Dr. Lynn Kern Koegel is a world expert on autism and established a widely-used autism therapy called pivotal response treatment which aims to improve communication in children with autism. Alongside her husband, Robert Koegel, she has won many awards including the first annual Children's Television Workshop Sesame Street Award for "Brightening the Lives of Children", the first annual Autism Speaks award for "Science and Research" and the International ABA award for "enduring programmatic contributions in behavior analysis."
Claire Scovell LaZebnik is an American novelist/author.
She is married to the American television writer Rob LaZebnik, with whom she has four children. Her novels include Same as It Never Was, Knitting Under the Influence and The Smart One and the Pretty One. She has co-written two books on autism with Dr. Lynn Koegel prior to Hidden Strengths: Overcoming Autism and Growing up on the Spectrum. LaZebnik's son has autism and he inspired her to write about the subject.