Doctoral Student Carrie Mitran ’19MED ’21PHD Invited to Speak at Stanford Neurodiversity Summit Panel

After experiences with neurodiversity in her personal life, Carrie Mitran ’19MED ‘21PHD began doing a lot of self-driven research into mental health. After about ten years of learning on her own, Mitran decided to enroll in the NC State College of Education to earn her master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling and Ph.D. in the Educational Leadership, Policy, and Human Development Counseling and Counselor Education Concentration 

Now Mitran, who will graduate in December, has been invited to share her work on neurodiversity at the annual Stanford Neurodiversity Summit on Nov. 9. 

“This has been my life’s work but, in some ways, this is the beginning of my life’s work at the same time. This is the beginning of my work in the academic realm, of having conversations and getting myself out there,” Mitran said. 

Mitran will be part of the “Fostering Identity in K-12 Neurodivergent Students: Tips from the Field” panel, which focuses on mental health providers helping build identity for neurodiverse students in schools. 

Mitran’s most recent work is her dissertation entitled “An Examination of the Experiences,  Challenges, Perceptions and Recommendations of Licensed Counselors and Mental Health Providers Working with Neurodiverse Adults.”

As a provider who works with neurodiverse adults, Mitran wanted to use this research opportunity to talk with other providers in the field to understand what patterns they are seeing among their clients and gather the thoughts, ideas and observations they’ve gleaned through their work with these individuals.

As she wraps up her time at the College of Education, Mitran said she appreciates how much freedom her doctoral program gave her to explore different facets of neurodiversity and research the topics that most interested her. 

“I know this is just the beginning of my research and work in the academic world, and I’m very excited to take what I’ve done and continue that work,” she said. “I’m very excited to see where this goes academically.”