Over the past 16 years, Heather O’Shea held a variety of positions at ACES (Comprehensive Educational Services, Inc.), culminating in her tenure as the company’s Chief Clinical Officer. Dr. O’Shea holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology; a BA (Psychology) from the University of California, San Diego; and is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst – Doctoral (BCBA-D) since 2005. Her depth of knowledge regarding operations, ABA therapy, diagnostics, counseling and speech therapy for children and young adults on the autism spectrum ensures she’ll bring a broad perspective that will help VBA expand the delivery of high quality assessments, behavior management, and language development services to individuals, particularly with moderate to severe needs.
Since Heather’s the new kid on the block, and COVID is preventing most team members from meeting her in person, we figured we’d take a few minutes to go beyond the resume and see who she REALLY is. We’re very pleased to share her story, and encourage you to get to know her better in the near future. You can reach Heather directly at heather.oshea@vbasandiego.com.
- How long have you been at VBA and what is your position?· I started September 1st and my position is President.
- What inspired you to pursue a career in this field? I have wanted to work with children and families since I was 5. I sort of fell into the field of Autism but clearly love it since I’ve been doing this work for 16 years.
- What do you like the most about your position and the least? I like working for a company with strong values of wanting the best for clients and staff. I also feel lucky to work with such dedicated great people every day. The part I like least about my job is how COVID limits us for helping clients and providing consistent schedules for staff.
- If you weren’t at the office, what would you be doing instead? I would be traveling somewhere in the world probably listening to live music with friends.
- How do you define success? Facilitating a team to do great work.
- What three books would we find on your bookshelf at home? Here is an embarrassing fact – I don’t read. I’m a total TV junkie. I think it was all those books in grad school that now when I try, I just fall asleep.
- How has outside knowledge or experiences prepared you for this role? I feel fortunate to have experience working with a large national company. I am able to take years of experience of what works and what doesn’t to efficiently help VBA with their operations.
- What’s the most interesting place you’ve travelled to? Iceland. I went for New Years with friends and loved it so much, I went back with different friends 4 months later.
- Who is your personal hero and why? Lorri Unumb. If you don’t know her name, look her up. Lorri is probably in the top 5 people who have made services for those with Autism possible. Without her, insurance coverage for Autism nationwide would still just be a dream.
- What is one thing nobody at VBA knows about you? I have quite the reputation for throwing really great parties. 2020 has robbed me of my ability to use my super power but hoping to put it to use again sometime in 2021.