About Me

I’m Bird Sellergren, M.A., an autistic educator, researcher, coach, and author based in San Francisco. I am currently pursuing a PhD at UC Berkeley, focusing on autism equity, language, and identity formation.

My work centers on autism advocacy, access, and well-being, particularly for autistic adults and students navigating environments that were not designed with their neurology in mind. I bring together academic scholarship, nonprofit leadership, group facilitation, and lived experience to support individuals and organizations in developing approaches that are practical, ethical, and sustainable.

I am a late-diagnosed autistic adult, and my professional path has been shaped by noticing persistent gaps in services for autistic people across the lifespan. Through both research and experience, I have intentionally built my practice to address those systemic gaps, emphasizing clarity, explicit structure, and self-determination rather than behavior change or compliance.

In my coaching and consulting work, I help autistic adults clarify priorities, design neurotype-aligned strategies, and build durable self-advocacy skills. My approach focuses on understanding context, constraints, and systems, and on creating supports that work in real life. This work is informed by long-term mindfulness practice, including silent meditation retreats, which shapes how I approach attention, regulation, and decision-making without pathologizing autistic experience.

I also provide neurodiversity-affirming IEP advocacy for autistic students and their families, specializing in autistic burnout, educational disengagement, and recovery. This work draws on Sellergren’s Autistic Burnout Framework, a seven-domain model I developed through my coaching practice, and centers students as the primary authorities on their own experiences.

Alongside 1:1 coaching, I work with organizations through trainings, workshops, and consulting on neurodiversity-affirming practice, accessibility, and inclusive system design. I founded and serve as Executive Director of Bay Area Autism Collective, a San Francisco nonprofit providing peer support for autistic adults.

I am the author of Facilitating Autistic Peer Support Groups: Creating Autism-Affirming Spaces to Build Support and Connection (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2026), a guide to building peer support spaces grounded in autistic experience.

Across all of my roles, my work is grounded in the neurodiversity paradigm and informed by feminist, decolonial, and intersectional frameworks. I am committed to centering autistic perspectives, supporting autonomy, and helping people and institutions move from good intentions to concrete, workable practices.