Mendy Minjarez, PhD is the Executive Director at the Seattle Children’s Autism Center, the Program Director of their Applied Behavior Analysis Early Intervention Program, and an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington.

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Her career as a licensed psychologist has focused on assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children with ASD. After obtaining her doctoral degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Dr. Minjarez completed her clinical internship and post-doctoral fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center. Since that time, her clinical and research activities have focused on naturalistic behavioral interventions in the treatment of ASD, including parent training in Pivotal Response Treatment and development of a comprehensive center-based ABA treatment model that is now being disseminated state-wide in Washington.

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Dr. Minjarez’s other professional activities include clinical training and supervision, regular consultation to the WA State Department of Health and Medicaid Program regarding dissemination of ABA therapy for children with ASD, direction of the Seattle Children’s Autism Center, and most recently, co-authoring a book on Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI). Dr. Minjarez is invested in the dissemination of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions because she believes that developmentally focused implementation of ABA therapy represents best practice in the treatment of children with ASD.