Angela Day, President

I am married with two teenagers, one daughter with ADD and one son with PDD/NOS. I have participated in and managed my son's successful in-home ABA program using college students for the past twelve years. When we started out he was nonverbal and considered unteachable by the school district. For 2.5 years we home-schooled him using college students 7 days a week, 40 hours a week and had my son in the Moore-Weis Children's Center in the mornings, with great success. He has been in a regular classroom since 1st grade and is now at grade level in 9th grade, with the support of our after-school ABA program, 15 to 20 hours per week.

Also from age four, we used biomedical and diet interventions that greatly help my son's health with the consultation of doctors such as Dr. Glen Luepnitz and Dr. Kendal Stewart.

My dream is that NAA Central Texas and other Autism Support groups will be obsolete in the next ten years because Autism as we currently know it will not exist. To accomplish that, we have to unite as a community and lobby our legislature for effective research and treatment for all our children, whether child or adult.

Kecia Johndrow, Vice President

I am a mother of two active boys, ages 11 and 9. My oldest son was diagnosed at age 7 with Aspergers syndrome after many years of seeing multiple doctors for a variety of health issues. He is mainstreamed with accommodations and is doing very well. We started biomedical treatment at age 7 and wish we would have started much earlier! Through the wonderful care of Thoughtful House Center for Children he is making great progress. The most effective treatments for us so far have been Occupational Therapy, a GFCF and Feingold diet, MB12, transdermal glutathione, and decreasing his nutritional deficiencies with the use of supplements. We are also doing IVIG, and slowly starting chelation in order to continue to help him heal.

I operate my own small business offering private childbirth education classes, pregnancy belly casting, and birth doula services. For the last 10 years I have worked for local Central Texas families providing care and support during late pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. I have worked extensively in the hospital environment helping to advocate for natural birth options and midwifery rights in the state of Texas. I attended the University of Central Oklahoma majoring in Fine Arts and have been married to my wonderful husband since 1995.

My goal is to help families find the support they need and give them hope that autism is treatable! It's important that we all work together to grow awareness, research, funding, and treatment options in order to help our children reach their fullest potential. I look forward to serving the autism community and meeting new friends and families along the way.

Carol Holden B.A., RDI Certified Consultant,
                    Treasurer and Chair of Fundraising

I’m originally from New York but moved to Austin in 1994. I was truly fortunate to have grown up amongst the mountains of upstate New York, where I absorbed a wholesome and grounded family life despite our family challenges. Our family household of 7 included my parents, grandparents, and siblings, with several aunts, uncles, and cousins as neighbors. At an early age I became aware of my Grandmother’s mental imbalance which was a result of hormonal issues during her child bearing years. It was a unified family endeavor to understand and nurture her. There were not many options for help, given there were no appropriate or socially acceptable treatments available.

In my early adult years I became very community connected and was quite active in non-profit organizations to serve the needy, including pre-school programming and facilities. I also enjoyed my role as a designated mediator to troubled families via the legal systems of the State of New York.

As my years of parenting unfolded I became more involved with the care and direction of my Asperger’s son. As any loving parent, I want a satisfying and good quality of life for my son. For those of you who can relate, it is a tremendous challenge to identify the issues, and chart the path of a special needs child. I lost track of the number of professionals that put my son under the microscope to analyze and label his condition. Not like “I truly wanted a label”….but knowing what’s wrong so you can figure out what to do, is at least a place to start. Years passed with no concurring professional opinions. Then there were years of searching across the country for the best/right program for my son. All programs we attempted eventually resulted in rejection because he didn’t fit in, and they didn’t know what to do with him.

During the search I discovered two doctors in Houston Texas, who had created a program called Relationship Development Intervention (RDI). The methods and concepts were amazingly simple but made perfect sense. The uniqueness and absolute beauty of the program is the flexibility. There is no requirement to label the condition, as the program can be specifically molded to each individual at their needs level. After researching the facets of RDI and personally meeting with both Dr. Gutstein and Dr. Sheely, my path became most apparent. I entered the certification program and was fortunate enough to have Dr. Sheely as my mentor and direct supervisor. Her requirements of me were high, but I am all the more capable because of it. I am benefited by her professional merits and experience, as well as her continual availability.

