Costanza Colombi is a research assistant professor at the University of Michigan and has extensive research experience in the early diagnosis and intervention of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). At the University of Michigan, she trained all professionals involved in the delivery of early intervention in a randomized trial funded by the National Institutes of Health that evaluated the Early Start Denver Model (ESDM). Prior to that, while she was working at the National Research Council of Italy, she initiated an ESDM trial involving seven ASD centers within the Italian Public Health System. For many years, she has trained professionals in the ESDM, nationally and internationally. In addition to the ESDM, she also has expertise in early development of ASD and ASD across the life span.

Colombi is an author of the Brief Observation of Social Communication Change (BOSCC), a cutting-edge measure of treatment outcomes for young children with ASD. She is a trainer for the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), both of which are considered gold standard diagnostic instruments for research and clinical work in ASD. Moreover, she has authored and co-authored multiple high impact articles in different areas of ASD, including diagnosis, intervention, socio-cognitive development and social communication. She is currently evaluating the ESDM adapted for a parent-child group delivery with support of grants from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. She collaborates with several Italian universities and public health hospitals to disseminate and evaluate evidence-based early interventions for young children with ASD.