in Westbury, NY. Ms. Schissel is the parent of two; one an adult on the autism spectrum who was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome in his 20's and the other an attorney who works in public interest law.

Michael A. Buffa, Esq. - Vice-President of Board of Directors

Bernice Polinsky - Deputy Director, Corresponding Secretary

 Lynn R. Levine - Treasurer

Bill Braun, Director

Joan Resnick Ehrlich, Director

Bea Gravino, Director
Bea Gravino works as an ELA consultant and is a former high school English teacher.  She has been a member of AHA since her daughter Amy’s diagnosis with autism/Asperger’s Syndrome at the age of nine.  In addition to serving as a board member, she is a member of a women’s writing group called Herstory Writers Workshop which helps give women a voice.  Bea also is a member of the Suwassett Garden Club in Port Jefferson.

William Heslin - Director

Carole Kalvar - Director

Edward J. Nitkewicz Esq. - Director
Edward J. Nitkewicz is a Senior attorney at Sanders, Sanders, Block, Woycik, Viener & Grossman, ("the Sanders Law Firm") one of the most successful and innovative personal injury law firms in New York. He was formerly the managing partner of Nitkewicz & McMahon, a small litigation practice located in Commack, New York. Ed concentrates on the representation of personal injury plaintiffs in matters arising from general negligence, medical malpractice and product defect. He has also represented clients in complex commercial litigation, estate litigation, and general civil litigation and has extensive pre-trial, trial and appellate advocacy experience.

Since 1999, when his son Edward was diagnosed with autism, Ed has become a leading education law attorney representing families in CPSE and CSE meetings, impartial hearings and special education litigation as a Parent Advocate and/or attorney. (Download entire bio (PDF).)

Patricia Fitzgerald, M.S., CCC-SLP, TSHH - Education Liaison

John Pomeroy, M.D. - Professional Liaison

Past President - Pat Long

AHA Staff and Volunteers

Joan Hourihane, Staff Administrator
Joan Hourihane is an administrator for the AHA Association. She has been a member of AHA for the past eleven years where she has served as volunteer, hotline/support group facilitator, head librarian for AHA’s lending library, newsletter editor, and former AHA board member. Joan has gained extensive knowledge in the areas of special education law, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit disorder, learning disabilities and other developmental disorders through her affiliation and leadership at AHA, CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder), IDA (International Dyslexia Association) and SEPTA (Special Education Parent Teacher Association). Joan has a degree in Computer Science from St. John’s University, and worked as a Telecommunications Engineer for New York Telephone/NYNEX for eleven years. Joan and her husband have been married for 27 years and are the proud parents of two sons with special needs.

Jeannie Wright, Staff Administrator

Rosalie Edelson, Volunteer - Membership and Conference Registration

Stuart Cohen, Volunteer
Stuart E. Cohen Ph.D. is a Professor Emeritus of Psychology in the Division of the Social and Behavioral Sciences at Mercy College. Dr. Cohen is also a New York State licensed Psychologist. Dr. Cohen has been actively involved in grant work at Mercy as a co-developer of a Title III grant awarded in 1996 and Title V grants awarded in 2000 and 2006. He also served as an activity director for the grants and had a primary role and responsibility in grant evaluation. Most recently he has served as an external evaluator for The Mercy College Bridges to a Baccalaureate Program, the York College McNair Scholars Program, and the Mercy College RIMI (Research Infrastructure in Minority Institutions) Grant. Dr. Cohen is also involved in community service and serves as a volunteer for AHA and Island Harvest.