Dr. Esler is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics and a licensed psychologist. She completed her PhD in school psychology from the University of Minnesota and worked as a school psychologist for 3 years prior to specializing in autism and autism research. Dr. Esler is the Section Head of the Autism and Neurodevelopment Clinic and Director of the Fragile X Clinic at the University of Minnesota. Her clinical interests include diagnosis and assessment of autism and treatment and supports for individuals with profound autism and neurodevelopmental disabilities (NDD), including fragile X and other rare genetic conditions. She performs diagnostic and follow-up evaluations with individuals from infancy through adulthood.
Dr. Esler is actively involved in federally funded research. Her research focuses on improving care and supports for children with autism/NDD with serious aggression or self-injury as well as reducing disparities in access to high-quality care. Her research in this area has included tracking racial/ethnic disparities in autism prevalence and age of identification, developing and refining diagnostic measures for autism, identifying and evaluating promising treatments for aggression and self-injury, and understanding differences in the autism characteristics across sex, race/ethnicity, and culture. She regularly collaborates with autism, fragile X, and rare disorder researchers across North America on research and clinical issues.
Dr. Esler is an international trainer on diagnostic measures for autism, the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd edition and the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised, and is actively involved in refining and expanding training options for these measures. Dr. Esler leads Clinic-Research Integration and co-leads the Center for Neurobehavioral Development at the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain (MIDB). She is a member of the International Society for Autism Research, American Psychological Association, and the American Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
