Benny Xie

Benny Xie is the Founder and President of NorthStar Special Needs Society and the Founder of NorthStar NeuroLab. His work brings together lived experience, community innovation, structured movement, neurodevelopment, research, and technology to explore more connected and sustainable ways of supporting Autistic and neurodivergent individuals throughout life.

Benny’s NorthStar journey began as a father. As a single father raising an Autistic child, he experienced firsthand that children need more than therapy and education. They also need opportunities to move, make friends, participate in their communities, build confidence, develop their abilities, and establish foundations for greater independence.

What began in 2015 as a search for better opportunities for his own child gradually became a broader mission: to help neurodivergent individuals and their families move, connect, belong, and thrive.

Today, NorthStar has served more than 600 families, supported by a growing network of volunteers, professionals, researchers, universities, community organizations, and public-sector partners.

Benny believes that families experience life as a whole, while supports are often fragmented across healthcare, education, therapy, recreation, research, and social services. Through NorthStar, he is working to connect these worlds. Sports and structured movement, outdoor experiences, peer connection, family support, volunteering, and community participation create opportunities for children and youth to build skills, confidence, relationships, and belonging.

Through NorthStar NeuroLab, Benny is also exploring the relationship between embodied movement and neurodevelopment, while connecting real-world community programs with research, responsibly collected data, and emerging technologies such as AI. His long-term goal is to develop a community-based “living laboratory” where research and lived experience can be translated into practical programs, tools, and evidence-informed approaches that can be measured, improved, and scaled.

As his own child has grown, Benny’s focus has increasingly extended beyond childhood to the challenges facing Autistic adolescents, adults, and aging caregivers. His vision is for NorthStar to help build a more connected pathway from childhood development and community participation to adulthood, employment, greater independence, supportive living, and lifelong belonging—addressing the question many families eventually face:

“What will happen to my child when I am no longer able to care for them?”

With an interdisciplinary background in business and environmental science, including graduate studies at the University of Toronto, Benny brings a systems-oriented approach to community innovation. He believes lasting change requires families, communities, professionals, researchers, technology, businesses, and public institutions to work together.

His long-term vision is captured in a simple framework:

Community × Movement × Science × Technology

Building inclusive systems that enable neurodivergent individuals to realize their potential, live with dignity, participate meaningfully in society, and experience lifelong belonging.