Dr. Tamara Moodie is an educator, author, researcher, autism advocate, and visionary leader whose life’s work has focused on creating meaningful opportunities for individuals with autism and their families across the lifespan. With more than 28 years of experience in autism education, Dr. Moodie has become a respected leader in specialized education, advocacy, program development, and community service.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Eunnes Beswick and Daniel Moodie, Dr. Moodie migrated to the United States in 1982. Her journey from Jamaica to South Florida helped shape the determination, resilience, and commitment to community that continue to define her work. Dr. Moodie earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Special Education from Carlos Albizu University and later earned her Ph.D. in Education and Administration from Capella University.
Dr. Moodie is also the proud mother of three children, Skylar, Summer, and Slade, who remain among the greatest joys and inspirations in her life. Motherhood has given Dr. Moodie a deeply personal understanding of the hopes, sacrifices, and dreams parents carry for their children.
At the center of Dr. Moodie’s professional legacy is South Florida Autism Charter School, which she helped establish in 2009 as the first autism focused charter school of its kind in South Florida. Before founding SFACS, Dr. Moodie served as Educational Director of a private autism school where tuition was approximately $45,000 annually. After seeing firsthand the impact of intensive Applied Behavior Analysis and individualized education, Dr. Moodie became determined to create an option for families who could not afford such services.
Dr. Moodie believed that a family’s income should never determine whether a child with autism receives an appropriate education. That belief became the foundation for South Florida Autism Charter School, a tuition free public charter school providing individualized instruction, behavioral support, communication intervention, therapeutic services, and small student to staff ratios. SFACS serves students from kindergarten through 12th grade and beyond, up to age 22, including individuals with significant communication, behavioral, self-help, and daily living needs.
Under Dr. Moodie’s leadership, SFACS has grown into an expanding network and a model for comprehensive autism education. Her vision has extended into additional communities throughout Miami Dade and Broward Counties, with the goal of ensuring that geography does not prevent families from accessing specialized autism education.
Dr. Moodie believes students with autism deserve more than academics. They deserve friendships, celebrations, traditions, community experiences, and the opportunity to fully experience life. Under her leadership, SFACS students participate in prom, homecoming, athletics, clubs, performances, travel, community outings, and an annual end of year talent show. Her philosophy is simple: a diagnosis should never determine how fully someone is allowed to experience life.
Dr. Moodie’s vision extends beyond the school years. As Executive Director of the South Florida Autism Center, she oversees efforts to provide educational, therapeutic, vocational, recreational, and adult services for individuals with autism and related developmental disabilities. Through adult programming, including Adult Day Training services, individuals have opportunities to develop independence, functional communication, vocational skills, social skills, community participation, and daily living abilities. Dr. Moodie also developed the FINE adult curriculum, which focuses on practical skills that support meaningful and independent adulthood.
Her commitment to lifelong services led to the creation of The Villages of South Florida Autism, an envisioned residential community designed to provide adults with autism a safe, supportive, and meaningful place to live. The Villages represents Dr. Moodie’s broader vision of a true continuum of care that supports individuals from childhood education through adulthood and residential living.
Dr. Moodie’s advocacy extends beyond her organizations. She played an instrumental role in the creation and advancement of Spectrum Alert, an initiative designed to improve emergency response when an individual with autism or another developmental disability goes missing. Recognizing the dangers associated with wandering and elopement, Dr. Moodie advocated for systems that provide first responders with critical information to help locate vulnerable individuals more quickly.
Dr. Moodie is also involved in research with the University of Maryland examining seizures among individuals with autism. She serves on a parent advisory board associated with the University of Alabama and an advisory board for Miami Dade College. She has developed partnerships with institutions including Nova Southeastern University, Miami Dade College, Keiser University, and Carlos Albizu University.
Nationally, Dr. Moodie is a founding member and Board Chair of the National Accelerator of Autism Charter Schools, supporting efforts to strengthen autism focused charter schools and expand educational opportunities for families across the country.
Community education remains another important part of Dr. Moodie’s work. She conducts workshops for parents, professionals, educators, and community members on topics related to autism and established the annual SFACS Autism Walk in 2013. She is also the host of Autism 411, a podcast providing parents, professionals, advocates, and members of the autism community with a platform to discuss the realities of autism.
Dr. Moodie is the author of I Am Still Like You: Autism Through My Point of View and Walking in My Shoes, Through My Eyes. Through her writing, she encourages readers to recognize individuals with autism for their personalities, abilities, dreams, emotions, and potential rather than defining them by a diagnosis.
Her leadership has been recognized locally and nationally. In April 2024, the School Board of Miami Dade County formally adopted Resolution No. 24 030 recognizing Dr. Moodie and her leadership at South Florida Autism Charter School. She has also been recognized by Miami Dade County Public Schools as a Pioneer in Education. In 2021, Dr. Moodie became the first recipient of the Educational Leadership Award presented by the University of Miami and Nova Southeastern University Center for Autism & Related Disabilities. Her previous honors include recognition as one of Legacy Magazine’s Top 25 Most Influential and Prominent Black Women in Business, selection for Legacy Magazine’s 40 Under 40, and being named a Woman of Excellence by Nostalgia in Gold, Inc. in 2011.
Through Friends of South Florida Autism, Dr. Moodie has worked with board members, businesses, legislators, philanthropists, families, and community leaders to raise significant resources for autism programs, educational expansion, adult services, infrastructure, and the future residential community.
Despite the growth of the organizations she leads and the recognition she has received, Dr. Moodie remains focused on service. For her, success is measured in the moments that may never appear on a résumé: a child learning to communicate, a student experiencing prom for the first time, a young adult mastering a vocational skill, or a family discovering that their child has found a place where they belong.
Dr. Moodie’s vision continues to encompass expanded autism focused charter schools, comprehensive services across the lifespan, meaningful employment and vocational opportunities, research that improves safety and quality of life, stronger partnerships with universities and first responders, and a residential community where adults with autism can live with dignity and purpose.
Dr. Moodie’s story is more than the story of someone who founded a school. It is the story of a woman who came to the United States from Kingston, Jamaica, and dedicated nearly three decades to creating opportunities for a community she deeply loves. She is an educator who saw inequity and built something different, an advocate who identified gaps and created solutions, an author who seeks to amplify understanding, a researcher who continues asking important questions, a mother who understands the desire to give children every opportunity, and a leader who continues to dream beyond what already exists.
At the heart of everything Dr. Moodie does is one guiding belief: every individual deserves to be seen, valued, challenged, supported, and given the opportunity to reach their fullest potential.
For Dr. Moodie, the mission has never been about one school, one building, or one accomplishment. It is about building a community capable of walking beside individuals with autism and their families for a lifetime.
Together we shine.
The Cruz-Whitehurst Award is named in honor of two remarkable women, Michelle Cruz and Marie-Ilene Whitehurst. Both were early supporters of CARD and introduced the idea of Tropical Nights in 2003, to help raise funds for our organization. Michelle and Marie-Ilene contributed to CARD in ways that transformed our program and its impact on the community. In addition to being mothers of children on the autism spectrum and CARD clients, both also served with distinction on the CARD Constituency Board where they helped guide programmatic priorities and fundraising efforts that continue to sustain the important work of CARD.
