Dave Thompson, project manager for A-SCENE and a member of the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation team, is releasing Brainstorm: A Guide to Neurodivergent Talent and the Future of Work (Wiley, 2026)—a book that challenges how we think about workplaces, who belongs in them, and what it means to design systems that actually work for human beings as they are.
Drawing on his own lived experience as a neurodivergent professional, Thompson spent years interviewing people across industries: neurodivergent professionals navigating workplaces that weren’t built for them, employers trying to figure out what inclusion actually looks like in practice, and researchers studying the gap between policy and reality. The result is a book that doesn’t just describe problems—it maps pathways forward.
“There is growing understanding that people think, process, and communicate in different ways, and that those differences come with distinct strengths, needs, and perspectives,” Thompson writes. “At the same time, expectations are increasing for employers to understand and respond to that reality. This book is written for everyone, because anyone you work alongside has a role to play in shaping a more inclusive world of work.”
The book includes interviews with Dr. Keivan Stassun, Director of FCAI, alongside leaders from global technology companies, small mission-driven employers, and neurodivergent contributors whose backgrounds range from creative subcultures to founding major commercial airlines. It also features dozens of hand-drawn illustrations—Thompson is a visual thinker, and the images help map concepts that don’t always translate neatly into paragraphs.
Brainstorm aligns closely with work underway at FCAI, including A-SCENE, our NSF-funded initiative redesigning engineering education, campus supports, and career pathways to better support neurodivergent students throughout their university experience and beyond. Thompson’s work reinforces FCAI’s leadership in shaping national conversations on neurodiversity, work, and inclusive systems design through applied impact.
Pre-order Brainstorm now and join the conversation about what the future of work could look like.