IDD/Autism Summit at TUFH 2025

• Embedded Scientific Sessions: The IDD/Autism Summit sessions will be seamlessly integrated throughout the TUFH 2025 conference program. Attendees can participate in multiple sessions focused on ASD and IDD, providing comprehensive insights and practical applications.

• Workshops & Interactive Discussions: Engaging workshops designed to foster collaboration and the development of actionable solutions to the challenges faced by individuals with ASD and IDD.

• Global Perspectives on ASD and IDD: Experts from around the world will share best practices, research, and strategies for advancing social accountability and improving systems of care for individuals with developmental disabilities.

• Cross-Cutting Themes: Discussions will explore how to integrate autism and IDD care into broader health and education systems, ensuring a holistic approach to care and support.

Sailaja Musunuri, MD, Executive Vice President of Integrative Medicine and Chief of Psychiatry, is an accomplished team leader who has consistently delivered results in numerous clinical settings for more than 20 years, including experience working with children and adults with intellectual disability, autism, and co-occurring psychiatric disorders and other complex medical conditions.

Dr. Musunuri is an experienced and compassionate physician and psychiatrist (double Board Certified in Adult, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry), providing high quality medical and psychiatric care with diverse clinical operations experience. Dr. Musunuri is known for constructively challenging conventional thinking, identifying and implementing innovative ideas, and building stakeholder confidence for mission critical initiatives. She has exhibited these characteristics in thinking creatively to connect the dots between nonprofit health and human services organizations with leaders in the pharmaceutical arena to ensure focus on individuals with intellectual disability that will improve quality of services and health outcomes for this population. She serves as a role model for fostering discussion of complex issues, while promoting the organizational mission and operating procedures. These discussions and partnerships have spanned the globe, as she maintains connections between the U.S. and India for new program development and partnerships which will benefit people with disabilities in both regions.

Dr. Musunuri has leveraged this experience to fulfill one of the strategic goals of Woods System of Care, to disseminate its expertise to others, by founding the Mollie Woods Hare Center for Excellence in Neurodivergence – Intellectual Disability, Autism and Mental Health, which houses Woods’ training and dissemination arm for best practices in the field.

Her role as Board Member of The Network: Toward Unity for Health (TUFH), an international non-state actor of the World Health Organization, is further evidence of Dr. Musunuri’s commitment to ensuring that the most vulnerable populations have access to the services they need. TUFH is an international, intersectoral, intergenerational organization that fosters equitable community-oriented health services, education and research with the goal of improving health locally and globally. They convene innovative health care organizations, universities, community institutions and thought leaders from all over the world. The link between the Mollie Woods Hare Global Center of Excellence and TUFH will serve to extend the reach of both organizations to improve quality of care for individuals with disabilities.

In addition to providing oversight of clinical programs and direct care for individuals with intellectual disability and complex healthcare needs, Dr. Musunuri is a committed mentor who dedicates tremendous energy to training the next generation of child and adolescent psychiatry fellows, adult psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners and other clinical practitioners. Dr. Musunuri serves as Academic Faculty Advisor at Woods for interns and fellows from area health professions schools. A nationally respected leader known for her deep expertise in the field of intellectual disability, Dr. Musunuri is sought after as a premier academic advisor for the interns and fellows she supervises.

Her strong track record of mentoring and partnership development has led her to be invited to serve as a clinical faculty member at Tower Health – Phoenixville Hospital, Temple University Louis Katz School of Medicine and Rider University. Dr. Musunuri oversees integrated healthcare throughout the System of Care, ensuring that all services are interconnected in order to provide whole-person care. She also served as the principal investigator of the Specialized Mental Health Outpatient Program which was launched through federal funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Prior to Woods, Dr. Musunuri served for nearly twenty years as Medical Director of Devereux, a behavioral health organization serving individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism. Her professional training includes receiving her M.D. from Siddartha MedicalCollege/Nagarjuna University, Vijayawada, India, completing her internship in Psychiatry at Medwin Hopsital, Hyderabad, India, and residencies in Adult and Child/Adolescent Psychiatry respectively at SIU School of Medicine, Springfield, IL, U.S., and Drexel University College of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, U.S. Dr. Musunuri is considered the premier leader in psychiatry in the U.S. for people with intellectual disability and complex psychiatric and other chronic conditions, is a leader in integrated care, and a leader in training the next generation of practitioners who are desperately needed to address the health disparities of this vulnerable and complicated population.

• Submit your research, case studies, and innovative practices for the scientific sessions.

• Join the IDD/Autism Summit track and help us advance the conversation on improving care and services for individuals with autism and intellectual/developmental disabilities.