Jessie Fielding

Jessie Fielding is the founder of Autism Pathways and its sister apps, Disability Pathways and Adult Pathways, free tools that help families navigate everything that comes after a disability diagnosis.

She never set out to build an app. Jessie is a mom of three, including her daughter Ellie, who is nonverbal and uses AAC to communicate. After Ellie’s diagnosis, Jessie found herself lost in a maze of Medicaid, waivers, IEPs, and appeals, with no one to hand her a map. So she built one.

What began as a guide for her own family grew into a small family of apps now used by hundreds of families. When keeping everything free meant reaching the end of her runway, Jessie made a choice: rather than charge the families who needed it most, she moved the entire mission into a nonprofit, Guiding Pathways Foundation, so it could stay free for good.

She builds from lived experience, guided by one simple belief: no parent should have to choose between getting help and one more bill.