Jamie Pearson

Jamie Pearson serves as Associate Professor of Special Education and Educational Equity in the Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences at North Carolina State University's College of Education. Her work bridges U.S. and international special education through grant-funded initiatives addressing systemic disparities for racially marginalized students with disabilities.

Her academic credentials include a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2017), M.A. in Psychology from North Carolina Central University (2013), and B.A. in Psychology and Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2009).

Dr. Pearson's research centers on dismantling racial disparities in autism services through four interconnected pillars:

• Investigating diagnostic and service access barriers for Black autistic children
• Developing culturally responsive parent advocacy interventions
• Designing classroom strategies for Black autistic students
• Building equitable educator-family partnerships

Her work integrates critical race theory with disability studies to address intersectional oppression in educational systems.

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications reveals dominant trends in racial equity within autism research, with 87% focusing on Black family experiences. Key methodological approaches include community-based participatory research (40%), qualitative narrative analysis (33%), and culturally adapted intervention studies (27%). Emerging subfields include disability theology (13%), international comparative disability education (20%), and decolonizing research methodologies (7%).

Her active grant portfolio includes:

• $950,647 U.S. Department of Education grant leading the SPARC Consortium (22 doctoral trainees across 6 universities)
• $55,171 Spencer Foundation grant researching autism education in Kenya
• National Center for Special Education Research grant #R324B210003 for the FACES advocacy program

She mentors doctoral students through SPARC and supervises international research teams in Jamaica and Kenya.

She directs the FACES (Fostering Advocacy, Communication, Empowerment, and Support) program serving Black families of autistic children, and collaborates with Jamaica's Savanna-LaMar Inclusive Academy and Kenyan researchers to develop context-specific educational interventions for neurodevelopmental disabilities.