My Career at ABI

by: Allison Bickelman

I have been part of the ABI team for over five years, having moved up the ranks from a skills trainer, to lead skills trainer, to, upon receiving my masters degree and becoming a BCBA, a program supervisor. For two years, I provided full-time program supervision to a variety of clients ranging in age from 3 to 13, creating behavior plans to reduce and replace challenging behaviors and designing skill building programs according to developmental norms, the ABI curriculum, and skills assessments, including the VB-MAPP. As a program supervisor, I have also trained skills trainers, parents, and other stakeholders to teach and generalize new skills and to manage challenging behaviors.

In July of this year, I was honored to be promoted to a new position at ABI; Quality Assurance Manager. My primary goal in this new position is to ensure that ABI continues to provide the highest quality ABA treatment to our clients. In this role, I continue to provide program supervision, but have also taken on new responsibilities, such as training and evaluating incoming program supervisors, ensuring the creation and revision of clinical trainings in line with the latest research findings, overseeing our clinical interns in master’s degree programs, and developing procedures that promote the delivery of quality ABA treatment and support ABI’s commitment to the hig
hest professional and ethical standards. I am very excited to see how this role develops over time!

Last month, I also began a Ph.D. program in behavior analysis. It is a synchronous online program through Endicott College in Boston, which means that the classes are taught live on campus, and those of us who are not local attend live classes virtually. The program is very rigorous and I will be studying under multiple renouned behavior analysts, including Drs. Michael Dorsey, Mary Jane Weiss, Jonathan Tarbox, and Caio Miguel. The program is threee years in duration, with the first two years devoted to coursework, and the last year dedicated to conducting a dissertation. Over the course of the three years, I will be conducting various research projects, publishing in behavior analytic journals, presenting at conferences, and teaching a masters-level course. I am truly excited to advance my education in the field of behavior analysis, learn as much as possible from my professors and colleagues, and share this new knowledge with the clinical team, clients, and families at ABI.