dfusion

dfusion We innovate science-driven solutions to advance health and well-being. We are interested in a broad span of possibilities.

Science-Driven Behavioral Health Solutions

dfusion and its partners develop, test, evaluate, scale, and disseminate innovative solutions in the health and education arenas. We also offer consultation services and provide professional development opportunities to the field. We put the Diffusion of Innovation model to work in new and practical ways, building our capacity to expand implementation of

both promising and proven interventions. Through our projects, dfusion examines and promotes the steps necessary to adopt healthier behaviors and identifies effective strategies to support every stage of the adoption process. We bring particular focus to health, risk and protective factors affecting youth development, economic opportunity, and technology learning and career paths.

What happens when a SUD counselor doesn't know their client is autistic?Too often: miscommunication, mislabeling, and mi...
04/20/2026

What happens when a SUD counselor doesn't know their client is autistic?
Too often: miscommunication, mislabeling, and missed opportunities for real recovery.
One autistic adult who received inpatient SUD treatment shared this: every accommodation they received came only because they pushed for it. Their counselor had been labeling autistic behavior as defiance — until she finally understood the difference.
That's the training gap dfusion is working to close.
In partnership with Dr. Laura Graham Holmes of Hunter College at CUNY, we developed SkillFlix for SUD Counselors Working with Autistic Clients — a video-based microskills library that teaches counselors how to identify autistic stress, adjust their communication, and build treatment plans that actually work for neurodiverse clients.
In our pilot evaluation, 93% of skills improved after counselors completed the training — and every participant recommended it.
One counselor said it was "the best video-type training I have ever taken."
We believe SUD counselors want to do right by their clients. They just need the right tools. Read the full story at the link below and share with someone in the behavioral health field who needs to see this.

💬 Read the full insight post — link in bio.

The future of our planet needs scientists, engineers, artists, and innovators — and they're sitting in classrooms RIGHT ...
04/17/2026

The future of our planet needs scientists, engineers, artists, and innovators — and they're sitting in classrooms RIGHT NOW.
This week only, get 20% off our STEAM Career Exploration lesson plan on Teachers Pay Teachers and help your students discover the careers that could change the world. 🚀
🔗 Link in bio

It's Spring Training season — and STEMadium is ready to play ball. ⚾🧮Our NIH-funded baseball game teaches real math and ...
04/14/2026

It's Spring Training season — and STEMadium is ready to play ball. ⚾🧮
Our NIH-funded baseball game teaches real math and science through play — and the research backs it up:
📈 Knowledge scores went UP nearly 10% in just 2 weeks
📉 While the control group LOST 7% — that's a 17-point swing
Who says learning has to happen in a classroom?
🎮 Download free on the App Store & Google Play
🔗 stemadium.com

04/09/2026

We're Tools Competition Finalists — and we're proud to be building with Intuist AI!dfusion and our STEMPlay Labs division have been named finalists in the Tools Competition for SkillFlix for Autistic Young Adults and our newest innovation, SocialWise — developed in partnership with Intuist AI.Here's what's at stake: autistic college students face a 48% dropout rate — not because they can't do the work, but because navigating social challenges without the right support is incredibly hard.SkillFlix is our streaming video library that builds real communication and relationship skills, validated in a randomized controlled trial with 115 autistic young adults.SocialWise — built with Intuist AI's powerful no-code AI platform — is the next step: a personalized AI conversation tool that lets students role-play real campus social scenarios in a judgment-free space, trained on autism community-validated, diversity-affirming content.Intuist AI's mission to make AI accessible to everyone aligns perfectly with ours — because the students who need these tools most shouldn't be left behind by technology that's too complex or too narrow to serve them.We're competing for funding that will help bring these tools to autistic students across the country. Stay tuned — and cheer us on! 🎓💬 Drop a comment or share this post to help spread the word!

We love when a collaborator puts it this simply. ❤️"I like working with Tamara because she understands people and dynami...
04/07/2026

We love when a collaborator puts it this simply. ❤️

"I like working with Tamara because she understands people and dynamics really well."
— Sarah Gagnon, Field Day Studios, UW-Madison

dfusion's STEMPlay Labs is partnering with the talented team at Field Day Studios (UW-Madison) to develop an environmental health literacy game for middle schoolers. Our goal: help young people connect the dots between their everyday environments — the air in their homes and classrooms — and their health.

