A special program to help autistic students successfully navigate careers in math and science now faces an existential threat thanks to the Trump administration’s bid to curtail diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in American institutions.
Keivan Stassun, a world-renowned physicist and astronomer at Vanderbilt University, is the founding director of the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation at Vanderbilt’s School of Engineering, which has been focused on finding ways to foster neurodiverse talent in higher education and the workforce. But Donald Trump’s focus on ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and its slash-and-burn approach to pausing research grants puts Stassun’s work at risk.
“The tragedy is that our project could not be seen as ‘woke DEI’ by anyone: it is workforce development for the nation’s science and technology enterprise, filling the large talent gap that tech companies are facing in AI, cybersecurity, and all forms of engineering,” Stassun said in a text message. “We had a large set of corporate partners involved, and a large network of the biggest engineering schools partnered as well.”
In 2024, Stassun received a MacArthur Fellowship, often called a “genius grant,” for his efforts. For him, the work is also personal: He is the father of an autistic son, named Jamie. The center also includes many people who are autistic themselves, like Dave Caudel, its associate director.
Stassun told The Independent that as recently as January, the Frist Center was told it would receive a $4 million grant from the National Science Foundation to create a model for including neurodivergent people across engineering schools in the United States.
The grant was supposed to be part of the Broadening Participation in Engineering program, which focuses on including a diverse array of people in engineering. But because the grant was not officially activated before Trump put in place an executive order limiting DEI programs and before Elon Musk began the process of eliminating various programs as part of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the grant was suspended.
Stassun said he understood the suspension came as a result of the program having “bad DEIA” words such as “neurodiversity,” “inclusion,” “disabilities” and “accessibility.”
“The Frist Center is preparing to lay off several staff, unfortunately including folks who are autistic (by our mission, our staff includes a high representation of ND folks),” Stassun told The Independent.
“Neurodiversity” and “neurodivergence” does not only refer to people diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It also includes people diagnosed with disabilities such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Tourette’s syndrome, dyslexia, dyspraxia, and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Stopping DEI efforts has become an animating force among the American right in recent years. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order that required federal agencies to terminate all “equity-related” grants and a separate executive order that mandated all federal contractors to certify that they do not promote DEI. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction just days after Trump signed both executive orders.
In recent years, companies, universities and non-profit groups have made an effort to hire neurodivergent people and accommodate them in higher learning. But Trump’s efforts to restrict DEI initiatives have already trickled into the private sector, with some shareholders pushing back.
Stassun said this is not the only grant that has been halted. The Frist Center hoped to receive a $3 million grant through the NSF’s INCLUDES program — which meant to make the nation’s STEM fields more reflective of the nation’s population — for its outreach to neurodivergent middle schoolers and high school students to get them ready for STEM majors in college.
The same goes, Stassun said, for a $500,000 grant from the NSF’s Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, meant to provide undergraduate students training in science and technology careers.
Altogether, Stassun said, the canceled grants equal about $7.5 million.
“We will have to RIF [reductions in force] staff and most importantly this workforce development work to enable a large and underutilized segment of the American talent pool won’t happen,” he told The Independent. “I firmly believe that everyone everywhere would regard this as a great thing for America, nothing ideological about it. Just that the D word and the I word and the A word are all involved.”
A spokesman for the National Science Foundation said the grants are continuing to be reviewed.
“NSF is working expeditiously to conduct a comprehensive review of our projects, programs and activities to be compliant with the existing executive orders,” spokesperson Michael England said in an email.
The move is also in line with DOGE’s restricting of research grants from the U.S. Department of Education to find the best programs to help students with disabilities transition to adulthood. One grant sought to learn the effectiveness of programs like Charting my Path for Future Success, but the money was canceled once the Trump administration took office.
Stassun cautioned that restricting these grants would not save the government much money — but would greatly impact the communities these programs serve.
“Firing 10 percent of the people saves less than 1 percent of the budget, but makes it very hard for the agency to do its job and causes the loss of major benefits for our nation,” he said. “Our $4m grant alone would have ultimately enabled tens of thousands of autistic and other students to become engineers for companies like SpaceX and many more.”
