Utah ABA

By Christine Manning

We have had a busy and exciting year in Utah, focusing on compassion and collaboration with our families, stakeholders, and colleagues. This has been an area of focus many members have appreciated at this time in our history.

We have also continued to focus on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and strive to bring awareness and understanding to UtABA practitioners so they can best serve
our communities.
Our Public Policy committee worked tirelessly with our partners at Utah Medicaid to update the ABA Provider Manual. It went through several revisions and was put into effect Jan. 1, 2023.

UtABA has been collaborating with the Office of Professional Licensure Review (OPLR), a new office in the Department of Commerce tasked with providing recommendations to the legislature on how to improve and update occupational regulation in Utah. They are reviewing a variety of behavioral health care professions’ licensing requirements and conducting focus groups with some UtABA members. This will help to improve occupational regulation to ensure consumers of ABA have access to safe and competent care.

UtABA webinars continue to be well attended by our members. Our most recent presenters were Dr. Dana Paliliunas who presented on Intervention-Enhancing Effects of Acceptance and Commitment Training on Work Performance, Dr. Jonathan Tarbox, PhD, BCBA-D who presented on ACT and Compassion-Focused Applied Behavior Analysis, and Dr.Tyra Sellers, PhD, BCBA-D, who spoke on Collaboration and Compassion. We look forward to the continuation of UtABA webinars and bringing high quality content to our members.

Our Professional Development Committee put together an amazing annual conference that was held in August 2022 at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Provo, Utah. We were honored to host amazing speakers who covered a variety of topics. Keynote speakers included Saundra Bishop, BCBA, LBA and Kristine Rodriguez, BCBA. Workshop courses were provided by Dr. Monica Gilbert, PsyD., BCBA-D, LMHC, and Saundra Bishop BCBA, LBA. At the conclusion of day two of the conference, UtABA hosted a wonderful Social and Networking event at the beautiful Sundance Mountain resort. Post conference data reflects it was our best conference to date!

Our Public Relations committee was busy keeping UtABA members up to date on the latest happenings in behavior analysis around the state. Among other things, they posted information about upcoming webinars and conferences, and shared tips for people getting ready to sit for the BCBA exam.

UtABA is continuously improving our collaboration and opportunities for students to get involved. Their help was so appreciated at our annual conference, as is their outreach program to get BCBA’s in training, who may not be part of a local university, more involved. UtABA’s student members are the best!

We are fortunate to have such wonderful practitioners in the state of Utah who embody the values and professionalism of what quality ABA looks like across different settings.