“The Way Forward: The 2030 Agenda and the Commitment to Leave No One Behind” Moderator: Maher Nasser, Director, Outreach Division, Department of Public Information, United Nations Maher Nasser has over 25 years of work experience in the United Nations System during which he has worked in various capacities in Gaza, Jerusalem, Amman, Cairo, Vienna and New York. Prior to assuming his current post as Director of the Outreach Division in the Department of Public Information (DPI) in New York, Mr. Nasser was the Director of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Vienna from July 2008 and Director of the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in Cairo from January 2006. Before joining DPI, Mr. Nasser was the Chief of the New York Liaison Office for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). He also worked for UNRWA, in Vienna and Amman and served as an Associate Information Officer for the United Nations Drug Control Programme in Vienna (now UNODC). Prior to joining the United Nations, he worked for two non-governmental organizations based in Jerusalem. Thomas Gass, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, United Nations Thomas Gass was appointed by the Secretary-General as Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs in UN DESA and he took office in September 2013. He brings with him wide- ranging experience in bilateral and multilateral development cooperation. From 2009 to 2013, he served as Head of the Mission of Switzerland to Nepal (Ambassador and Country Director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation), where he established the Embassy of Switzerland in Nepal, and ensured the delivery of a development cooperation programme of up to 33 million dollars a year. He also chaired the Donors of the Nepal Peace Trust Fund, the main instrument for international support to Nepal’s peace process. Jackie Pilgrim, Artist, Poet, Blogger and Self-Advocate Jackie Pilgrim is a Member of the Board of Directors at NAMI Durham: National Alliance on Mental Illness, she is a Partner of Durham Crisis Intervention Leadership Team, Member of National Black Disability Coalition and Advocate for persons having intellectual, developmental and cognitive disabilities. She is currently advocating for increased autism awareness and education for police officers and first responders by creating scenario roleplays and sharing personal experience for CIT trainings (40/hr. voluntary training for police officers and first responders to improve responses to persons having mental illness, substance abuse and intellectual disabilities). She is a public speaker, discussing ways persons with intellectual disabilities and their families can assist first responders by posting pertinent medical information that can be easily accessed during crisis interventions and emergency situations in the home. Dr. Barry Prizant, Clinical Scholar, Researcher and Author of “Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism” Dr. Barry Prizant is a speech-language pathologist with 45 years experience as a researcher and international consultant for individuals with ASD. He is an Adjunct Professor, Brown University and Director, Childhood Communication Services, a private practice. Publications include The SCERTS Model manuals, an educational approach now implemented in more than a dozen countries and 130 scholarly chapters and articles. Barry has presented more than 800 seminars and keynote addresses internationally. Honors include 2014 Honors of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (their highest honor), 2005 Princeton University-Eden Career Award in ASD, and 2013 Divine Neurotypical Award of GRASP. His new book is Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism (Simon & Schuster, 2015). .