46 BRAND STORY PRODUCED BY THE OREGON BUSINESS MARKETING DEPARTMENT BY JON BELL Oregon is experiencing a shortage of Board-Certified Behavior Analysts — practitioners who use the principles of learning to help individuals reach their goals for a more meaningful life — and nothing illustrates that and the great need for more BCBAs better than the numbers. According to the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, in 2022 there were 235 job postings for BCBAs in Oregon. In 2023, there were 920 — an increase of nearly 300%. And yet, the same data show only 438 BCBAs were working in Oregon last year, meaning that for every one BCBA practicing in the state, there were essentially another two positions that needed to be filled. “It’s pretty stunning,” says Maria Lynn Kessler, Ph.D., a professor at Oregon Tech and the director of its Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis program. “And of course, you feel the crunch more in rural areas. In urban areas, there are more providers, but there are more people, so there’s still a mismatch of the provider to the needs.” But Oregon Tech is working to bring some balance to the BCBA equation. The university offers the only synchronous program — meaning online instruction that is in real-time — for earning a master’s in Applied Behavior Analysis in Oregon. It Oregon Tech student Majalene Wright is a first year graduate student in Applied Behavior Analysis. Oregon Institute of Technology’s ABA master’s program helps meet an important statewide need: increasing the number of health care providers who can serve kids diagnosed with autism. Degrees to Meet Demand Maria Lynn Kessler, Ph.D., is the director of Oregon Tech’s Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis program.
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