We believe the best learning happens when the science is real, the stakes feel personal, and the experience is genuinely fun. More updates coming soon!

03/30/2026

We have more news.

dfusion has also been named a finalist in the Building Pathways to Postsecondary Success track of the 2026 Tools Competition -- at the Growth Prize level.

SkillFlix for Autistic Young Adults + SocialWise provides customized personal support to autistic young adults to build the communication skills they need to successfully navigate difficult situations in college, work, and life.

Two tracks. One mission: making sure neurodiverse learners have the tools and support to thrive.

Winners announced summer 2026.


The students who needed it most gained the most.In our Fall 2025 pilot, students who entered with the lowest math scores...
03/27/2026

The students who needed it most gained the most.
In our Fall 2025 pilot, students who entered with the lowest math scores gained over 3 additional problems correct by the end — more than tripling their baseline. Low-confidence students gained nearly a full point in confidence. And students who started with the highest math anxiety saw the largest reduction in fraction fear.

Across every way we cut the data, the pattern was the same.
When math feels like a game, students who have historically disengaged from the classroom show up differently. That is the whole point.

325 students. 9 classrooms. 6 states. Fall 2025.

Learn more at http://fantasysportsmathleague.com

We're a Tools Competition finalist!!!dfusion's SkillFlix for Autistic Young Adults has been named one of 10 finalists in...
03/26/2026

We're a Tools Competition finalist!!!

dfusion's SkillFlix for Autistic Young Adults has been named one of 10 finalists in the Datasets for Education Innovation track of the 2026 Tools Competition -- selected from 150 teams worldwide.

Our SkillFlix AYA dataset collects conversation-embedded communication skill data to support social and educational interventions for neurodiverse learners, helping level the playing field for autistic young adults navigating relationships, communication, and the world.

This is what we're here for. Thank you to everyone who has believed in this work.

Winners announced summer 2026 -- stay tuned.


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Twelve years ago, dfusion was two people working part-time, running on passion and a belief that technology could do som...
03/24/2026

Twelve years ago, dfusion was two people working part-time, running on passion and a belief that technology could do something meaningful for the communities that needed it most.
It turns out that was a good bet.
Over the past twelve years, we have grown into a women-owned research organization with multiple patents, a registered trademark, and a science team where every researcher is now leading their own federally funded project. We have built mobile apps, AI-integrated tools, and evidence-based programs for some of the most underserved communities in the country — from young Black men to transgender women to Latinas to autistic young adults.
We have also kept changing, because the communities we serve kept teaching us where to go next.
None of this happened overnight. It happened because of the researchers, educators, practitioners, and community members who trusted us with their work and their stories. It happened because our team showed up — year after year — committed to building things that actually work.
At five years we celebrated. At ten we celebrated. Today, at twelve, we celebrate again — with harder-won experience, clearer eyes, and more conviction than ever that the most meaningful work dfusion will do is still ahead of us.

Read the full story from CEO Tamara Kuhn and learn how far we have come — and where we are headed next.

https://dfusioninc.com/2026/03/24/then-and-now-how-a-health-tech-startup-grew-into-a-patented-women-owned-research-organization/

03/18/2026

The numbers back it up.
In our Fall 2025 pilot, roughly 325 middle schoolers across 6 states showed real gains — students solved an average of 1.4 more math problems correctly by the end of the program, and fraction confidence jumped significantly. The students who needed it most gained the most.
And 100% of teachers said they want to use FSML again.
When math feels like a game, students show up differently.

Learn more at fantasysportsmathleague.com

03/17/2026

Year 12. We're still here — and we have a lot to say about it.

This past year brought cancelled contracts, frozen funding, the end of a 44-year federal program that never should have ended, and decisions we never wanted to make. It was hard. Genuinely hard.

But adversity has a way of clarifying what matters.

We launched — a new division dedicated to game-based STEM learning for K-12 students. Think Fantasy Sports Math League. Think learning that actually sticks.

Every member of our research team is now leading a federally funded project as Principal Investigator. That's not a brag — that's a signal about the depth of talent and commitment on this team.

We're still doing the work: health interventions that reach underserved communities, educational games that change how kids learn, and technology that actually serves people.

Year 12 won't be easy. But easy was never really the point. Read more about CEO Tamara Kuhn's perspective on this year - link in bio to our Insights Posts

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