A Message From Dr. Wendy Chung

I am writing to share some exciting news with all of you. After over a decade as the director of clinical research at the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI), I have accepted a new opportunity as the pediatrician-in-chief and chair of pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts. I am honored to join a talented team of doctors and researchers. This appointment is a reflection of the many contributions our patient advocacy communities and families have made over the years.

Please rest assured that even though I am transitioning to Boston Children’s Hospital, I will remain the principal investigator of Simons Searchlight.

SFARI and the Simons Foundation remain dedicated to Simons Searchlight and autism research. Our study’s recruitment, engagement, retention, and research will continue uninterrupted. Your participation will remain the same as well. You will still interact with the program team, you will log in to the same dashboard to complete surveys, and researchers will continue to access all the de-identified data through the SFARI Base portal.

This transition will afford many exciting new opportunities to increase the impact of Simons Searchlight, including finding new challenges to address and new data to collect that speaks to those challenges.

We will keep you informed and we welcome any questions you might have about this news. Looking forward to seeing many of you again this summer and fall at your family conferences.

Sincerely,

Wendy Chung
Principal Investigator, Simons Searchlight