Lorri Shealy Unumb
Lorri Shealy Unumb is a lawyer, professional speaker, law professor, mother of three young adult boys, and an internationally renowned autism advocate.
She began her legal career clerking for a United States District Judge in Charleston, South Carolina, and then moved to Washington, D.C. to practice law with the United States Department of Justice. She enjoyed a fulfilling career as an appellate litigator, arguing civil cases in Circuit Courts all over the United States.
After working as a law professor at law schools in D.C. (George Washington University) and Charleston, Lorri began running and teaching advocacy courses at the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Advocacy Center. During the same period, she hosted an award-winning weekly cable TV show called “The Law with Professor Lorri.”
Following her firstborn son’s diagnosis with autism, Lorri began working in autism advocacy as a volunteer, writing ground-breaking autism insurance legislation for South Carolina (“Ryan’s Law”) that passed in 2007 and served as the catalyst for the national movement toward autism insurance reform. In recognition of Ryan’s Law, Lorri was awarded the Autism Society of America 2008 “Parents of the Year” award (along with her husband Dan). She then was recruited by the New York-based nonprofit Autism Speaks to advocate full-time on behalf of individuals with autism.
Alongside her career with Autism Speaks, in 2010 Lorri founded the Autism Academy of South Carolina, a non-profit, year-round diagnostic and treatment center for individuals with autism; in 2019, the board of directors voted to rename the academy “The Unumb Center for Neurodevelopment” in honor of Lorri & Dan’s extensive national contributions in the autism field. Lorri & Dan also wrote the first-ever comprehensive textbook on legal issues related to autism, called “Autism and the Law.” Additionally, Lorri is in her 19th year of organizing and conducting the annual “Autism Law Summit,” a national gathering of parents and professionals who advocate for legal and policy changes to better the lives of individuals with autism. Finally, in 2018, Lorri was appointed by the governor of South Carolina to serve as a Commissioner for the SC Department of Disabilities and Special Needs, which administers several of the state’s Medicaid waivers.
In 2019, Lorri was recruited by the nonprofit trade association The Council of Autism Service Providers; as CEO, she has led the association into a period of rapid growth and increased visibility.
For her local, national, and international advocacy efforts, Lorri has been recognized with
- the 2012 NASCAR Foundation’s Betty Jane France Humanitarian of the Year Award;
- the Jefferson Award for Public Service (Charleston, SC);
- the Professional Women in Advocacy “Excellence in a State Campaign” 2014 Award; and
- the Civitan International “World Citizenship” 2021 Award.
Her work has been profiled on CNN, on NPR’s “Morning Edition,” and in Town&Country magazine, from whom she received one of three 2009 “Women Who Make a Difference” awards. She is also profiled in the American Academy of Pediatrics book “Autism Spectrum Disorders: What Every Parent Needs to Know.”
Lorri is a magna cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of South Carolina (Journalism, 1990; Political Science 1990; Law 1993).
Presentation at the ABA International Conference 2025
ABA and Autism: Effecting Change through Effective Advocacy
Abstract:
The New York Times once wrote that “no disability claims more parental time and energy than autism.” Families dealing with autism face many hardships, not the least of which is financial hardship.
One reason for the financial hardship has been the failure of healthcare systems to cover treatments for, and sometimes even diagnosis of, autism. As recently as the turn of the millennium, it was widely accepted that health insurance did not cover even the standard treatments for autism.
Sadly, few individuals with autism reach their potential because, in the absence of consistent funding, most do not have access to treatment that is appropriate in quality and quantity. Appropriate care is both difficult to find and difficult to afford. A United States government agency wrote that the “delivery and organization of care for ASD is very fragmented, with pieces scattered about in the primary care, school, and specialty clinical settings. It is left to the families and caregivers of patients with ASD to find and assemble these pieces.”
In this address, autism mother and attorney Lorri Unumb will share her personal parental experience with her son’s autism diagnosis and how it led her into full-time advocacy on behalf of individuals with autism, including a leading role in passing nearly 50 autism insurance laws across the United States.