Liane Holliday Willey, EdD

Liane Holliday Willey, EdD received her B.A. in Speech Communications (1981), her M.Ed. (1983) at the University of Missouri, and her EdD in Reading Education-Psycholinguistics (1988) from Mississippi State University.  Her first book, Pretending to be Normal: Living with Asperger’s Syndrome (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 1999) is a bestseller in the field having sold over 70,000 copies to date. Her books Asperger Syndrome in the Family: Redefining Normal (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2001) and Adolescents and Asperger Syndrome in the Adolescent Years: Living With the Ups and Downs and Things in Between (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2003) are also on their way to becoming bestsellers in the field. All three books have been translated into several languages including German, Danish, Dutch, French, Polish and Japanese. Liane has also contributed individual chapters to several books on Asperger syndrome. Her fourth release, Safety Skills for Asperger Women ~ How to Save a Perfectly Good Female Life, debuted to great reviews in July of 2011. 


Liane has been featured in The USA Today, Psychology Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Kansas City Star, Register-Guard, The Grand Rapids Press, and many other major newspapers in addition to several on-line sites such as ABC News and Newsweek.  She has been a guest on several national and international radio shows including Radio 4 BBC and Wisconsin’s NPR. Liane was also one of the experts on the Peabody Award nominated special produced by The Infinite Mind radio productions. Liane has also been featured in two videos, Asperger Syndrome: Crossing the Bridge and Ask Me About Asperger Syndrome (both Michael Thompson Productions, 2001). Her first book, Pretending to be Normal was featured in the feature film Adam, and was an inspiration for the film Normal Folk (in pre-production).


Liane is a popular keynote speaker on the subjects of learning disabilities and communication disorders, and interventions for people with pervasive developmental disorders. She has spoken for many of the largest professional, public and private special education foundations in the world including the Autism Society of America, The Netherlands Autism Society, The Autism Society of Canada, The Asperger Association of New England, More Abled Autistic People (MAAP), The SOREIYU Educational Consulting and Life Support Center for Autism in Japan, The Asperger Syndrome Education Network (ASPEN) and The Autism Society of Los Angeles. Liane also provides her consultations to elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, local special education societies, and parent groups.


Liane serves on several professional boards including Imperative Pictures, a Los Angeles based film company dedicated to the production of mainstream movies focusing on a variety of diversity issues; The Asperger Association of Michigan; The College Internship Program, The Asperger Women’s Association, The L.A. Center for Positive Change, Inc.; The Asperger Syndrome Coalition of the United States (ASK-US); The Equest Center for Therapeutic Riding, and More Able Autistic People (MAAP). In addition, she and her husband started a scholarship for psychology students interested in studying pervasive developmental disorders, at Grand Valley State University in Michigan. 


As a child, Liane struggled with anxiety, social skills, obsessive-compulsive disorder, literal thinking, math dyslexia, sensory integration disorder and hyperlexia. She preferred the company of animals more than people, particularly her horses and every dog she met!  Rather than seeking invitations to birthday parties or slumber parties, Liane preferred to spend her time with anything having to do with the Wild West, animals, 10 miles to the dot bicycle rides, and pools swimming in circles.  Liane’s first psychiatric evaluation came when she was four years old and though her doctor could not put a label on her unique personality, he was certain her test scores and behaviors were indicative of what we now term Pervasive Developmental Disorder.  At the urging of her mother, Liane’s father was also seen by the same psychiatrist who quickly determined father and daughter were two peas in a pod.  Liane feels extremely lucky to have been supported by parents, physicians, teachers and a few friends who understood her and provided her the kinds of strategies and skills experts in the field recognize as essential for kids on the spectrum.  Thanks to their early and consistent support, Liane has found a career as a university professor, the owner of a horse farm, a consultant to Behavioral Resources and Institute for Neuropsychological Services, the Senior Editor of Autism Spectrum Quarterly and the webhost of www.aspie.com, a site dedicated to the understanding and support of Asperger syndrome.  She also writes a blog for Psychology Today under the title The Pragmatic Aspie.