About

Lisa Reyes, MD

Founder, Certified RPM Practitioner

Melissa “Lisa” Reyes established HOPE RPM out of her passion to help individuals with autism and related disabilities learn, communicate, and live fulfilling lives, as she was able to do with her son Philip using Rapid Prompting Method (RPM). Lisa holds degrees in biology (Johns Hopkins University) and medicine (SUNY Buffalo), but considers her son her most influential professor in the field of autism. Lisa trained with Soma Mukhopadhyay, the creator of RPM, at her HALO Clinic in Austin, TX and received her certificate to practice RPM in 2015.

Lisa has worked with students of all ages across the autism spectrum, as well as students with other disabilities. She has counseled many parents, consulted at schools, and given lectures at various conferences including the Developmental Disability Awareness Conference and at SUNY Buffalo.  In 2016, she co-founded a nonprofit group Buffalo RPM with a group of other parents using RPM.

Lisa has taught her son Philip using RPM since 2012. Since then she has helped him launch the blog Faith, Hope, and Love With Autism, write for numerous publications (The Buffalo News, The Mighty, Parents Magazine, Typed Words- Loud Voices: An Anthology) and attain mainstream education at the local public school.  She has appeared alongside her son in the Sesame Street Be Amazing videos, The Mighty’s If I Could Tell the World One Thing About Autism video, and the Channel 2 News story, Rapid Prompting Method Helps People With Autism Communicate. Lisa’s work is motivated by the goal that all people, regardless of disability, should be treated with dignity and given the tools of learning and communication, so that they may achieve whatever dreams they have for themselves.