Linda S. Heitzman-Powell, Ph.D., MPH

Professional Background

As a researcher and practitioner, I bring a long and rich history to determining and providing evidence-based practices to improve the lives of individuals with complex behaviors and their families. During my doctoral training, I studied under the tutelage of Dr. Donald, M. Baer, one of the initial researchers that defined the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) (Baer, Wolf andamp; Risley, 1968). Since the early 1990’s, I have been involved in the application of evidence-based methodology to individuals from historically underserved areas and conditions, in particular, to those with disabilities, such as ASD or other complex conditions (e.g. individuals who experience co-morbid mental health and developmental disabilities). At the advocacy level, I have served as the Convener of the Best Practices Subcommittee for the Kansas Legislative Task Force on Autism and remain an active member in the local Autism community, maintain a private practice providing home- and clinic-based behavioral and cognitive behavioral therapy consulting services to families who have a child or children diagnosed with an ASD and other disabilities such as traumatic brain injury. Over the last decade, I have developed several training programs for providers and parents in the ASD community. Currently, the provider training is utilized by service providers in the state of Kansas as the required qualification to provide treatment to Kansas Medicaid recipients with ASD. I currently hold a Research Associate Professorship position at the University of Kansas Medical Center where I serve as the Director of Community Research. I am the Principal Investigator on a NIDILRR-funded project to scale-up and disseminate OASIS – a distance-based ABA training program for parents of young children with Autism. I also serve as Co-I on a HRSA funded project using Telehealth to provide treatment and consultation to students in geographically underserved school districts.

• MPH, Public Health, San Diego State University
• PhD, Behavioral Psychology/Developmental and Child Psychology/Behavior Analysis, Univ. of Kansas
• Other, Behavior Analysis, University of Kansas, Kansas City, KS

• Behavior Analyst, Kansas Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board

• ABPathfinders, Advisory Board Member, 2009 - 2017
• Association for Behavior Analysis International , Member, 2001 - 2022

---