Colorado State University Professor of Animal Science, Autism Advocate and Inclusive Leader Award Winner for Nonprofit: Congratulations Dr. Temple Grandin

In the days to come, we will be profiling the 2022 Inclusive Leader Award winners who will be honored at the opening dinner of GlobalMindED 2022 on June 22. Many will be given this year’s awards by the 2020 and 2021 recipients. Some of these luminaries will be part of the GlobalMindED 2022 conference on June 22, 23. You can see the entire program and register below for the dinner and/or the conference.

Today's feature story of the series of fifteen winners is from the Nonprofit category. Meet Dr. Temple Grandin, professor of Animal Science, Colorado State University, autism advocate, and inspiration for the Temple Grandin School.

Congratulations Dr. Temple Grandin

Inclusive Leader Award Winner for Nonprofit

The following story is shared with us by Dr. Temple Grandin, Colorado State University Professor of Animal Science and autism advocate. She shares with us what led her to pursue a career focusing on serving others using her own strengths.

"I had no speech until age four and I was lucky to have really good early speech therapy. My mother always encouraged my ability in art. There were many great teachers who helped me to be successful. Some of the most important ones were my third grade teacher and my high school science teacher Bill Carlock.

When I first started working in the cattle industry in the early 1970's, being a woman was a bigger barrier (than today). To achieve, I worked hard to make myself really good at my design work. People were impressed with my drawings. I also wish to thank the teachers who taught me good writing skills. Writing in industry publications helped me to advance my career.

Today, I want to help the students who think differently to go into good careers where they can make a positive different."

- Dr. Temple Grandin, CSU Professor of Animal Science, Autism Advocate

It was after Oliver Sacks' writings about Dr. Temple Grandin that she began to gain public awareness. She has since become an inspiration for autistic children, parents, and all people - redefining what is possible. Oliver Sacks wrote in the forward of Thinking in Pictures that her first book, Emergence: Labeled Autistic, was “unprecedented because there had never before been an inside narrative of autism.”

Dr. Grandin became a prominent author and speaker on both autism and animal behavior. Today she is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University, and has a successful career consulting on both livestock handling equipment design and animal welfare. She has been featured on NPR (National Public Radio) and a BBC Special – "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow", and on national TV shows such as Larry King Live, 20/20, Sixty Minutes, Fox and Friends, and she has a 2010 TED talk. Articles about Dr. Grandin have appeared in Time Magazine, New York Times, Discover Magazine, Forbes and USA Today. HBO made an Emmy Award winning movie starring Claire Danes about her life and she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016. In 2022, Temple was named a Colorado State University Distinguished Professor, and has been honored with a sculpture housed within the JBS Global Food Innovation Center on the Colorado State University Campus.

When Dr. Grandin was young, she was considered weird and teased and bullied in high school. The only place she had friends was activities where there was a shared interest such as horses, electronics, or model rockets. Mr. Carlock, her science teacher, was an important mentor who encouraged her interest in science. During high school, Dr. Grandin spent time at her aunt's cattle ranch where she was inspired to create the "hug box". This has become instrumental in helping people with autism as it helps to relieve stress. She noticed how cattle were calmer when in a squeeze chute that was using pressure. Dr. Grandin's designs created corrals and farms that are less stressful for the animals, and today, half the cattle in the U.S. are handled in facilities she has designed.

Grandin is a compassionate, brilliant woman who has used her skills to impact the lives of animals and humans around the world. One wonderful example of this is her inspiration for and dedication to the Temple Grandin School (TGS) in Boulder, Colorado. The program is based upon Dr. Grandin's own educational experiences, designed to create a safe community for all students who enter. The holistic learning environment at TGS supports the neurodiversity of the students and family served, while encouraging a sense of belonging. Dr. Grandin reminds us all that every person is unique with talents waiting to be nurtured.