Joanne Lara

Founder & Executive Director

Joanne Lara, M.A., founded Autism Movement Therapy in 2009 after teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District for over 10 years exclusively with students with autism. She held a master's in Special Education from California State University, Northridge and a BA in Dance from the University of South Florida. She passed away in June 2020 from ovarian cancer, having trained over 650 certified AMT providers globally and worked with more than 500 individuals with autism. She was also an adjunct professor at National University in Los Angeles and authored 'Waking Up the Brain! Autism Movement Therapy® Method' (Jessica Kingsley Publishers).