Jonathan Lai, PhD, is the Executive Director at Autism Alliance of Canada. He also holds an Adjunct Faculty position in Health Services Research at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
At Autism Alliance of Canada, Dr. Lai’s work involves responding to emerging national policy gaps in the autism and disability sector. Through his career, he has experience working at the interface of research, community and policy to effect systems change in the health and social services sector across Canada and internationally. From designing surveys and analyzing data on service use for people with developmental disabilities to facilitating policy dialogues on autism and disability, he champions the use of data and community perspectives to inform decision-making.
Dr. Lai has been appointed to serve as the Vice Co-chair of the Minister of National Revenue’s Disability Advisory Committee to improve how the Disability Tax Credit and other federal disability tax measures are delivered. He is also a former Maytree Policy School fellow.
His graduate research training was in Neuroscience at the University of Guelph and McMaster University, focused on gene-environment influences on the developing brain, funded by the Ontario Mental Health Foundation and subsequently, as a CIHR Vanier Scholar. This was followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at York University in knowledge mobilization and a CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship at McGill University.