Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 1 | 2009 | Number 1
Iowa ABA
by John Pokrzywinski
In June of 2008 the Association for Behavior Analysis International approved the Iowa Association for Behavior Analysis (Iowa ABA) as an Affiliated Chapter.
After meeting briefly with Susan Smith and John Pokrzywinski; Mary Hodapp, MSW, Director of Social Services at Woodward Resource Center, provided information to the Iowa Money Follows the Person Partnership Group regarding the role of Board Certified Behavior Analysts. As a result, BCBA's became approved providers for the MFP program.
The Iowa ABA Web site was developed by John Pokrzywinski.
Some of Iowa ABA members attended the HLABA conference in Omaha in October. Susan Smith and John Pokrzywinski participated with Wayne Fischer in a Roundtable Discussion on Licensure and Certification Issues for Behavior Analysts, which was chaired by Jon Bailey, Susan Smith, and John Pokrzywinski and attended an invited workshop at ABAI in Chicago in 2008 where the importance of family involvement recognizing behavior analysis as a profession, and the need to have it funded.
A bill was introduced into the Iowa General Assembly to mandate insurance coverage for children with autism. Several Iowa ABA members met at The Homestead in Pleasant Hill, Iowa, to review the bill. Several suggestions were made regarding the inclusion of Board Certified Behavior Analysts as providers. These suggestions were adopted into an amendment by Senator Daryl Beall, sponsor of the bill. Several Iowa ABA members attended a subcommittee hearing in a packed hearing room. Susan Smith was one of five speakers providing testimony in favor of the bill. Unfortunately, the bill did not make it out of the subcommittee. We will keep active in this and other related legislation.
Jim Prickett and Susan Smith were two of six staff members from Woodward Resource Center to complete the Ten-day Intensive Training Course in Dialectical Behavior Therapy provided by Behavioral Tech, LLC on April 24, 2009.
John Pokrzywinski, Jeff Luke, and Kelly Vinquist hosted the Iowa ABA presentation at the ABA International Expo in Phoenix 2009, which is a special poster session for presentations of graduate training programs, internship and employment opportunities, special interest groups (SIGs), affiliated chapters, ABA International boards and committees, and behavioral associations around the world.