Clinical Manager, BCBA (Behavior Analysis)

Samantha N. Thurn

**** ****** *. #*** ******, TX 78751 ********@*****.*** 319-***-****

EDUCATION

M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis (May 2019)

Drake University

B.A. in Psychology (December 2015)

Iowa State University

CERTIFICATIONS

Board Certified Behavior Analyst (1-19-38470)

8-hour supervision (10/27/2019)

Licensed Behavior Analyst- Texas (3090)

First Aid/CPR (9/12/23)

CLINICAL EXPERIENCE

Cultivate Behavioral Health and Education

Clinical Manager (February 2022- Present)

Responsibilities: Managing a team who provide center, in-home, and in-community services in the design and implementation of individualized treatment plans for a caseload of patients, work closely with the Regional VP/ Operations Manager, Local Operations Team, and Staff to ensure quality of care, authorization utilization, and implementation of treatment plans as appropriate, oversee and provides training to the team to ensure proper and up-to-date treatment decisions for patients, supervise and manage staff, including BCBAs, apprentices, training coordinators, lead technicians, RBTs, BTs, operations managers, and admin assistants, communicate with staff in a professional and constructive manner that adds to the development of the entity/affiliate, lead monthly All-Staff meetings and serve as a liaison between clinicians, therapists, and operations staff, resolve conflicts with staff, clinicians, parents, etc., demonstrated leadership skills to manage patients, staff, families, including times when conflict may exist, demonstrate a high level of engagement in company culture (i.e., a “culture champion”), including but not limited to robust understanding of Cultivate’s Mission and Culture, collaborate regularly with all company CMs to ensure consistency in practice management and culture, establish caseload assignments for the BCBAs and RBTs and perform regular caseload reviews with the BCBA team, conduct weekly meetings with each BCBA to encourage ongoing education, recommend literature, and provide feedback on training materials/curriculum/caregiver trainings, etc., develop training to fill gaps in the BCBA team when deficiencies are noted in order to improve the quality of patient services, collaborate with BCBAs to maximize fulfillment of authorized supervision and direct treatment hours, work with the Outreach Coordinators to ensure the region meets intake Samantha N. Thurn

recommendations that match the regional budget, allow for the onboarding and quality service for every child served in the region, ensure that the BCBA team is supported and meeting their caseload’s needs, communicating staffing needs (BCBA/RBT), striving to ensure that the clinic is clean, maintained, fully stocked with all necessities, and remains within monthly budget and that providers of in-home and in-community services have the supplies that they need, review treatment plans and behavior intervention plans (BIPs) and provide feedback to BCBAs prior to submission to insurance providers, understand insurance requirements and communicate and educate the BCBAs and other staff regarding the requirements, create systems for the clinic to ensure operations run smoothly, ensure all documentation is completed timely and accurately

(BCBA /RBT supervision hours, Clinical/Billable notes, Insurance authorizations, Conduct regular assessments and evaluations (at least every 6 months), encourage BCBA collaboration, high performance, trust, and respect, conduct progress and performance reviews for staff (90 days and annually), conduct RBT competency assessments, oversee the Apprentice Program process and execution, conduct weekly bcba meetings/trainings, identify and develop additional training opportunities that benefit the team, create new hire’s training schedules with training coordinators, schedule and attend weekly intake/recruiting meetings to advocate for clinical needs, complete clinic onboarding for new hires (RBTs and BCBA’s), provide new hire training and supervisor for newly hired BCBA’s, serve as the main point of contact for communication with families on the onset of services and assist with streamlining the transition of communication to the assigned BCBA, seek regular feedback from staff and parents regarding levels of satisfaction with employment, contracts, and services, request all necessary therapeutic/educational materials and ensure materials are available and in stock, maintain and managed a direct caseload (if needed), provide input and assistance for communications with outside professionals, attended and was an active participant in company events and clinic resource fair, work ethically and with integrity while following the BACB Ethical Code, adhere to HIPAA policies, adhere to Cultivate policies and procedures, conducted interviews and hired RBT, Lead RBT’s, BCBA’s, office managers, and admin assistants, stayed up to to date and passionate about behavioral science and disseminating best practices and current research within the field of ABA, demonstrate continuous professional growth with a strong desire to continue learning, demonstrate ongoing training and CEUs in supervision and ethics, developed and lead teams for special projects to further support the mission of the company, responsible for supporting and encouraging the professional and personal development of the clinical team Cultivate Behavioral Health and Education

Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Clinical Supervisor (May 2020- Promoted Feb. 2022) Responsibilities: Provides direct ABA therapy in 1:1 and group settings in accordance with BACB guidelines and company policy/procedures, assist with administrative tasks and oversight of all patients (including completion of session notes, treatment plans, supervision, collecting and analyzing data, treatment authorizations, RBT requirements, assisting with team meetings, Samantha N. Thurn

etc.), provide training and supervision to Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs) and Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBAs), provide appropriate/constructive timely feedback for patients and training for parents, demonstrate knowledge of and use of a variety of standardized assessment/screening tools effectively, demonstrate ability to write comprehensive evaluation reports and communicate goals and objectives to parents, therapists, and other staff, conduct functional behavioral assessments and functional analyses, conduct verbal behavior/language assessments (VB MAPP/ABLLS-R/EFLS), communicate clearly with parents, treatment team, and supervisor or clinical director regarding patients, consult and collaborate with schools, daycares, medical professionals, and other pediatric disciplines as needed, provide parent, teacher, and staff training on the principles of ABA and behavior modification, maintain patient confidentiality and abide by federal and state HIPAA regulations, complete BACB required training for supervising individuals and sign off on hours for students accruing hours towards their BCBA certification, provides evidence-based individualized ethical treatment based on the principles of ABA, conducts whole group BCBA trainings (i.e., Treatment integrity), participate and developing Professional Development (i.e., staff treatment integrity, quarterly BCBA meetings, presenting case reviews, VB-MAPP master set, social validity measures), collect, analyze, train, and utilize staff treatment integrity data to impact staff performance and implementation of programming.

First Leap Pediatric Clinic

Board Certified Behavior Analyst (August 2019-May 2020) Responsibilities: Provided direct ABA case management and supervision of registered behavior technicians (RBT). Assessment and treatment of maladaptive behavior, skill acquisition, communication training, and parent training. Conducted session notes and adhered to insurance guidelines including report writing. Conducting preference assessments, developing and implementing functional analysis, creating function-based interventions; conducting Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program and vineland; developing and implementing discrete-trial teaching. Implementing social skills programming and group therapy. Using behavior skills training to do all staff training and individual training. Drake University Severe Behavior Clinic

Graduate Clinician (January 2019- May 2019)

Supervisor: Sacha Pence, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Responsibilities: Assessment and treatment of severe challenging behavior; skill acquisition, communication training; parent training; conducting intake interviews, indirect, descriptive, and preference assessments; developing and conducting functional analyses (e.g., standard, latency, trial-based); writing functional behavioral assessment (FBA) reports; conducting the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP); implementing behavioral intervention plans; developing and implementing discrete-trial programs; collecting, graphing, and analyzing data; and conducting behavioral skills training (e.g., functional analyses, preference assessments, three step prompting, etc.) with graduate and undergraduate students. Samantha N. Thurn

Blank Children’s Hospital Behavior Clinic

Lead Graduate Clinician (May 2018- December 2018)

Supervisors: Maria Valdovinos, Ph.D., BCBA-D and Sacha Pence, Ph.D., BCBA-D Responsibilities: conducting indirect, descriptive, and preference assessments; developing and conducting functional analyses; writing functional behavioral assessment (FBA) reports; conducting the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP); conducting in-school observations; providing behavior-reduction recommendations to school personnel; implementing behavioral intervention plans; collecting, graphing, and analyzing data; conducting literature reviews; and conducting behavioral skills training with graduate and undergraduate students.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Co- Author, Drake University (2022)

Published: Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice Aguilar, M., Griffith, G., Moen, R., Thurn, S., & Valdovinos, M. G. (2023). Treating challenging behavior in twins diagnosed with Down syndrome: Measuring treatment integrity and collecting social validity. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice, 23(1), 60–68.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/bar0000249

Co-Author, The University of Texas at Austin (2021) Primary Investigator: Ross Nesselrode, BCBA, doctoral student Research Project: Assessment and Instruction of Individuals with Autism and Developmental Disabilities

Duties: Conducted functional analyses (latency, trial based, and brief functional analysis) Primary investigator, NICHD research (July 2018-May 2019) Supervisor: Maria Valdovinos, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Research Project: Is the use of Behavior Analytic Interventions Associated with a Decreased Likelihood of Psychotropic Medication Use?

Duties: Literature review; graphed and collected data; recruited participants; obtained consent; conducted functional analysis; wrote behavior intervention plans (BIP); conducted parent training on BIP; composed treatment integrity checklists; conducted treatment integrity checks; trained undergraduate research students; and tracked medication use. Samantha N. Thurn

CONFERENCE PRESENTATION

Iowa Association for Behavior Analysis Conference

Poster Presentation (October 2018)

Thurn, S. N., Blalock, A., Griffith, G., Boyle, B., Aguilar, M. & Valdovinos, M. G. (2018, October). Is the use of behavior analytic interventions associated with a decreased likelihood of psychotropic medication use? Poster session presented at the 6 th

Annual

meeting of the Iowa Association for Behavior Analysts conference, West Des Moines, IA.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

TX ABA member, Affiliate/voting member (April 2020- April 2025) Iowa Association for Behavior Analysis, Student Board Member (October 2018-May 2019) REFERENCES

Margaret Uwayo, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Executive Director- KABAS

Senior Director of Behavioral Health & Academic Success- YWCA Email: **.******@*****.***

Phone: 269-***-****

Sacha Pence, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Assistant Professor- Western Michigan University

Email: *****.*****@*****.***

Phone: 269-***-****

Maria G. Valdovinos, Ph.D., BCBA-D, FAAIDD

Professor

Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Drake University Email: *****.**********@*****.***

Phone: 515-***-****

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