Virginia ABA

By Christine Evanko

The Virginia Association for Behavior Analysis (VirginiaABA® or VABA) is the affiliate chapter of ABAI in Virginia. We represent behavior analysts in Virginia and have over 600 members. We hope this year to get back to our pre-COVID numbers of over 800 members. The Commonwealth of Virginia has the 12th largest certified BCBA-Ds, BCBAs, BCaBAs, and RBTs (combined) in the United States. The association has been in existence since 2003 and is a 501c6 organization. This year we are celebrating our 20th Anniversary! VABA contracts with a lobbyist and has one paid contracted position, an Executive Director.

We have four goals that we use to achieve our mission of promoting and supporting the practice, research, and dissemination of behavior analysis throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. Goal 1—Improve Viability and Sustainability of the Organization; Goal 2—Provide Quality Service to Our Members; Goal 3—Strengthen the Diversity and Cultural Competence Within VABA and the Behavior Analysis Profession Across the Commonwealth; Goal 4—Advocate for the Science of Behavior Analysis in the Commonwealth. We are frequently monitoring our strategic plan to find better ways of serving our members.

This year our 20th annual conference was in Alexandria. We offer location-based special interest groups in Central VA, Tidewater, and Northern VA, which are providing additional professional development events to serve our members. Our Marketing & Membership, Student Engagement, Mentorship, and Public Policy Committees continue to meet and do the heavy lifting for our organization. We hired a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultant who spoke and our conference and delivered and actionable report.

In 2023, VABA distributed four newsletters that were each opened by 60% of our membership or more. We published 14 blog posts with information that affects practitioners in Virginia. We communicated to over 2400 people via Facebook, over 1100 via Twitter, and over 500 people on our newer Instagram account and over 100 on our newest LinkedIn account. We publicized more than 25 jobs on our website. Our 2023 Annual Conference sold out 40 days early at 300 attendees. We expanded to a capacity of 500 in 2024. We published an annual report on our website—www.virginiaaba.org/about/annual-reports/. This year we are going to give out three awards at our conference (names not available at the time of publication)—The E. Scott Geller Award for Distinguished Service to Applied Behavioral Science, The Virginia Association for Behavior Analysis Early Career Award, and The Virginia Association for Behavior Analysis Award for Excellence in Direct Service Provision. We plan to continue these awards annually.

VABA Membership offers many benefits, including an annual conference, networking opportunities, quarterly newsletter, CEU offerings (including the conference and beyond), members-only resources, lobbying and policy efforts, location-based special interest groups, and discounts on a variety of outside products. The VABA Board of Directors works diligently to make sure we are relevant to behavior analysts in Virginia. We meet every other month and stay in continual contact to provide benefits that our members request and need. We are proud to represent behavior analysis in Virginia.