CSID - Key Persons

Christine Saulnier, MAT, BCBA- Christine is a NYS certified teacher and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She holds her Masters in Elementary Education from CUNY, Queens College and completed her post masters certification in special education. Christine is the cofounder of Kids Learning Loft (KLL), a private facility in Nassau county providing various unique education and behavior intervention services to school aged children. Although KLL specializes in children with developmental disabilities, specifically autism spectrum, they have also expanded and successfully demonstrated their strategies in working with individuals with ADD/ADHD and typically developing children with social or academic difficulties as well. Christine has been providing ABA behavior therapy in home based, clinical, and classroom settings to a broad range of children on the spectrum for several years. She is knowledgeable in various aspects relating to autism and developmental disabilities and has a passion for providing intervention to assist children in achieving their full potential. Christine has experience in parent training, as well as, teaching language/functional communication skills, academic skills, social skills, self help skills, and increasing positive behaviors.

Jennifer Kourassanis-Velasquez, PhD, BCBA - Jennifer is Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She earned her Doctorate in Psychology and Masters in Applied Behavior Analysis. Jennifer has been providing in home ABA therapy and parent training since 2009. She serves as a Behavior Consultant for several Nassau school districts where she restructures classrooms, provides staff training, conducts functional behavior analyses, and designs behavior intervention plans. She is also an adjunct professor at CUNY, Queens College and The Chicago School of Psychology. Jennifer is the cofounder of Kids Learning Loft (KLL), a private facility in Nassau county providing various unique education and behavior intervention services to school aged children. In addition to being devoted to assisting special needs children and their families, Jennifer loves educating students in the classroom and providing supervision to students pursuing their BCBA. When Jennifer is not running her center or teaching, she is focused on her research. Jennifer conducted and published a study involving peer video-modeling in teaching social group games to children with autism and a subsequent study using video-modeling to train typically developed children to facilitate joint attention in children with autism.

As a parent to two children on the autism spectrum, Mireille has dedicated her time to find the most effective methods to help her children reach their best potential. From early on in their diagnosis, her and her husband quickly realized that there is no clear cut route to treat this life altering disability and that a parent has to research and find the best treatments for their child. It became most apparent that she had to overcome the fear of veering off the "normal path" of education for special needs children because there is not a single program in public or private education that will target those skills most important for each individual child on the spectrum. Mireille quickly took control of her children's learning needs by surrounding her family with professionals in the field to custom tailor a comprehensive educational program to help her children succeed. Mireille graduated from the New York Institute of Technology and received a bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems. She currently dedicates herself to ensuring her two beautiful kids continue to succeed and helping other parents navigate the educational process for their special needs children.

Sarah Heller, BCBA, LBA, is the owner and president of Metropolitan Interventional Services, LLC which is a private consulting firm located in Huntington, NY, She has a M.S.E.d. in Early Childhood Education and is certified in the state of New York to teach birth through second grade. She earned her bachelor of arts in psychology at Queens College, CUNY and an advanced certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis from there as well. Sarah has almost 15 years experience with the education and treatment of children with special needs using the principles of applied behavior analysis. With experience as a behavior and program consult, providing one to one instruction, team supervision and staff training, she continues to fine tune her skills and strives to provide the most effective and up-to-date treatments. The influences of a wide variety of mentors and power professionals in The Hagedorn Little Village School, The McCarton School, Kids Learning Loft, YAI, and The Brooklyn Autism Center have provided her extensive training. Metropolitan Interventional Services, LLC was born as an end result of those impressions and her company includes: consulting, family training, BCBA supervision, BCBA preparation, Registered Behavior Technician coursework, and staff training lectures.