Minnesota Northland ABA

By Audrey Kennedy
Hello from the Minnesota Northland Association for Behavior Analysis (MNABA)! Last year was a major redesign for our association. We had over 6 board positions at the end of their term. In June, our executive board met up to discuss a plan for how to streamline board processes and evaluate the needs of MNABA. A board restructuring was designed and approved by the full board to include in our bylaws at the end of June 2022. Our new board now consists of the president, President-Elect, Administrative Director, Conference Director, Legislative Director, PR Director, Website Director, Member at Large- Conference, Member at Large- Communication, and 2 Student Members.

Below are a few highlights of 2022:

Updated MNABA Bylaws

We welcomed almost a whole new board in September 2022: Dr. Angelica Aguirre, Dr. Odessa Luna, Holly Johnson, Dr. Eric Larsson, Dr. Stephen Walker, Dr. Eunju Choi, Emily Michell, Araya (Joy) Verojporn, Zoe Cosato, Katy Ashley, and Fartun Mohammed

We hosted our largest attended in-person conference on September 22-23, 2022. Our conference was also back in person after 3 years since the pandemic.

Location: Bloomington, MN

Keynote Speaker: Amanda Kelly, PhD, BCBA-D

CEUs provided: 22.5 (total)

4 3-hour workshops

6 breakout sessions: 3 Autism and 3
Non-Autism Tracks

1 Panel Events

Ask the Experts! The BACB’s New Supervision
Guidelines and Barriers for Service Providers

15 sponsors/exhibitors

Data Blitz Event- 7 virtual poster presentations
(Free CEUs)

# of attendees: 270

Out grew our host hotel

Below are our goals for 2023:

Find new conference hotel

Edit and Vote on 2023-2028 strategic plan

Redesign website

Creating a Neurodiversity, Student Resources,
and find a Provider pages

Collaborate with Minnesota Department of Human Services to provide CEU’s for EIDBI trainings

Provide Quarterly Virtual Trainings hosted by the Adult Services SIG for Free CEU’s for MNABA Members

Continue to disseminate compassionate ABA on social media, our website, and to the community

Increase our social media engagement

Support and contact local representatives to approve the Provider Relief and Reimbursement Rate Increase Bills for Spring 2023 legislative session in collaboration with the Autism Treatment Association of Minnesota.