Juan Rafael Mesa,
Ed.S., M.S., M.S., M.A., M.Ed., LBA, BCBA®, QBA, BICM, ACAS, BCCS, SMHS, BCEA™, BCTS
Juan serves on the Advisory Board of NSEAI.
- Juan Rafael Mesa is the Executive Director , A Behavioral Health Cooperative, LLC,
- Chair of the Behavior Analytic Department at, A Behavioral Health Cooperative LLC and
- Lead Director of Behavioral Health Services, Clinical Operations and Case Managment and Advocacy at A Behavioral Health Cooperative, LLC.
- He is Raymund Fellow Scholar, The graduate School at the University of Oregon.
He is both a licensed and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), as well as a licensed general and special education teacher, and Program Director, in three states, including New York and California.
He has a:
- Baccalaureate degree in Educational Studies, with a minor in Special Education, from the University of Oregon (U of O);
- Bachelor of Science degree in Film History and Criticism from CUNY (City University of New York);
- Master of Science degree in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education (EI/ECSE), with a concentration in Positive Behavior Supports (PBIS);
- Master of Science degree in Special Education; and a Master of Arts degree in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), with an emphasis on how to treat and care for persons with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), from Ball State University, and
Fellow Level Board Certification in Education Advocacy - BCEA, from the National Special Education Advocacy Institute.
Juan has received a number of awards and scholarships for his work at universities in Brooklyn and Queens, New York, and has been honored by the U of O with service grants and foundational stipends. In May of 2013, Juan was given the special distinction of High Honors in Film Studies and Media Studies at Queens College, and the City University of New York did give Juan the Gillman Memorial Fellowship Award for his outstanding scholarly application of film theories and work producing several student films.
Juan now owns and operates a private behavior analytic company with offices in, and through, New York City, in California’s Bay Area, including the cities of San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland, and in Eugene and Portland, Oregon. Juan’s work as a behavior analyst (also human service professional) has brought him back to the U of O, where he is pursuing a doctoral degree in Special Education, as well as a Master’s degree in the Prevention Sciences, and focus his research efforts on the science of ABA and other behavior management strategies to help students with ASD and different disabilities.
At the University of Oregon (U of O) he completing the requirements of a Doctoral degree in Special Education. As a (post-)graduate student, Juan is conducting research that figures prominently upon the detection of depression in children and adolescents with ASD (autism spectrum disorder) and how to better support suicide prevention, intervention and postvention efforts across different communities, including rural settings, urban neighborhoods, and major cities.
Additionally, Juan continues to speak about the importance of using trauma-informed care practices in American public schools at conferences across the country and has talked about the need to increase social justice/restoration for minority students and underserved populations (e.g., persons with disabilities, Indigenous communities). In fact, Policy & Practice: The Efficacy & Effectiveness of School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports (SWPBIS) and the Importance of Promoting Social Justice & Restorative Practices was featured at a number of conferences over the last two years and has lead Juan to look at how the certain special education processes and products (the Individualized Education Program (IEP) in particular) are part of the panopticon built by Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century and (re-)conceptualized by Michel Foucault (1926-1984) in Discipline and Punish (1975) and used to surveil and punish Black and Brown students, for example, through long-standing White traditions.
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