Friday Luncheon, Feb. 22 • 12:00 p.m.   (more info.)

CalABA's Gerald L. Shook Advocacy Award is presented to an outstanding individual who has exhibited exceptional leadership and advocacy skills in promoting behavior analysis by affecting policy, regulation, and/or legislation aligned with CalABA's mission and goals.

CalABA is proud to honor Eric Larsson, the Executive Director of Clinical Services at the Lovaas Institute Midwest, where he implements a program of intensive early intervention services for families of children who suffer from severe behavior disorders and autism. He has been providing intensive early intervention services since 1976, and has supervised such services since 1983. He consults and presents worldwide on Applied Behavior Analysis. He is the honorary President of the Fundacion Planeta Imaginario of Barcelona, Spain. He consults worldwide on Medicaid and insurance coverage for intensive early intervention. In Minnesota, he authored a law for Medicaid coverage of intensive early intervention. He was the incorporator and first Executive Director of the Autism Behavior Therapy Alliance and FEAT of Minnesota. He has published research papers on early intervention, autism, social skills, parenting, and human rights. He is known for developing the Language Matrix curriculum, which has been translated into five languages. He holds adjunct faculty appointments at the University of Minnesota and the University of Kansas. He received his Doctoral degree in Developmental and Child Psychology from the University of Kansas, under the guidance of Drs. R. Vance Hall and Donald M. Baer.

This award will be presented at the Conference Luncheon on Friday. Be sure to pre-register for the luncheon to make sure you have a seat for this event, as it is expected to sell out.