HALO President of the Board 

Ross Spencer Garsson is a member of Dickinson Wright PLLC (Austin office) in its intellectual property section. He has more than 25 years of experience practicing intellectual property and technology law. He earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and his B.A. in Mathematics (both cum laude) from Rice University and his J.D. (with honors) from the University of Texas School of Law, Austin. 

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Ross practices on Intellectual Property litigation, patent prosecution, and intellectual portfolio management in areas including chemical, nanotechnology, semiconductor, computer technologies, and medical devices. 

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Ross has litigated numerous intellectual property disputes in State and Federal district courts, the U.S. court appeals, and the U.S. International Trade Commission. 

Before Law school, he worked as an engineer at Standard Oil/BP. 

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He is a Founding Master of the Barbara Jordan American Inn Of Court. He is on the advisory board of Rice Alliance and is on the Board of Directors at HALO (Helping Autism through Learning and Outreach) and the ACE Academy. 

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Ross is the father of Hunter. Hunter has been coming to HALO for over a decade. 

Executive Director Creator of RPM (Rapid Prompting Method) for educating Autistic individuals 

Soma Mukhopadhyay lived in India until 2001, home schooling her autistic son Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay, teaching him how to spell on a type - writer (later a computer) and hand write independently, since speech - communication was not easy for Tito. Soma and Tito were featured in a BBC Documentary "Tito's Story". By then Tito aged 11 had already hand-written a book "Beyond the Silence" which was published by the National Autistic Society (UK).

The Cure Autism Now Foundation invited Tito and Soma to the USA after they watched the BBC documentary and the parent members of the organization asked Soma to try her teaching method on their children. The success of her teaching technique on 7 non-speaking and 2 selectively speaking students with autism earned her a fellowship to implement her technique with other students in Los Angeles. Her work was featured in the  ‘60 Minutes’ program and Soma’s technique began to be called the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM). 

The popularity of RPM began to grow  and HALO offered Soma a full time work environment. Soma continues to offer her services by offering camps, workshops and training for teachers and parents. 

Soma and Tito are featured in the BBC documentary - ‘Tito’s Story’, 60 Minutes, CNN, the HBO documentary -‘A Mother’s Courage’, the National Geographic Magazine, the Scientific American, People Magazine, the New York Times and the Austin American Statesman. 

Soma has a B.S. in Chemistry (honors), M.S. (Inorganic Chemistry), and B.Ed. 

She is on the Advisory Board of ‘Talk School’, Pennsylvania. 

Board Member 

Amy Campbell holds her Bachelor’s Degree in Business with a concentration in small business management, from University of Phoenix. She is currently pursuing her Master’s Degree in Business Admiration through the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. 

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Amy is the Executive Director and Owner of ACE Teaching and Consulting. She is responsible for the business and management of the clinic. She enjoys working with families, get them prepared to work with Certified RPM provider Erika Anderson, sharing her knowledge about RPM and assisting the families. 

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Amy serves as a President of RPM Support, member of 432 Civil Affairs  Battalion Family Readiness group. 

Board Member 

Nancy Parkhurst was raised on a ranch in western Kansas. In 1976, she graduated from Kansas State University with a double major in Psychology and Sociology.

She is married to Frederick Parkhurst and they are involved in construction and commercial real estate. They have two children, Luke (33) and Rachel (28).

Rachel has Angelman Syndrome. It is a neurogenetic disorder which has been

put on the Autism spectrum.  

Rachel has been working with Soma for 15 years.

She has been a national board member for the Angelman Syndrome Foundation.

Now she looks forward to working on the Halo board to help the Autism community.