Lives of Meaning, Purpose, and Joy: Autism Inspired Academy

Authored by Phillip Russell, Shareholder

When I come home–no matter how long I’ve been gone–Gavin jumps up and down, flaps his arms, giggles, and says, “Phil is home! Phil is home!” Gavin is 14 years old and has autism spectrum disorder, which means he is not typically developing. And, thank God. I assure you there is no more authentic, raw, and unfiltered expression of love than from a child on the spectrum.

Gavin came into my life in 2013, when I met his mom, Liz (who became my wife). I had no idea what autism meant. I had only heard of “the spectrum” as being something others had to understand.

Gavin was in elementary school then, but there was an approaching problem: middle school. Those years are tough on typically developing kids, even worse on those with special needs. Gavin and his friends would soon be thrust into an environment that might limit their growth (at best).

So, we started a non-profit school, Autism Inspired Academy in Clearwater, Florida. Cher Harris joined us as co-founder. Liz is the Director and Cher is the Principal. She is a rock star in the world of autism and was recognized as the 2017 Florida ESE Teacher of the Year.

We knew it would not be easy and we would need resources far beyond what we had. But first, we developed our mission–to help children on the spectrum develop and sustain lives of meaning, purpose, and joy.

My job has always been to pray and provide (and serve as an un-skilled laborer, but only when I couldn’t get out of it!).

But for my career at Ogletree, the school might not even exist.

We needed two things to launch the school: time and money. My success with the firm helped us with both. For time, it allowed us to decide that Liz would focus on the school full time rather than her sales career. For the money, well, we needed more than expected. But, we committed to build something that didn’t exist to help kids and families with a resource they needed. We needed operating funds, a school property, academic resources, supplies, and we needed to show the school was sustainable.

We started the school in 2019 with 13 kids and had to drive them an hour each way to use a borrowed classroom. Now, we have our own 5-building property with 56 students currently enrolled. We will have 75 in Fall 2022, and there are 200 verified students on the waiting list. We are adding high school classes and already looking at what is next for our students and their families.

Our story flows from Ogletree's success. It really does. The firm’s success benefits so many people beyond those of us who work here. There are stories like mine all around the firm of people who understand that we need lives of meaning, purpose, and joy too. And that’s the real and surprising thing about the school.

Were we giving Gavin and the other kids lives of meaning, purpose, and joy–or was it the other way around?

I’m grateful for the firm and for my colleagues. I have deep friendships here, and I have been so blessed to practice with a firm that values its people not only for their contributions to the firm’s success, but also for how they use that success to make a difference in the lives of others who may not be able to do it for themselves.