As a registered RDI Consultant I’ve realized my lifelong path has come to fruition. In the past I possessed no tools to help my family. Now I have the training and experience to help my family as well as yours. You can rest assured I value your family’s quality of life, like I value my own.

RDI has forever changed me and my family’s life in tremendous ways.

Committee Chairs

Joan Leach, Chair of Public Affairs

I am a stay-at-home mom with two sons. Our older son born in 2003 has autism – moderate, is non-verbal with apraxia. My husband and I have achieved great success with the Son-Rise home-based program, which we implemented from 2006-2009. It is a child-led, parent-directed program that has impressed us like no other.

Pre-kids, I worked in sales for over 15 years on the east coast, the last six in the technology field in Internet/Telephone Systems in the Washington , DC Metro area. During this time in DC, I also worked as a Regional Council Member for Women’s and Men’s Empowerment Courses, where I helped to oversee the integrity of an eight-week, non-profit course for individuals interested in improving the quality of their life.

Since we moved to the Austin area in September 2009, my husband and I have been impressed by the RRISD school program, the medical professionals, and the autism community. I decided to spend my time helping NAACT because I agree with its philosophy and want to help by raising funds and publicizing this great organization, which will ultimately help our kids.

Robbin Malain, Chair of Community Outreach

I currently live in Johnson City, Texas. I have an MSW (Master of Social Work) degree and hold a Texas teaching certificate. I have taught 3rd, 4th and 5th grades and have worked with Special Education students. After I received my MSW, I put my career on hold to help my son with some delays in development due to an Autism Spectrum Disorder. My son was 2 1/2 years old when ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) noticed that he had “atypical” behaviors. He is sweet, very bright and loves to be around people. He is doing really well and we can’t wait to see how his biomedical treatments are going to help him.

I am now looking to get back into the work world. I believe that this will involve using my classroom teaching experience, my experience helping my son with his delays and my clinical social work education. I would like to teach children on the Autism Spectrum who have had challenges due to Dyslexia or ADD.

Being on the NAACT board will give me a chance to help inform people about all the great therapy practices now offered to help children on the Autism Spectrum. It is my hope that as our society becomes more educated about therapy options and current research, all people on the Autism Spectrum may have a better quality of life.

Trina Sherman, Vice-Chair of Community Outreach

I have run an in home ABA program for 8 years after school. I switched it to include RPM as the main mode of teaching and communicating. I have been an active member of ASA and Texas Autism Advocacy for over 10 years and Matt was diagnosed at age 3 with PDD/NOS at the Kennedy Kreiger Institute in Baltimore. I have three children. The oldest is Zach who is 15 and in high school. Matt is 14. The youngest is Amy who is 11. Matt is the only one diagnosed with Autism although my other children do struggle with ADD and Dyslexia.

I work from home advocating for children with Autism and have recently become a Generation Rescue Angel after experiencing great success with bio medical approaches combined with RPM. My professional background included being one of the first 1000 people hired at Dell Computers and I had many different jobs there dealing most often with Customer Service and Sales. I also am a member of several community theater groups and when time permits I enjoy singing and performing. My passion has always been with children and making people laugh, sometimes at me, sometimes with me. But I still feel, even now, that laughter can cure any heartache even if only for a moment.

Carla Scruggs, Vice-Chair of Effective Treatments (RDI)

My name is Carla Scruggs. I will have been married to Jeff for 25 years in August of 2009. I love to take pictures, and I like to scrapbook, quilt, embroider, and plant things.
We have two boys. The oldest is 17 and has Asperger's with a few other things thrown in the mix like sensory integration disorder, probably auditory processing disorder, and visual processing issues. He also has some speech delay.
Our other son is 13, and is almost nt. He was born with a PDA (the heart defect, not an electronic device), and that was surgically repaired. Subsequently we found out he has developmental coordination disorder, learning disabilities, and sensory integration disorder, Irlens Syndrome, visual processing/tracking issues, and possibly ADD.
We are learning about reflex integration as both our boys have retained reflexes.
It may sound like a cliche but being the mother to two children who aren't quite typical has made me a better person. I treasure my children, even though there are days I think I'm going to go to the beach for a month, all by myself, and not tell anyone where I'm going.
We've been doing RDI for a while now, and even though we've had a lot of problems (illness, deaths in the family, etc.), we can tell RDI has helped us tremendously. We also do HANDLE with both of our boys, and we homeschool.
I'm excited to be part of this group, and I'm hoping my experience with RDI and HANDLE will help someone else.

