Vermont ABA – 2025 Chapter Update
By Megan Mayo
Vermont Association for Applied Behavior Analysis (VtABA), established in 2004, continues to fulfill its mission to support the growth of behavior analysis in Vermont. The current board consists of 10 members, including one student member. Our current membership is 180 professionals and 15 students.
VtABA hosted various events in person and online in 2024 and into the new year. Every January, we hold our annual meeting and offer our members a full-day CEU event at no cost. In 2024, Dr. Siri Ming provided the training, “Starting from Psychological Flexibility: RFT, ACT, and Behavior Analytic Practice” this January. This year we hosted Dr. Kate Chazin who led an interactive ½ day event on “Centering Autistic Perspectives in Early Childhood Education.” The rest of the day included journal article discussion and panels of local professionals speaking on supervision and leadership. Our annual meeting and training are now online to honor the treacherous driving conditions of rural Vermont in the winter.
We also host an annual state conference each May. In 2024, the conference was held at the Sugarbush Ski Resort in Warren, VT. The day’s schedule was headlined by Dr. Thomas Szabo speaking on ACTraining and social justice. The other speakers included Dr. Cath Burns on behavioral interventions in pediatric integrated care, Dr. Sydney Batchelder on ABA for the treatment of substance use disorder, and local ABA pioneer, David Powsner, on the history of ABA in Vermont.
VtABA strives to provide a multitude of learning and collaboration opportunities. In addition to our annual conference and meeting, we provided a free ethics workshop on anti-oppressive practices to fulfill a new Vermont requirement for licensure renewal. We also hosted a mixer for VtABA members and membership curious folks. Many RBTs and ABA students attended, this led to our decision to drastically reduce our student cost for conference attendance and to include a free year of RBT/student membership with proof RBT/student status. VtABA will also be hosting its first ever hybrid event for our 2025 annual conference on June 7th with a new partnership with BehaviorLive. This year’s speakers include Dr. Lauren Allen, Matt Cicoria, Erin Bertolli, and a panel from NeurABA.
This year has more in store for the Vermont ABA community. VtABA is working on creating an action learning opportunity for local BCBAs interested in developing their knowledge and skill in RFT and ACT. We will continue to offer social mixers across the state to help local ABA professionals connect and help our field grow in Vermont. We also will again offer a free training on non-oppressive practices in ABA as well as other free professional development events for VtABA members.
For more information on our chapter and what we’re working on, check out the following:
Website: www.vtaba.org
Conference Website: https://behaviorlive.com/conferences/Vermont25/home
Facebook: VT ABA (Nonprofit)
Instagram and Threads: @vt_aba
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