Nevada ABA

By Gregory S. Smith

NABA has continued to work on improvement via a series of key initiatives that were put in place by previous boards with a growing emphasis on providing additional resources for members. Nevada Association for Behavior Analysis (NABA) has continued to prioritize the growth of the organization with increased outreach throughout the state and throughout the profession (all levels of study or credential).

NABA continues to take an active role in matters of public policy that impact behavior analysts in our state. Having previously (2017) supported approved legislation to remove the regulation of behavior analysis from the purview of the Board of Psychological Examiners and instantiate a Board of Applied Behavior Analysis housed within the state Aging and Disability Services Division, in 2021, NABA promoted legislation to establish the state ABA board as a fully independent and autonomous entity. During the 2023 legislative session, NABA’s public policy committee worked alongside stakeholders to pass SB191, increasing the Medicaid service age cap from 20 to 26 years old. Medicaid subsequently removed the age cap entirely after the passage of SB191. During the same session, the public policy committee was instrumental in avoiding a Medicaid rate decrease across multiple CPT codes. NABA’s public policy also maintains a collaborative relationship with the Nevada Board of Behavior Analysis, the state’s licensing entity. Through this collaboration, NABA supported adjustments to the licensure law, addressing issuance fees for licensure. The NABA public policy committee is currently collaborating with stakeholders statewide to address access issues.

Additionally, NABA has made it a priority to offer learning opportunities throughout the year. In 2023, NABA organized several virtual events featuring renowned speakers in the field of ABA which were free to attend and included a very minimal fee for attendees interested in earning CEUs. The events were well attended, with attendance trending upward throughout the year. We are continuing to focus on this initiative, which is led by our Outreach Committee, and we have a handful of excellent virtual speaker events for the 2024 year.

With NABA’s Outreach Committee taking over the role of organizing speaker and CEU events for the membership and broader community, the Practice Committee has shifted its focus away from those activities to serve in a more supportive, practical role for the state’s practitioners at all levels. In particular, the committee is working to develop ongoing and meaningful supports for RBTs in the state, who are not yet in need of CEUs but who are often in need of guidance and informal supports (i.e., not formal supervision oversight) from veteran practitioners who can offer a wide array of practical knowledge and wisdom. The Practice Committee is working to offer sustained virtual and in-person meetings aimed at connecting practitioners in their respective regions and across the state and establishing a support network for professionals to share their experiences, ask questions, and learn from one another.

NABA held an outstanding single-track conference in October 2023, which featured a line-up of renowned speakers across three domains: basic, applied, and theoretical. The conference was held at the Whitney Peak in downtown Reno and was well attended, allowing NABA to continue to operate with financial stability. Our 2024 conference will be held at the same venue in October 2024, with another outstanding speaker lineup nearly finalized. A major modification we are currently exploring for the 2024 conference is working with a 3rd party vendor to make the conference hybrid, which would allow attendees from out of state to attend virtually, obtain CEUs, and hopefully generate revenue for NABA. Lastly, although it may seem early to be a point of focus, we are excited to announce that our annual conference will be in Las Vegas in 2025, which we hope will go a long way toward further engaging practitioners in the southern region of our state. This has been a goal of the organization for some time now and we are excited to realize it next year.

None of this would be possible without the hard work of the NABA Board, NABA Committee Chairs, and NABA committee members. The NABA executive board changes over each year in January and each executive board member serves an elect year prior to the start of their term.

Current NABA leadership is listed below:
President: Greg Smith, PhD, BCBA-D
President-Elect: Steven Anbro, PhD, BCBA-D
Treasurer: Jennifer Thomas, MEd, BCBA, LBA
Treasurer-Elect: Megan Szeto, MA, BCBA, LBA
Secretary: Deborah Meinberg, MA, BCBA, LBA
Secretary-Elect: Nicole Tamura, MEd, BCBA, LBA
At-Large Representative: Rachel Lozich, MEd, BCBA, LBA
At-Large Representative-Elect: Delaney Carlovsky, MA
Student Representative: Donna West
Student Representative-Elect: Brittney Pauli

NABA Committee Chairs:
Molly Halligan, MA, BCBA, LBA (Public Policy);
Jennifer Bonow, PhD, BCBA-D, LBA (Practice);
Megan McGrew, PhD, BCBA, LBA (Outreach)

For more information on NABA:
Website: www.nevadaaba.org
Email: board@nevadaaba.org
LinkedIn: Nevada Association for Behavior Analysis
Facebook: Nevada Association for Behavior Analysis
X (Twitter): @NABAOfficial