Rebecca M. Ryan, Chair of Legal Affairs

I am married to an all-around good guy, John, and we have fantastic boys, both of whom make us proud every day. I'm originally from Houston, but have lived in many places. We are currently calling Austin our home, and we love the weather (well, except August) and all the activities that families can enjoy here.

Like my many varied homes, I have a varied career track. I began my professional life as an economist working for international agencies. After our oldest son was diagnosed ASD, I jumped into the ABA world, working first as a line therapist and eventually working my way up to a consultant. I received my M.Ed. in Autism and Early Childhood Special Ed at the University of Texas-Austin. In 2007, I received my J.D., also from UT-Austin, and began practicing law. My areas of specialty are Estate Planning/Probate and Special Education law. I love both areas, though one is certainly more contentious than the other; I find that they balance each other out!

My hope is to be able to empower parents to advocate effectively for their children's education by providing them with knowledge and training.

Amanda Boutot, Ph.D., B.C.B.A
Director of Amanda Boutot Consulting

Dr. Boutot is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) with advanced training in autism, verbal behavior, TEACCH, FloorTime, assessment procedures, and program development. Dr. Boutot has been a special educator and is currently a faculty member in special education at Texas State University and coordinates the graduate concentration in Autism and ABA. She has numerous professional, peer-reviewed publications, teaches courses on autism, developmental disabilities, and ABA, and speaks nationally and internationally on issues related to educating children and youth with autism and other disabilities. She has consulted with school districts across the country on behavior and autism and has provided numerous trainings for professional organizations. She graduated with her Ph.D. in Special Education from University of Texas at Central Texas in August 1999.

Monique Erickson, M.A., B.C.B.A.
Director of Autism Center for Education (ACE)

Monique graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a BA in psychology in 1996. She went on to earn her Master’s degree in special education from San Diego State University in 2002. She became a certified behavior analyst upon completing additional coursework in applied behavior analysis through the University of Nevada, Reno. In 1995 Monique started her experiences with autism as an undergraduate research assistant in UCSD’s Pivotal Response Training (PRT) lab. She then went on to gain over 10 years of extensive training & experience working with the Center for Autism & Related Disorders (CARD) across various locations in southern California, New York, and Central Texas. In 2008 she founded the Autism Center for Education (ACE).

Jesse Franco, M.Ed., CCC-SLP, BCBA
Horizon Program

Jesse Franco is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) and a licensed Speech Language Pathologist (CCC-SLP). She received her Bachelors degree from the University of Kansas and Masters degree from the University of Texas at Central Texas.
She has been working at Capitol School for 8 years, both in the Traditional and Horizon programs and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Special Education at U.T.
She will be returning as an on-site speech-language pathologist consultant for approximately 15 hours in the classrooms. Her goal is to provide guidance on implementing techniques in lesson plans that are therapeutically more from a speech-language pathologist view.

Mandy Rispoli, Ph.D., BCBA
Department of Special Education
University of Texas at Austin

Graduated from the University of Virginia in 2002 with a B.A. in psychology and Spanish. She earned her masters in Special Education with a concentration in Early Childhood from the University of Texas at Austin in 2003 and her doctorate in Special Education with a concentration in Autism and Developmental Disabilities in 2009. Dr. Rispoli has taught bilingual special education preschool as well as self-contained classes for students with autism spectrum disorder.

Dr. Rispoli has over 9 years of experience working with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities and their families. Her research interests include assessment and treatment of challenging behaviors with children who have developmental disabilities. She is also a member of the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis and the International Association for Behavior Analysis.

Phyllis Sample, M.Ed., BCBA
Owner of Central Texas Autism Center

Phyllis graduated from Texas Christian University with a Bachelor of Science in Speech Pathology. She completed her Master of Education Degree in Early Childhood/Special Education from the University of Texas at Central Texas. While specializing in autism and developmental disabilities at UT, she pursued certification in behavior analysis and became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst in 2006. She has over 10 years of experience working with developmental disabilities in both the public and private sector. She has worked in public and private schools, Early Childhood Intervention as a clinician as well as her current position as a Behavior Analyst with Bluebonnet Trails MHMR. She combines her knowledge of family centered programming, child development and evidence based practices to meet the needs of the children and families she services through the MHMR Center.

