Melissa

She/Her

I’m queer and I’m a behavioral analyst. //

I’m a scientist of human behavior, currently a doctoral student getting ready to sit for Boards to become a Board Certified Behavioral Analyst (BCBA). I assess, observe, and collect data to implement interventions aimed at reducing maladaptive behaviors and increasing skills or behaviors targeted for acquisition. Originally specializing in early intervention for children on the autism spectrum and other developmental disabilities, I’ve also begun branching out in the field with marriage and family counseling, and [in exploring] its implications in treating mental health conditions such as addiction, eating disorders, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other traumas. My vision for the world is love unconditional, uninhibited, and unadulterated; that it may be given in the same fashion it is received. I dream of a world where a person is not defined by their behaviors or onlookers’ interpretations of these as “wrong” or “not normal”—a world where we look beyond the external and search deep within, tapping into the gift that is each individual soul and allowing ourselves to be tapped into in the same exact way. I am proud to be a queer scientist and have this be my coming out as a worthy, powerful, beautiful queer leader in my field/career, and life. I am because you are.