Amber is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) with an educational background in human development and family studies. In 2008 she began volunteering with adolescents with developmental disabilities through a university program and has been working with the intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) population since. Amber is passionate about the intersection of trauma-informed care and behavior supports for individuals with disabilities, which sparked her interest in working in child welfare and the foster care system when she began providing behavior supports to children and teens in out-of-home placements. Prior to directing our Colorado foster care program, Amber worked as a behavior analyst providing ABA services to individuals across the lifespan in home, community, and clinic settings. While working as a BCBA she focused her professional development and continuing education on trauma-informed interventions, training caregivers and support staff, and dissemination of behavior analysis outside of “traditional” ABA settings. She has a love of lifelong learning and continually seeks out opportunities to better her knowledge, both within behavior analysis, in the child welfare realm, and for impacting the lives of the individuals she works with – “know better, do better” is one of her go-to mantras. Amber attended Colorado State University, where she received her bachelor's degree in Human Development and Family Studies with a minor in Business Administration and her master’s degree in Family and Developmental Studies. In addition to certification as a BCBA, she is certified to train the Pressley Ridge curriculum, an evidence-based pre-service training designed specifically for treatment foster parents. Amber lives in the Northern CO area and has loved being involved in the IDD community and the relationships she’s created, and has been grateful to get to extend those relationships to the greater community since beginning the Colorado foster care program.