Hi Holden! You were provost at WashU when I was an undergrad there majoring in cognitive neuroscience. I was recently diagnosed with autism (this is maybe the fourth time writing that sentence since my diagnosis), and I'm finding myself overwhelmed with what this all means, what this has meant, and what it will mean going forward for me personally and professionally. Anyway, this note is just to say thank you for your openness and vulnerability; I admire it greatly.
I just subscribed to your site. I am a late-diagnosed academic. I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 59. For me it was totally transformational- it is if I thought I was a f**cked up horse for 59 years only to discover I am a zebra. It gave all of the struggles I had a context, and it gave me a map of how to leverage my strengths and minimize my weaknesses.
I’ve written about it on my Substack and am in the throes of writing my story. You can also hear my story on the Uniquely Human podcast that was aired last week. Goodpods ranked this podcast +1 in neurodiversity, autism, ADHD, disability and psychiatry. There are a lot of good episodes. One of the hosts, Barry Prozac’s wrote the book Uniquely Human in 2015 and updated it a few years ago. He was extremely important in changing how to support autistic children. It also really helped me understand my own autism.
Good luck navigating. I hear it can be really hard for many late diagnosed people to get the diagnosis.
I had a great career as scientist, dean, vp for research, provost and teacher. My autistic traits fueled that success but also made me vulnerable. For me it was transformational in a good way.
I am happy to talk if you think it would help. You can find out more about than you would ever want to know at https://www.jim-coleman-phd.com/ including a link to the podcast and to my book writing podcast Pathologically Genuine.
I’m a veterinarian. A good veterinarian. The first 4–6 years were tough but I learned enough masking to finally connect with people. I owned my own practices for much of my career, but I kept getting burned out because of my anxiety. Finally I tried working at a corporate practice and was finally fired. I was gobsmacked and devastated. I received my official diagnosis a few weeks later. That was two years ago. I was 54 years old at the time. As soon as I received “permission“ from a doctor and confirmation that what had been suspected was true. It was the biggest epiphany of my life. Just like the other people who have posted above me, it never occurred to me that other people’s brains worked that much differently than mine. Two years later, I am in a far better place. I was able to find a private practice and the first thing at my interview. I did was explained that I’m autistic. The practice owner is Neurotypical and she wasn’t sure what to do with that. She had just purchased the practice. Turns out every single one of us at the practice except for her is autistic lol! I’ve been there a year and a half, and I’ve never been happier in my life. I feel like I finally made it to the land of misfit toys where I belong. Being around other people who are like-minded and understand that we are all neurodivergent makes it so much easier to be a leader there. The only person that’s kind of hard to understand sometimes is the woman who owns the practice lol! Luckily, however, she is always kind and it works. My relationship with my husband is so much better because now both of us understand (our) own experiences. We always knew my husband was ADHD. Something I used to have a hard time relating to. A few months after being diagnosed with autism, my doctor pointed out that I’m ADHD as well. Once I realize the two were intertwined I was able to pick out my own husband‘s autistic traits. Now my superpower is meeting someone in an instant instantly, knowing that they are autistic! I don’t tell them, but at least I understand how they work even if they don’t. Although this time, I don’t know the practice I’m certainly a very strong leader at the practice and I appreciate what you were doing with this book and I cannot wait for it to come out! Thank you for what you’re doing. It is powerful.
Can't wait for this to come out. It can't help but make us all better. Thank You! I know this new way of thinking will offer great ways to appreciate and work with colleagues / family members and create value, without fail. It is one thing to be told: "fix the problem in front of us" (OK, I am up for the challenge), but another thing entirely to be told: "We just need to be massively better and more strategic." Better at what, you ask? And, of course, one can even learn more about one's own predilections since, as you have said previously, most of us have SOME neurodivergent traits (at some level). If I see one more graph in the media where the Y-axis doesn't start at ZERO, I will tear my hair out. 😊
Congratulations on moving forward with your book! It will be interesting to read how you are weaving autistic traits together to show why we need more autistic leaders.
I only recognize myself as an autistic person in some of the traits you mention. For me, my leadership traits from being autistic that made successful are some of the ones you mention: I hate bullshit; I conceptualize problems way more holistically than people I worked with. I focus on what I think matters most and tune out red herrings. And, being an autistic empath has served me extremely well as a teacher, but also at times as a dean and provost. Most importantly, not being able to be anything but genuine helped me build trust as a VPR, Dean and provost but made me ridiculously vulnerable in a political climate as provost of Flagship public university in the South.
