Sandy Magaña is the Professor in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities in the Steve Hicks School of Social Work. She comes from the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she founded the Family Support Research and Training Center with funding from the National Institutes of Health. She is now co-director of the center, which aims to expand the research on family members who provide support and care to people with disabilities across the life course.

Magaña is currently investigating racial and ethnic disparities among children with autism and developmental disabilities, and is developing culturally relevant interventions to address these disparities. Her goal is to find pathways from identification, to diagnosis, to evidenced-based treatment for underserved children with autism spectrum disorder and their families in Central Texas.