All Autism Talk

Arfa Alam joins us to share her experience and deep conviction for the appropriate care, and rights for all. Arfa is the proud mother, wife, and sister of disabled and differently-abled individuals, including her two autistic sons, her husband who lives with early onset Parkinson's disease, and her twin sister, who is deaf and was the first person in life to teach her about differe

Brandon Whitfield, Sr. Clinical Director for AST, part of LEARN Behavioral has presented at several conferences including BABA’s (Black Applied Behavior Analysts) inaugural conference to share ways ABA agencies can bring more equity to the field of ABA. In this conversation, Brandon discusses his role in helping to create The Black Master’s cohort and mentorship program as well

Dr. Megan Anna Neff, a Neurodivergent Psychologist joins us to discuss discovering her own autism in the aftermath of her child’s diagnosis and how that has inspired her passion to support the neurodivergent community. Dr. Neff describes the experience of her autism revelation in this way, “For the first time in my life, my body made sense, my experience of self made sense, and

Dr. Linda LeBlanc, a Licensed Psychologist and author of 3 books on supervision joins us to discuss her latest book about ethics which she co-authored with Dr. Amanda Karsten, who is the Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Grand Valley State University. Their new book titled Proactive and Practical Decision Making for Behavior Analysis explores the critical need

Jessica Sylfest is the parent of a child with Autism and ADHD and the Sr. Director of Talent Acquisition for LEARN Behavioral. Jessica’s compassion, warmth, and learned wisdom are great offerings to all parents as we transition our kids back to school. There are a lot of specific strategies shared when navigating an IEP and how to establish good communication with your child’s

Dr. Becky Thompson, Director of Clinical Services for the Wisconsin Early Autism Project (WEAP), and Reux Lennon, Non-binary member of both the LGBT and Autism community and Lead technician with WEAP join us to share their work on the Person-Centered ABA team and the Neurodivergent Advisory Committee. Dr. Thompson leads LEARN's Person-Centered ABA team, which is a group of clinical

Kerry Hoops the current President of the Autism Society of Greater Wisconsin and the clinical director for Wisconsin Early Autism Project’s Green Bay region joins us to share about a unique clinic event and what can be learned. Kerry shares details of sensory-friendly covid vaccine events that utilized assent-based practice to create a comfortable experience for children. As Kerr

Dr. Ellie Kazemi is the Chief Science Officer at Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE), an accrediting organization focused on improving the quality of behavior analytic services. She is also a professor at CSUN, where she founded the M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program. Dr. Kazemi joins us to share about the accreditation process and the importance of assessme

Dr. Amber Valentino, Chief Clinical Officer for Trumpet Behavioral Health where she leads all research and training activities, joins us to discuss the importance of prioritizing research. We delve into the issue of outdated research for those receiving services and the benefits of practitioners publishing needed research. As she shared, “What you want to happen is for a practiti

Motivational Speaker and Poet Russell Lehmann joins us for a third time to explore autism through the lens of culture. Having spent most of his life in isolation, Russell has found his voice and independence in recent years. His passion for erasing stigma and stereotypes about autism is shared through his moving, spoken-word poetry. In this discussion, Russell shares the challenges