Delia Samuel, Ph.D.

Co-Founder and Vice-Chairperson

About

Delia is a mathematics professor who began her journey as a very angry, fearful and confused single parent of two autistic boys, who constantly struggled to deal with the monthly bills required to support the extensive therapy that both her sons required.  For over four years, she used her own funds to support her sons' needs, having no knowledge of what services were available to families like hers.

Delia recounts her journey from Despair to Acceptance and then to Rejoicing in her publication “Against the Odds: Inspiration for parenting children with special needs”.   This book provides parents and caregivers with a proven recipe for dealing with the challenges that they face when caring for children with special needs – a recipe filled with love, humor, and faith. 

Delia is passionate about helping families and service providers understand that "It's ok to be autistic".  She wants everyone to understand that there is nothing wrong with autistic individuals.  Since the book was published in 2015, Delia has received numerous requests to speak  and in 2015, she initiated and organized the first autism awareness conference in the Caribbean. She continues to serve the region by holding autism conferences and camps for autistic individuals, their families, and others they may share their lives with. 

In 2016, while speaking at a Somali conference, she was introduced to Fatima Molas, who was also the parent of an autistic child and had similar goals.  Together they created MAAN with the goal to help families and service providers (educators, doctors, police, etc.) in multicultural communities create a supportive, inclusive environment so that these autistic individuals can become contributing members of society and not be ostracized, isolated or made to feel lesser than others.

In 2021, Delia decided to have an autism assessment done on herself, as she noticed that there were very strong similarities in some behaviours between herself and her boys. The assessment revealed that Delia was in fact, autistic herself.

As an autistic parent and someone who has had to deal with challenges all her life, she knows from experience that the seemingly impossible can be made possible. She intends to make others experience the same.

Other Board Members