Autism acceptance and benefits of neurodiversity Inclusivity Included: Powerful personal stories

Courtney A. Munnings, certified life coach, speaker, commercial litigator and neurodiversity advocate, discusses her recent autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, the challenges she faced before diagnosis, and the benefits of autism and neurodiversity in the workplace. Joined by co-hosts Iveliz Crespo and John Iino, Courtney dispels myths and stereotypes that block true neurodiversity, and provides strategies to leaders creating truly diverse and inclusive organizations.
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Transcript:
Intro: Hi I'm John Iino. And I'm Iveliz Crespo. Welcome to the Reed Smith podcast, Inclusivity Included: Powerful Personal Stories. In each episode of this podcast, our guests will share their personal stories, passions and challenges, past and present, all with the goal of bringing people together and learning more about others. You might be surprised by what we all have in common, inclusivity included. 
Iveliz: Hey folks, welcome to the podcast, as always, my name is Iveliz Crespo and I'm joined by our co-host, John Iino. Hey John. 
John: Hey Iveliz. 
Iveliz: And today we have a very special guest that will be joining us today, a friend of mine and a colleague of mine from law school and someone who has been doing a lot of amazing work trying to highlight the issues that people with autism experience in their professional lives and in their personal lives. So we're joined by Courtney Munnings. Courtney is an autistic and dyslexic commercial litigator at a top 50 U. S. law firm. She is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and has served as a member of the barristers association of Philadelphia on their executive board for several years, helping to address the professional needs and the development of needs of black lawyers in the Philadelphia area. Courtney is a certified life coach, writer and speaker, whose areas of interest include autism acceptance, mental health, neuro diversity, disability advocacy, self-care and personal empowerment. Courtney is neurodivergent with sociability, learning attention and mood differences and is committed to promoting neurodiversity and advocating for their rights, participation and inclusion of neurodivergent people and all people with disabilities. You know, Courtney, I've known you for several years um and you know, I've been catching the work that you've been doing, bringing light to this really important issue within the legal industry and beyond, right, um and really fortunate to have you join us today. So welcome to our podcast. 
Courtney: Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here. I'm honored. 
John: Courtney, It's it's a real privilege to get to meet you and thank you for all you're doing and all the work that you do on behalf of so many communities. Um it's just great to be able to, you know, expose you to our our audience and have that message get out to more and more people, A big part of what we like to do Courtney at the beginning of our episodes is to just learn more about our guests. And the title is Powerful Personal Stories. So you've been, you know, you are a litigator at a top 50 law firm. You're on the, you know, Barristers Association Board and such an advocate. But before all this, what made you consciously decide to go to law school? Did you always want to be a lawyer? 
Courtney: So no, I did not always want to be a lawyer. From the time I was a child, I wanted to be a dentist. I had designed my own office and all the rooms for the different age groups and everything. I got to Temple University and I started out as a chemistry major and I was taking all the sciences and maths and I learned slowly that those subjects were not my strengths. In hindsight, I was dyslexic and I could have been more successful if I had been able to accommodate myself back then, but I have no interest in being in people's mouths. So all is well that ends well. I was miserable taking calculus three over and over, but I switched my major to Spanish language and litera