Essential Speech and ABA’s New Mexico Owners Wear Every Hat
Mary Wynn and Shannon Schum came to ABA as parents before becoming operators. That order of arrival shapes everything about the clinic they run.
Founder Profile
Former Behavior Technician Builds a DTT Platform That Moves RBTs to the Learner’s Side of the Table
FirstWork, a tablet-based discrete trial training platform co-founded by former behavior technician Patrick Faga, has more than 30,000 downloads and customers that include ABS Kids, Children’s Specialized ABA, and Bierman Autism Centers,…
Plutus Health Ties Its Fees to What ABA Providers Collect
The Dallas revenue cycle management company grew from founder Thomas John’s technology-and-process work into an ABA billing specialist. Its compensation rises and falls with the money clients collect.
Thrive ABA Therapy Runs an In-Network, BCBA-Only Care Model
Kristen Gainer built Thrive ABA Therapy without RBTs, outside capital, or a plan to scale quickly. The King County practice places BCBAs in every direct-care hour when billing commercial insurance, creating another…
Melissa Kozak Built Kozak Consulting Around Caregiver-Led ABA
The BCBA left the standard clinic model to sell one idea to owners, clinicians, and tech firms: bring families back into assessment and treatment before payers force the issue.
Landria Seals Green on Having It All Without Doing It All in ABA
The Huddle founder, ExcelPrep CEO, and former CEO of her own practice, Landria Green has it all. Her operating discipline, she says, is training people and delegating, and it started in her…
Samantha Parnham, Oregon BCBA and Self-Described Troublemaker, Prioritizes “Tiny Humans” Over Profit
The founder of Adventures with Autism keeps her practice deliberately small while simultaneously reporting on and confronting players in the industry. She shares her opinions with confidence, believing the ABA industry needs…
Mellanie Page Says ABA Burnout Comes From Lost Passion, Not Long Hours or Workload
The ABA Collective Founder offers a different diagnosis: clinicians who love what they do each day can work past midnight without breaking, and a smaller caseload will not save the ones who…
The Systems Thinker: Paola Ortiz on Leading ABA Beyond the Clinic
From in-home therapy to running clinical services across California, a first-generation Harvard graduate argues that most of the field’s hardest problems are not people problems. They are design problems.
The Ghost Network Scandal Continues: Directories Promise ABA Access but Families Still Struggle
The federal government found that 72% of behavioral health providers in Medicaid managed care directories should not have been listed. In Arizona, attorneys allege the same pattern is blocking families from ABA…
Kathy Shapell: The Poem and Passion Behind West Virginia’s First ABA Center
A magazine publisher turned advocate, Kathy Shapell built the first evidence-based autism treatment program in West Virginia, named it for the teacher who inspired her, rebuilt it after a fire, and 20…
An Aerospace Engineer Built an AI Companion for His Son With Autism
Dr. Chris Whitmer grew up in rural Kansas with two teachers for parents, earned a PhD in mechanical engineering, built a STEM education company with $3.5 million in federal grants, and then…
Father and Rep. Zack Hawkins Turned a Family Diagnosis Into North Carolina’s Autism Agenda
Two of his sons are autistic. As a North Carolina legislator and co-chair of the bipartisan IDD Caucus, Zack Hawkins has spent years trying to fix the system his own family ran…
Dr. Shannon Shea Expands Who Behavior Analysis Can Help
For two decades, a Boca Raton behavior analyst has worked the cases her field reaches least often: foster children, adults with brain injuries, psychiatric and self-injurious behavior, Deaf and deafblind clients. Now…
Alex Cioarec Built ABACare for European ABA Clinics
Cioarec came to ABA through code, not a clinical pedigree or a family story. ABACare launched in April 2026 to give European clinics practice management software designed around their funding routes, languages,…
Ian Santus Transitions from ABA Veteran to Startup Founder
In just two years, Akoya Behavioral Health expands to 185 employees and two clinics, leveraging Santus's extensive industry experience.
