Meet Yetta Myrick, President and Founder of DCAP

I am the mother of a young adult diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and Intellectual Disability. DC Autism Parents started out of my desire to connect with other DC autism parents. I wanted to not only connect with resources for my son but also wanted to help build a community for families to learn and share with one another. Once I learned how difficult it was to navigate resources and services, I realized how important it was to support other families through this process.

My son was almost 4 years old when he was diagnosed. Nearly a year earlier, I took him to his well-child visit in September 2006, and I shared with the nurse that his Speech and Language Pathologist thought that he may have autism. The nurse said, “Mom, you can’t just let anyone diagnose your child,” and I said nothing to my son's pediatrician that day. That moment delayed me in seeking a diagnosis. If I knew then, what I know now, my son could have received the support he needed, much sooner.

When I learned about the opportunity to serve as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Act Early Ambassador to the District of Columbia in 2016, I was so excited, because I wanted to help other parents to have the tools I did not have when I was seeking a diagnosis for my son. I am currently leading the DC Act Early COVID-19 Response Team Project.

I currently lead the DC Autism Collaborative’s Developmental Monitoring, Screening, and Evaluation Subgroup, and serve as the Parent Educator/Advocate on the ECHO Autism HUB Team at Children’s National Hospital.