ABA Centers Celebrates Inaugural Cohort of ABA Master’s Graduates from Temple University
Driving the Next Generation of BCBAs
ABA Centers proudly celebrated the graduation of its inaugural cohort of scholarship recipients from Temple University’s Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) program. Completing their studies this past December, the eight graduates in this cohort were recognized in an intimate ceremony on the Temple campus today, ahead of the school’s main commencement ceremony this coming May.
While 1 in 31 children in the United States have been diagnosed with autism, equating to roughly 2.27 million children, there are currently only about 72,000 BCBAs throughout the country to serve them – a disheartening discrepancy, as BCBAs are the professionals responsible for devising the individualized therapy plans that guide each child in achieving their unique goals, making them the cornerstone to autism care.
BCBAs must obtain a master’s degree to step into the role and increasing access to higher education is the primary way to create a sustainable pipeline for this drastically needed professional position. Recognizing this, ABA Centers developed a BCBA Apprentice Program, which provides its qualified team members with a full ride scholarship to virtually obtain their master’s degree in ABA through Temple as part of a robust offering of career development support. While this virtual track was created specifically for ABA Centers, it is open to all students, removing geographic barriers and creating broader, more equitable pathways for the next generation of BCBAs who may not have any affiliation to ABA Centers.
“This inaugural graduating cohort represents exactly what our field – and our communities – need right now: highly trained, deeply committed clinicians prepared to meet the growing demand for autism care,” said Quatiba Davis, Chief Clinical Officer of ABA Centers. “By removing financial and geographic barriers to advanced education, we’re investing in the professional growth of our team members, as well as strengthening the future of autism care nationwide.”
Spanning Florida, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, the geographic diversity of the eight graduates in the inaugural cohort highlights the scale and impact that this program has across the country. These clinicians will go on to convert the worldclass curriculum provided by Temple into measurable, community-level impact, delivering high-quality care with the potential to positively transform the lives of thousands of children with autism and their families. This scholarship program launched with the Fall 2023 semester and has inducted a new cohort every semester since. This academic opportunity is open to all team members throughout the 14 states in which ABA Centers operates. There are currently 73 scholarship recipients participating in this program and ABA Centers aims to enroll 30 new recipients each semester for the foreseeable future.
ABA Centers has a longstanding partnership with Temple, the alma mater of its founder & chairman, Christopher Barnett. ABA Centers gifted $1 million to Temple in 2022 to establish the ABA Centers Autism Lab, a multidisciplinary hub that conducts research, trains students, and offers diagnostic services to patients regardless of their ability to pay. In 2024, ABA Centers established Maddy’s Room, a sensory-friendly space for Temple students and faculty. And in 2025, Mr. Barnett made a $55 million gift to Temple, the largest in the school’s history, to bolster the College of Public Health, now officially named the Christopher M. Barnett College of Public Health.