Yrenka Lolli-Sunderlin Responds to Medicaid Cuts with New Initiative
The founder of Sunderlin Behavioral launches CareBridge Copilot to support caregivers amid Idaho's abrupt end to ABA Medicaid coverage.
Brea Merhar Tackles Drowning Risks for Autistic Children
With drowning as the top injury death cause for autistic kids, Merhar's BRIDGE framework addresses critical safety gaps for BCBAs.
Jeff Beck Disrupts ABA Therapy with $40 Million Virtual Model
The CEO of AnswersNow challenges traditional practices, advocating for a new approach to autism therapy that prioritizes clinical intensity over hours.
CentralReach’s Chris Sullens Transforms ABA Software and Sells for $1.65 Billion
Since 2018, Sullens has expanded CentralReach's user base tenfold and executed 14 acquisitions, solidifying its position in ABA technology.
Ryan Calloway Started at $16 an Hour. At 33, He Co-Founded One of Arizona’s Most Distinctive Benefits Brokerages—and ABA Organizations Are the Ones Who Should Pay Attention
Ryan Calloway built his career the hard way: starting on a 1099 with no guaranteed income, earning clients one at a time, and building a track record that eventually led him and…
Dr. Nasiah Cirincione-Ulezi: The BCBA Leading ABA’s Reckoning with Diversity, Equity, and Cultural Humility
Dr. Nasiah Cirincione-Ulezi is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, university faculty director, organizational founder, and one of the most frequently cited voices on diversity, equity, and inclusion in applied behavior analysis. As…
Frank Campagna and Autism Daddy: The Sesame Street Producer Who Built One of Autism’s Most Unfiltered Parent Platforms
Frank Campagna has worked at Sesame Workshop for more than two decades and produced the Emmy-nominated autism initiative that introduced the character Julia to millions of families. Under the name Autism Daddy,…
Joy F. Johnson: The Autistic BCBA Redefining What Affirming ABA Practice Looks Like
Joy F. Johnson is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, clinical director, adjunct professor, and founder of Spectrum Support in Baltimore. She is also autistic. As a Black, Autistic, and Jewish woman working…
Rob Gorski and The Autism Dad: How a Single Father’s Blog Became a Lifeline for Autism Parents Worldwide
Rob Gorski has been documenting his life as a single father to three autistic sons in Canton, Ohio, since 2010. Through his blog, podcast, and social media presence, The Autism Dad has…
Dr. Jonathan Tarbox: The Academic Who Brought ACT Into ABA’s Mainstream
As Program Director of USC’s Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis, past Editor-in-Chief of Behavior Analysis in Practice, and author of five books, Dr. Jonathan Tarbox has become one of the…
Dr. Amanda Kelly: How Behaviorbabe Became ABA’s Most Recognized Ethics Voice Online
Known across the ABA community as Behaviorbabe, Dr. Amanda N. Kelly is a BCBA-D, ethics expert, and the first licensed behavior analyst in Hawaii. With a podcast surpassing one million downloads, a…
Dr. Mary Barbera: How a Nurse-Turned-BCBA Built the Most Trusted Parent-Facing ABA Brand Online
Dr. Mary Lynch Barbera holds a doctorate-level BCBA certification, a nursing degree, and a personal stake in autism as the mother of a son with autism. Her Turn Autism Around brand, which…
Paige Layle: The Most-Followed Autistic Voice on TikTok and What Her Platform Means for ABA’s Public Perception
With 2. 7 million TikTok followers and a bestselling memoir, Paige Layle has become the most prominent autistic self-advocate in the social media landscape.
Tara Phillips and Autism Little Learners: An SLP’s 25-Year Bridge Between Speech Therapy and ABA
Tara Phillips is a licensed speech-language pathologist with more than 25 years of clinical experience supporting young autistic children. Her platform, Autism Little Learners, has grown to more than 91,000 Instagram followers,…