About Behavioral InnovationsA Trusted Partner Since 2000Behavioral Innovations started with one center and one conviction: that every child with autism deserves expert, compassionate care – and that their family deserves a real partner. Twenty-five years later, that conviction hasn’t changed.
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Years in Operation
Centers Nationwide
States Served
of Children Supported
Behavioral Innovations was founded in 2000 in Texas, at a time when families raising children with autism had limited options for high-quality, accessible ABA therapy. Our founders saw a gap – not just in services, but in how families were being treated. Too many parents were navigating an exhausting system alone, without clear guidance, consistent care, or a team that actually knew their child.
The answer wasn’t just to build more centers. It was to build them differently – with clinical rigor and genuine warmth, in communities that needed them, with teams trained to treat every family like the only one.
That original intention is still the standard we hold ourselves to today. From our first center to our 100th, the measure of success has always been the same: did this child grow, and did this family feel supported along the way?
“Our mission has always been simple: show up for the child in front of you, and show up for the family standing behind them.” – Lori Russo, Co-Founder
We believe behavior is communication.
Every child who is struggling is already telling us something. Our clinicians are trained to listen before they intervene – to understand what a behavior is communicating before deciding how to respond to it. That’s not just good clinical practice. It’s basic respect.
We believe parents are partners, not observers.
You have been watching your child more carefully than anyone. You notice things no assessment captures. Our model is built around your knowledge – regular check-ins, transparent data sharing, and coaching that gives you real tools to carry the work home. When families are involved, children progress faster. That’s not a philosophy. It’s what the research shows.
We believe individualized means actually individual.
Your child’s treatment plan is written for your child – not for a diagnosis category, not for an age group, not for a reimbursement code. Every goal is specific, measurable, and revisited regularly. When progress stalls, we adjust. When a child exceeds expectations, we raise the bar.
We believe care and rigor aren’t opposites.
The best clinical outcomes come from teams that are both technically excellent and genuinely warm. We hire for both. We train for both. And we hold our centers to both standards – because a child who feels safe learns faster, and a family that feels respected stays engaged.
Behavioral Innovations wasn’t founded by investors or executives. It was founded by three behavior analysts who believed families deserved better – and who had the clinical training to build something that actually delivered it.
Co-Founder & Chief Clinical Officer
Carla’s interest in behavior analysis began before she ever thought about building a company. As an undergraduate at UNC Wilmington, she studied under Dr. Carol Pilgrim and discovered something that would shape the next two decades of her career: that behavior is learnable, that environments matter, and that the right support, delivered well, genuinely changes lives.
She went on to earn her master’s from the University of North Texas – one of the country’s leading behavior analysis programs – where she conducted research on staff training under Dr. Shahla Rosales. That early focus on how clinicians are trained turns out to have been foundational. When she co-founded Behavioral Innovations, she didn’t just build a place to deliver therapy. She built a system for delivering it consistently, at scale, without losing quality.
Today, as Chief Clinical Officer, Carla is responsible for the clinical model that runs across every BI center – the data collection systems, the training standards, the intake processes, the criteria by which care is evaluated. When a family walks into any BI location and feels like the team knows what they’re doing, a significant part of that is Carla’s work.
Lori Russo, M.S., BCBACo-Founder & Vice President of Learning & Development
Lori Russo has spent her career focused on the questions that matter most to families: How does a child learn to talk? How do they learn to play? How do they build friendships? Her clinical interests – language development, social skills, play – aren’t abstract research areas. They’re the exact things parents lie awake worrying about.
A graduate of Texas Tech and then the University of North Texas, Lori brought both scientific rigor and genuine curiosity to the work of building Behavioral Innovations from the ground up. As co-founder, she helped establish the clinical standards that have defined BI’s approach across 25 years and more than 100 centers.
Today her role has expanded well beyond any single center. Lori leads all clinical research initiatives, shapes the standards that govern how care is delivered across every BI location, and works at both state and federal levels to advocate for legislation that protects families’ access to evidence-based autism treatment. She has served on the TxABA Council, local medical boards, school accreditation teams, and currently sits on Medicaid, Insurance, and Telehealth policy committees.
What started in Texas in 2000 has grown into one of the largest BCBA-led ABA therapy networks in the country – without losing what made us worth trusting in the first place.
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2000 Founded in Texas with a single center and a commitment to evidence-based therapy.
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2003
Expanded to multiple Texas markets as demand from underserved families grew faster than available providers.
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2017
Received infrastructure and foundational support from partners to drive
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| 2018
Crossed state lines for the first time, bringing the BI model to Oklahoma families who had limited options.
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2020 & Since
Expanded into Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia. Celebrated 20 years of continuous operation.
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Today 100+ centers. 6 states. Thousands of families served. The same standard we started with.
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The quality of care a child receives is inseparable from the quality of the team providing it. That’s why we invest in our clinicians the same way we invest in the families we serve – with training, support, mentorship, and a culture that treats the work as meaningful, because it is.
Our centers are led by BCBAs who are given the resources and autonomy to practice at the top of their clinical license. Our RBTs are supported by people who remember what it felt like to be new to the field. And everyone – regardless of role – is held to the same standard: show up for the child in front of you.
Our intake team will walk you through your options, verify your insurance, and connect you with the nearest center – no commitment required.