* Dr Ava Ruth Baker
AvaRuth’s experience in autism is both professional and personal (diagnosed as residual Asperger’s Syndrome in 1997).
A gifted but odd child, she was obsessed with other cultures and languages, resolved to be an interpreter but trained in medicine and mental health, and after a circuitous life journey, finds her current niche interpreting between different autism perspectives (insider versus outsider), medical models (orthodox versus holistic) and research paradigms (biomedical / quantitative versus sociological / qualitative).
• 1969-77 medical degree then hospital medical officer
• 1978-82 overseas training & experience: GP and psychiatric training Wales, wildlife research Galapagos Islands, running remote hospital Samoa
• 1983-2007 GP work while furthering training in autism, post-grad mental health and CBT
• since 1992 general practice & autism spectrum consultancy (offering support and diagnosis for adults and children) in Christchurch, New Zealand
AvaRuth was one of the contributing editors and writers of “Women from another planet?”, an international anthology by women on the autism spectrum, published in 2003, and a co-founder of ASK, a charitable Trust offering peer support to and by New Zealand adults on the autism spectrum.