by 
Maria is a PhD student at CRAE, tracking and evaluating an education to employment programme for autistic young people called Employ Autism, which was set up by the autism charity Ambitious about Autism.
Anna Remington (CRAE) and Brett Heasman (York St John University) supervise Maria’s research. Maria’s PhD research is tracking and evaluating an education to employment initiative for autistic young people, the Employ Autism network, set up by the education and employment charity, Ambitious about Autism. This is a three-year longitudinal evaluation, and collects data from the autistic young people, employers, and parents/carers to get a more holistic understanding about the transition from education to work for autistic people, and the Employ Autism network.
Before starting as a PhD student, Maria joined CRAE as a Research Assistant in May 2019, working on the Research Passport project and Research Toolkit funded by Autistica, as well as assisting on a number of other projects at CRAE.
Maria completed her BSc in Psychology and MSc in Social and Applied Psychology at the University of Kent. Since graduating, Maria worked as a Research Assistant on two developmental psychology research projects about Education Health and Care plans and a transition to secondary school in autistic children and children with Williams syndrome and Down syndrome. Maria has also volunteered with mental health charities, including Mind and SLV Global.
On the web: LinkedIn | ResearchGate
Recent publications:
- Ashworth, M., Crane, L., Steward, R., Bovis, M., & Pellicano, L. (2020). Towards empathetic autism research: Developing an autism-specific Research Passport. Autism in Adulthood.
- Crane, L., Hearst, C., Ashworth, M., Davies, J., & Hill, E. L. (2020). Supporting Newly Identified or Diagnosed Autistic Adults: An Initial Evaluation of an Autistic-Led Programme. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
- Harvey, H., Ashworth, M., Palikara, O., & Van Herwegen, J. (2020). The Underreporting of Vision Problems in Statutory Documents of Children with Williams Syndrome and Down Syndrome. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
- Ashworth, M., Palikara, O., & Van Herwegen J. (2019). Comparing parental stress of children with neurodevelopmental disorders: The case of Williams syndrome, Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorders. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities.
- Van Herwegen, J., Ashworth, M., & Palikara, O. (2019). Views of professionals about the educational needs of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Research in Developmental Disabilities.