Julie Roscoe

I attribute my success to people not letting me say no when I thought I had different plans. So many times throughout my career, I wanted to do something specific - like volunteer instead of being paid, or work in schools, or go back to Texas - and someone would say 'you have to' or 'you need to' or 'just try,' and every single time that happened, I learned something new and fell in love with that thing. Who knew, you know? I also credit being surrounded by people who are really good exemplars of passion and living what they love. I've had a lot of that in a lot of different capacities, and it's shaped everything about my journey. The truth is, this work has been as much about what I've received as what I've given - the reciprocity of learning from the kids, families, and young practitioners I work with has been incredible. I really, truly believe that if I weren't doing what I do, my recovery from my stroke eight years ago would not have been as successful, nor would I have been as motivated to work as hard as I did. This work saved me as much as I hope I've helped others.

To stay open to opportunities and not be afraid to try something new. Some of the most meaningful moments in my career came from stepping outside of my comfort zone and saying yes to the unexpected. I kept telling people I had different plans - I wanted to volunteer, not be paid, I wanted to work in schools, I was going back to Texas next year - but every time someone pushed me to try something I hadn't planned for, I discovered a new passion. That willingness to let go of what I thought I wanted and embrace what was actually in front of me has defined my entire career journey.

Number one, as young women, don't be scared to mentor young men who can come into the field - that's actually kind of cool, and our clinic has over five of the 14 staff who are men. Don't be scared to put yourself out there to mentor anyone who comes forward and is expressing an interest in the opportunity, whether or not they actually go into a more professional role, or whether you have the opportunity to work with somebody just in the moment because they're interested. Take those teachable moments - I think they're so important. But also remember that they are also your moment to be taught, and there's something to be gleaned from each of those, really and truly. The reciprocity of learning is what makes this work so powerful. And please, don't ever tell someone 'you're supposed to know that' - that's a cop-out. We teach and continue to teach, and if you do anything less than continue to learn as your own passion and continue to teach with that same passion, we're doing a disservice to the children we serve.

We have several major challenges in the autism and ABA field right now. First, while we passed insurance reform that made access to services possible - and I had the honor of helping write that legislation in Missouri - some of the core tenets like parent training are being given lip service rather than being implemented passionately. It's particularly hard to do parent training when you're working in a clinic and not with kids at home. Second, we're marketing to younger children because they're cuter in photographs, and as a result, we don't have the necessary services for children beyond the age of 10. A lot of organizations will not serve beyond that age, and guess what? Kids still have autism when they're 11. There's a real dearth of services for adolescents and adults. Third, we have a very young field with people who have as little as 9 months to 2 years of experience wanting to become clinical directors immediately, and the average years of experience is only 5. When young RBTs report that their supervisors are telling them 'you're supposed to know that' instead of continuing to teach and mentor them, that's a real problem. We need to be teaching the way we want people to teach. The opportunity I see is in shifting toward more holistic, family-centered approaches, especially in-home services where you can achieve true skill generalization. When you're with your kid and their teacher every day in your home, there's an impetus for parents to learn alongside their children, and those skills continue beyond when the professionals leave. That's why we're starting Good Brain Behavior - to focus on in-home services across all ages.

Walking the walk is absolutely central to who I am - not just talking about what's important, but really doing it. This also gets me in trouble a lot, by the way, because when I feel that something or someone is wrong, I'm not very quiet about it, and I'm not super compliant. I call it like I see it, and when somebody's not genuine in what they say they're passionate about and they're not actually doing what they say they need to do, that's a concern. I kind of need to be in leadership because I'm a little bossy, but also because I feel passionately about these things and have been in the field a long time. What matters most to me is helping people feel successful - that people are and can be successful daily, and should be. What really upsets me is when people, especially young women, tell me they're 'not as good as' or 'not as smart as.' It's also very concerning when children of any gender start talking about themselves in a 'not-as-good-as, not as smart as' way. Having worked with kids who have behavior challenges and histories of not being successful, I've seen what happens when people develop a failure set - where you don't trust anymore because you don't want to try and fail anymore. I think everybody has the risk of that, and I've experienced it myself to some degree. I don't think anybody should have to go through that. I think it's possible for people to feel successful, and if people don't think it's going to be fun to learn and grow, they're not going to try.