Autism Assess­ment, Research, Treatment & Services (AARTS) Center

Louis J. Kraus, MD, DFAPA, FAACAP, is the founder of the AARTS Center at Rush. Kraus is also Woman's Board Professor and Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He is a federal court monitor in a consent decree with the American Civil Liberties Union and the federal attorney general’s office. In this role, he monitors and makes suggestions regarding mental health treatment at all juvenile justice facilities in Illinois.

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Holly Wiese, LCSW, is the outreach director for the AARTS Center and leads the clinical training program for Master of Social Work candidates. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work in the Collage of Health Sciences at Rush University. Wiese has nearly 20 years of experience providing clinical care to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related neurodevelopmental conditions across school, clinic, and hospital settings. Her expertise includes parent-mediated interventions for managing challenging behaviors, as well as sex and relationship education programming for teens and adults at AARTS. She also provides professional development training and autism consultation for students, educators, and programs throughout the Chicagoland area. Wiese leads the SPARK study at RUSH and is actively involved in a range of clinical intervention trials at AARTS focused on supporting individuals with autism and related syndromic conditions. In addition, Wiese co-directs the Midwest Autism Consortium and serves on advisory councils for the Illinois Act Early Task Force, University of Illinois Chicago’s Center for Literacy and Autism Speaks' Adult Training and Education Hub Coalition.

Jennifer Moriuchi, PhD, is a clinical instructor and the associate clinical director of the AARTS Center. She specializes in diagnostic evaluations across the lifespan, with children, adolescents, and adults, and works with individuals with autism and their families in therapy and consultations. She also helps coordinate the psychology externship program at the AARTS Center. Moriuchi received her PhD in clinical psychology from Emory University, where she completed graduate clinical training at the Marcus Autism Center. She completed her pre-doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship in the Autism Clinic at Oregon Health and Science University. Informed by her clinical work, her research has explored behavioral mechanisms contributing to positive functional outcomes in autism with particular focus on populations generally underrepresented in autism research, including females, racial and ethnic minorities, and individuals with intellectual disability.

Latha V. Soorya, PhD, BCBA, is a clinical psychologist, behavior analyst and Director of the AARTS Center. Soorya has been providing clinical care to individuals with ASD and related neurodevelopmental conditions for over two decades. She brings expertise in clinical evaluations and is a trainer on gold standard autism diagnostic instruments (e.g., ADOS2, ADI-R). Soorya’s research seeks to develop and disseminate evidence-informed therapies for social and mental health needs of individuals with ASD across the lifespan. Her current research includes studies of novel social skills groups model and digital health tools to advance diagnostics and therapy monitoring. She serves on the faculty at Rush, University of Illinois at Chicago's LEND program, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai supporting training and research programs and serves on the board of Chicagoland Autism Speaks.

Allie Wainer, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist, assistant professor of psychiatry, and the research director of the AARTS Center. Wainer received her PhD from Michigan State University and completed her clinical internship at JFK Partners at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Wainer has extensive experience with assessment, behavioral intervention, and parent training for individuals with ASD. Her program of research focuses on ways to increase access to intervention for young children with ASD and related neurodevelopmental conditions. She has received funding from NIH (ITM KL2 Scholars Program), PCORI, Autism Speaks, the Fulbright Program, and the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Foundation to support her research. She also provides training and consultation in ASD Early Intervention and Parent Coaching for community-based providers in the United States and Internationally.