ABA Unfiltered

Keith Jones, CEO at BlueSprig, who you heard from in our intro, sits down with Tim to discuss some BlueSprig history, the current ABA landscape, and current initiatives within BlueSprig. Keith just came back from his Road Back Road Trip with a lot of stories to tell and details some of the challenges the BlueSprig team overcame during pandemic shutdowns, and how proud he is of his organization and our accomplishments. 

In response to conversations with BlueSprig employees focused on social justice issues that were honest, difficult, and eye opening, Keith Jones, CEO of BlueSprig, formed Kintsugi. Kintsugi is a diversity, equity, and inclusion mission within BlueSprig that looks at every aspect of the BlueSprig employment experience to ensure that we are living to our value of a level playing field for all. Co-chairs Jenny Pagan, Clinical Integration Manager and Jovan Philips, Clinic Optimization Director, join our host, Tim Crilly to discuss how Kintsugi was founded and how their roles are focused on leading this mission.

In March of 2020 we all saw our lives drastically change as a global pandemic caused lock downs and business closures began. Many states were quick to identify ABA therapy as an essential service, however the work to ensure families safely received care and employees were able to continue in a secure working environment had just begun. Dr. Sharyn Kerr, Chief Operating Officer at BlueSprig, and Jill Jacobson, Chief Growth Officer sit down with Tim to talk about the challenges that BlueSprig faced during the early period of this pandemic. They also discuss the quick and effective decisions they made to create safe conditions for all those involved and how the process evolved over time. Our hope is that this episode can aid other providers and offer best practices for moving forward in our “new normal”.

Cheri Vandermey, BCBA, is currently working with a Los Angeles area school district and possesses a plethora of experience with public schools as well as a vast knowledge of the IEP process. This episode focuses on the challenges families and teachers will face in a distance learning environment for those students with an IEP. Cheri proves to be an incredibly intriguing guest to have on with our host Tim Crilly, and first time co-host Dr. Summer Adami to discuss this situation and how school districts might move forward to improve the learning environment for these students. With so many questions up in the air, our discussion focuses on potential outcomes as well as the lingering questions that exist within the school system during a pandemic.

Dr. Summer Adami, Vice President of Research and Clinical Outcomes at BlueSprig, joins the show and talks about the process she went through when her company was the first ABA therapy agency to be acquired by BlueSprig. She also discusses how her transition to BlueSprig provided her with the opportunity to pursue some of her greatest passions through a variety of initiatives within BlueSprig that relate to advocacy and research.

In our first episode, our host Tim Crilly talks with Dr. Michael Cameron, Chief Clinical Officer at BlueSprig about his most recent study, Telehealth for Family Guidance. 

With COVID-19 affecting the way all health care providers deliver services, technology has emerged as a critical component in order to deliver care via telehealth. Telehealth has changed the landscape of ABA making it possible for families to receive valuable services when they cannot be physically near their clinician.

Dr. Cameron expands on the study he and his team performed and published and he goes deeper into examining how to best approach telehealth and what the future can look like with technology in health care.

Welcome to ABA Unfiltered where our goal is to provide the greater ABA community insights and education to make the science, policy, and culture behind ABA more digestible and accessible. 

In this introduction, you'll hear from our host Tim Crilly, BCBA and Keith Jones, CEO of BlueSprig about how BlueSprig aims to bring the ABA community together to collaborate through this podcast and how BlueSprig was founded. Enjoy!