Emory Autism Center (EAC)
Original facility
ca. 1990
New facility
August 2002
CADEF was founded in 1985, as a direct response to the existence of a family with an autistic child and the fact that Georgia had no services for autistic children. The Truax family, Marjie and Martin had their second son, Justin, who was autistic.
There was nothing in Georgia that could help Justin. Marjie was a Delta flight attendant, and she and a flight attendant colleague named Susan Britton and Paul Zantzinger's wife Gail went to work to form a charitable foundation that would do something about the plight of autistic children, and adults in Georgia. The plan was to get Emory University School of Medicine to start an Autism program on the Emory campus.
The then Dean of the medical school at Emory, Dean Jeffrey Houpt, responded to the leadership of the Chief of Child Psychiatry, Dr. Mina Dulcan, and Emory agreed to participate. CADEF and Emory formed a collaboration with an advocacy organization for parents of autistic children, the Georgia Chapter of the Autism Society of America, with the Department of Human Resources, and with some influential state legislators.
The Emory Autism Resource Center was formally opened in 1991, as a program within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine.
In 2000, response to the desperate need for more space and a facility specifically designed for the treatment of autism, CADEF began a Capital Campaign that raised $3.4 million dollars for the construction of a brand new building on the Emory University Campus. This facility, built solely through funds raised by our Foundation, was completed and occupied in August of 2002.
About the Emory Autism Center
The Emory Autism Center (EAC) is a component of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Emory University School of Medicine. The program was opened in 1991 as a Public, Private and University Collaboration. Since its opening, the EAC has become a national model for diagnosis, family support and innovative treatment as well as a vital source of professional training.