Gabby Sutton is a second-semester nursing student. She currently works as a medical assistant for Intermountain Healthcare and noticed that people with autism who present at her clinic have difficulties with the environment. She did a literature search and identified several autism-friendly interventions that can be done to help people with autism. She reached out to Boston Children’s, an autism-friendly initiative, and the University of Utah. Gabby spent an extraordinary amount of time and energy on her own time to get things moving in the right direction. She has taken time out of her busy schedule to complete a shadow experience with the autism clinic at the University of Utah.

As a result of her efforts, Intermountain has developed a research team to support autism-friendly healthcare, and she has been hired as a research assistant. I have never seen someone so dedicated to an issue.