Maureen Morrell is married with three sons; Justin, the oldest at 28, has autism and lives and works in a residential farm community. Maureen has a background in nursing and public health, and has been active in advocacy for individuals with ASD and their families for over 20 years. She has served two terms on the Board of Directors of the Autism Society of North Carolina (ASNC) and in 1998 received ASNC's Parent of the Year Award. She is the co-author of the 2007 Autism Society of America's Outstanding Literary Work of the Year: Parenting Across the Autism Spectrum: Unexpected Lessons We Have Learned.,