I have been learning a lot doing pet therapy with100 autistic people a week. The main thing I have learned is that, for example, the 75 kids at the school for autistic children I do pet therapy work and am on the board are as vastly different from each other as they are as a group from a group of neurotypical people.
The only trait that I know that all of us share is great difficulty in reading other people. For me, this was a downfall as a leader. Are you going to explore how one manages that trait?
I am really glad that my book has diverged very far from yours, which means I won't be so jealous of you. I may never get it published, but if I do, we'll have quite different audiences.
I called the book "Pathologically Genuine" because not knowing how to be anything but genuine has been my superpower and my kryptonite.
But, I decided to write a narrative memoir aimed at showing what the world was like for me as an autistic person, before I knew I was autistic. It has several paradoxical threads (e.g, great academic and professional success with social failure.. Learning to write narrative memoir is exhilarating and really frustrating. The good news is that I have a great book coach and I have an agent lined up once I can get a strong book proposal. Both, are non-fiction, memoir editors from top five publishers and they feel enthusiastic that my voice and story have a niche to fill. I hope their enthusiasm is not unwarranted.
I don't know if you have read Uniquely Human. I only read after the interview. I thought it was an amazing book with respect to autism in children and so consistent with how the great school I that I am associated deals with autistic children. I felt it must of hit the autism intervention community at the time with a hammer.
Sorry, I suppose much of this is irrelevant to you.
Best wishes for finishing your book and hoping it allows people to understand the strengths autistic people bring to leadership and how to maximally leverage autistic traits. And, of course that it becomes a best seller leading to the cultivation of more autistic leaders.
"We don’t need alpha dogs barking orders and selling a dream, we need careful thinkers who tell it like it is." This. All the marketing copy needed!
Thanks so much for your help!!
Hi Holden! You were provost at WashU when I was an undergrad there majoring in cognitive neuroscience. I was recently diagnosed with autism (this is maybe the fourth time writing that sentence since my diagnosis), and I'm finding myself overwhelmed with what this all means, what this has meant, and what it will mean going forward for me personally and professionally. Anyway, this note is just to say thank you for your openness and vulnerability; I admire it greatly.
You got this. The more you write it, the easier it gets and the more freedom will come.
I appreciate you.
Hi Maria,
I just subscribed to your site. I am a late-diagnosed academic. I wasn’t diagnosed until I was 59. For me it was totally transformational- it is if I thought I was a f**cked up horse for 59 years only to discover I am a zebra. It gave all of the struggles I had a context, and it gave me a map of how to leverage my strengths and minimize my weaknesses.
I’ve written about it on my Substack and am in the throes of writing my story. You can also hear my story on the Uniquely Human podcast that was aired last week. Goodpods ranked this podcast +1 in neurodiversity, autism, ADHD, disability and psychiatry. There are a lot of good episodes. One of the hosts, Barry Prozac’s wrote the book Uniquely Human in 2015 and updated it a few years ago. He was extremely important in changing how to support autistic children. It also really helped me understand my own autism.
Good luck navigating. I hear it can be really hard for many late diagnosed people to get the diagnosis.
I had a great career as scientist, dean, vp for research, provost and teacher. My autistic traits fueled that success but also made me vulnerable. For me it was transformational in a good way.
I am happy to talk if you think it would help. You can find out more about than you would ever want to know at https://www.jim-coleman-phd.com/ including a link to the podcast and to my book writing podcast Pathologically Genuine.
Jim, thank you. For the resources and the kindness and your story. I followed you backed and I can’t wait to see your memoir ◡̈
If you haven’t read Divergent Minds, by Jenara Nerenberg, you may want to. Fantastic book.
Also, Lindsey Mackereth’s Substack, The Complexity Edge, on neurocomplexity, is excellent.
Thanks so much, Nella! I haven't read it and I'm new to Substack generally so I'll take recommendations. Also, I love the cats in your profile photo.
Without clicking on your photo, I absolutely saw a black cat hugging a black and white cat, but now I see Nella in all her glory. She’s perfection.
