Griseth Zatarain
-CEO, Founder
Griseth Zatarain is the founder and chief executive officer of Dynamis ABA, an organization dedicated to helping individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) live a more independent, better quality of life by fostering individual strengths and teaching essential life skills.
Griseth’s experience includes working as a bilingual applied behavior analysis therapist, early childhood special education specialist, and board-certified behavior analyst in various environments with an extensive background in childhood special education and behaviour planning. Her career has encompassed county, school, and district-level work for California Distinguished Schools, inclusion-focused programs, and underprivileged communities. She has implemented behavioral supports, utilized behavioral rating scales and behavioral intervention plans, and used several behavioral techniques, including discrete trial training and pivotal response training (PRT).
A passion for positively impacting the world extends beyond Griseth’s professional work. Driven by her lifelong love of helping others, she promotes autism awareness and minority leadership through her active membership of the UCLA Alumni, Chi Omega Alumni, and the Girl Scout community. Griseth’s education included studying abroad in underdeveloped, Spanish-speaking countries to help those in need who did not have monetary or physical access to resources. As part of her FCT (Functional Communication Training) and Pivotal Response Training (PRT), Griseth is developing individualized behavioral resources to help individuals in underdeveloped countries and worldwide.
Griseth makes it a priority to stay abreast of the latest behavioral analyst techniques. She is a member of several organizations relating to her profession, including ABAI, CalABA, APBA, and Division of Early Childhood. She also regularly attends several training workshops and industry conferences, including NCCSE Behavior Intervention Training Series (NBITS), TEACCH Intensive Workshop, Division of Early Childhood (DEC) Conference, and the annual CalABA and ABAI Conferences.
Griseth has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Spanish from the University of California, Los Angeles, as well as a Master of Arts Degree in Special Education from San Diego State University. She conducted extensive research on language development through functional communication training in early intensive intervention programs, which was her thesis’s focus. Griseth also holds an Early Childhood Education Specialist Clear Credential and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) certification.
During Covid-19’s unprecedented times, Griseth has continued to assist families through telehealth to address behavioral concerns, despite shutting down of schools and uncertainty of situations. Families and clients have been aided and received guidance, along with resources (e.g., visual supports, strategies, consultation, evidence-based practices). She focuses on FCT, PRT, and positive behavior supports while providing informed and consistent communication with families.