Ashley Schexnayder, M.S., BCBA
BCBA for Bluebonnet Trails Autism Program

Graduated from McNeese State University with a B.S. in Psychology. She then received her M.S. in Behavior Analysis at Southern Illinois University, the first graduate program in Applied Behavior Analysis in the United States. During graduate studies she worked as a behavior analyst working in the home, school, and community. In 2001 she began working as behavior analyst for the Columbus Organization in Memphis, Tennessee. She was responsible for conducting functional behavior assessments, designing treatment programs, and implementing treatment plans for individuals with autism in the home, school, and community.
In 2004 she served as director and in 2005 founded Sloane Behavior Consultants Inc. in Naples, Florida where she directed a behavior analysis program serving individuals with autism in the home.
She has over 10 years experience working with individuals with autism. Mrs. Schexnayder is currently serving as behavior analyst for the Bluebonnet Trails Autism Program serving Guadalupe, Caldwell, and Gonzales counties in Central Texas. She is also a member of the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis and the International Association for Behavior Analysis.

Rany Thommen, M.Ed., BCBA
BCBA for Bluebonnet Trails Autism Program

Graduated from Emory University with a B.A. in Psychology and minor in Educational Studies. During her time at Emory University she worked as a lead preschool teacher at the Walden Early Childhood Program at the Emory Autism Center under the supervision of Dr. Gayle McGee. She then received her M.Ed. in Autism and Developmental Disabilities from The University of Texas at Central Texas. While attending graduate school she worked as an in-home trainer for Round Rock ISD and managed in-home ABA programs. After receiving her Masters degree, Ms. Thommen began working as an associate behavior analyst at the Behavior Treatment and Training Center in Rosenburg, Texas. Ms. Thommen has over 8 years experience working with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. Currently, she is serving as behavior analyst at the Bluebonnet Trails Autism Program serving Williamson, Burnet, Bastrop , Lee, and Fayette counties in Central Texas. She is also a member of the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis and the International Association for Behavior Analysis.

Kelle Wood-Rich, M.Ed., BCBA
Owner/Executive Director of Central Texas Autism Center

Graduated from Texas Christian University with a B.S. in Study of Exceptional Students in 1992. She then taught Special Education in public school for 3 years. Ms. Wood received her M.Ed. in Behavior Interventions in 1996 from The University of North Texas and returned to public school as a Crisis Interventionist, Behavior Specialist and then as the Autism Specialist for the district. She has been an associate of Dr. Vince Carbone, internationally known behavior analyst, since 1997. Ms. Wood has more than 17 years of experience teaching children and adults with autism and other developmental disabilities.
She has over 10 years experience assessing and developing treatment for this population of learners and over 6 years supervising teachers, therapists and consulting with school districts. She is also a member of the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis and the International Association for Behavior Analysis.

Lisa Hunter Ryden

Lisa Hunter Ryden is a parent of two children recovering from neuro-immune disorders. Her oldest son suffered neurological regression at 12 months old and was later diagnosed with autism, and her youngest son was diagnosed with allergies and asthma at age 2. Both of her children continue to make great improvements in their overall health and recovery.

Together with Dr. Kendal Stewart, Lisa hosts a monthly radio show on Autism One Radio called, “The Parent and Professional Partnership for Healing our Children” which presents a unique team approach to the recovery journey and chronicles her children’s progress using evidence-based biomedical interventions and therapies. Both of her children have similar diagnostic test results, which has led her to research the epigenetic origins of these disorders.

Lisa has a BS degree in Medical Technology, an MBA degree in International Management, and graduate coursework in molecular genetics, immunology and nutrition. She has spent the past 20 years working in the medical diagnostic industry. Lisa’s scientific background, combined with her personal experience recovering her own children, has led to her passion to help other families. She is a frequent public speaker and writer for autism and disability organizations, and seeks to educate others about the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of the neuro-immune disorders.

Send us a note and get information about workshops, available grants, and information on resources in your area.