She has quite a story! Here it is, featured in the San Francisco SPCA blog earlier this year. https://www.sfspca.org/blog/happy-tails-ella-and-nella/
She's the "real" Nella. I'm just borrowing her name. :)
I’m a veterinarian. A good veterinarian. The first 4–6 years were tough but I learned enough masking to finally connect with people. I owned my own practices for much of my career, but I kept getting burned out because of my anxiety. Finally I tried working at a corporate practice and was finally fired. I was gobsmacked and devastated. I received my official diagnosis a few weeks later. That was two years ago. I was 54 years old at the time. As soon as I received “permission“ from a doctor and confirmation that what had been suspected was true. It was the biggest epiphany of my life. Just like the other people who have posted above me, it never occurred to me that other people’s brains worked that much differently than mine. Two years later, I am in a far better place. I was able to find a private practice and the first thing at my interview. I did was explained that I’m autistic. The practice owner is Neurotypical and she wasn’t sure what to do with that. She had just purchased the practice. Turns out every single one of us at the practice except for her is autistic lol! I’ve been there a year and a half, and I’ve never been happier in my life. I feel like I finally made it to the land of misfit toys where I belong. Being around other people who are like-minded and understand that we are all neurodivergent makes it so much easier to be a leader there. The only person that’s kind of hard to understand sometimes is the woman who owns the practice lol! Luckily, however, she is always kind and it works. My relationship with my husband is so much better because now both of us understand (our) own experiences. We always knew my husband was ADHD. Something I used to have a hard time relating to. A few months after being diagnosed with autism, my doctor pointed out that I’m ADHD as well. Once I realize the two were intertwined I was able to pick out my own husband‘s autistic traits. Now my superpower is meeting someone in an instant instantly, knowing that they are autistic! I don’t tell them, but at least I understand how they work even if they don’t. Although this time, I don’t know the practice I’m certainly a very strong leader at the practice and I appreciate what you were doing with this book and I cannot wait for it to come out! Thank you for what you’re doing. It is powerful.
Thanks for sharing. So happy for you!!
Can't wait for this to come out. It can't help but make us all better. Thank You! I know this new way of thinking will offer great ways to appreciate and work with colleagues / family members and create value, without fail. It is one thing to be told: "fix the problem in front of us" (OK, I am up for the challenge), but another thing entirely to be told: "We just need to be massively better and more strategic." Better at what, you ask? And, of course, one can even learn more about one's own predilections since, as you have said previously, most of us have SOME neurodivergent traits (at some level). If I see one more graph in the media where the Y-axis doesn't start at ZERO, I will tear my hair out. 😊
Sounds like an excellent book!
Congratulations on moving forward with your book! It will be interesting to read how you are weaving autistic traits together to show why we need more autistic leaders.
I only recognize myself as an autistic person in some of the traits you mention. For me, my leadership traits from being autistic that made successful are some of the ones you mention: I hate bullshit; I conceptualize problems way more holistically than people I worked with. I focus on what I think matters most and tune out red herrings. And, being an autistic empath has served me extremely well as a teacher, but also at times as a dean and provost. Most importantly, not being able to be anything but genuine helped me build trust as a VPR, Dean and provost but made me ridiculously vulnerable in a political climate as provost of Flagship public university in the South.
I have been learning a lot doing pet therapy with100 autistic people a week. The main thing I have learned is that, for example, the 75 kids at the school for autistic children I do pet therapy work and am on the board are as vastly different from each other as they are as a group from a group of neurotypical people.
The only trait that I know that all of us share is great difficulty in reading other people. For me, this was a downfall as a leader. Are you going to explore how one manages that trait?
I am really glad that my book has diverged very far from yours, which means I won't be so jealous of you. I may never get it published, but if I do, we'll have quite different audiences.
I called the book "Pathologically Genuine" because not knowing how to be anything but genuine has been my superpower and my kryptonite.
But, I decided to write a narrative memoir aimed at showing what the world was like for me as an autistic person, before I knew I was autistic. It has several paradoxical threads (e.g, great academic and professional success with social failure.. Learning to write narrative memoir is exhilarating and really frustrating. The good news is that I have a great book coach and I have an agent lined up once I can get a strong book proposal. Both, are non-fiction, memoir editors from top five publishers and they feel enthusiastic that my voice and story have a niche to fill. I hope their enthusiasm is not unwarranted.
I was lucky to get interviewed on the Uniquely Human podcast that aired on July 3. It was a really fun episode. If you are so inclined, you can find it at https://uniquelyhuman.com/2026/07/03/pathologically-genuine-jim-coleman/
I don't know if you have read Uniquely Human. I only read after the interview. I thought it was an amazing book with respect to autism in children and so consistent with how the great school I that I am associated deals with autistic children. I felt it must of hit the autism intervention community at the time with a hammer.
Sorry, I suppose much of this is irrelevant to you.
Best wishes for finishing your book and hoping it allows people to understand the strengths autistic people bring to leadership and how to maximally leverage autistic traits. And, of course that it becomes a best seller leading to the cultivation of more autistic leaders.
Pathologically Genuine is a great title!! Thanks for the update.