Opening of First Lighthouse Autism Center

In 2012, Lighthouse Autism Center opened its first center in northern Indiana with a mission of bringing quality Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy to communities in need.

As parents of a child with autism, Gregg and Sandy experienced first-hand the transformative impact of ABA therapy. Gregg and Sandy’s third child, Victor, was diagnosed with autism at the age of four while residing in Carmel, IN, an area that at that time did not offer ABA services.

One year later, when Victor was just five years old, the first ABA center in Indiana opened in Carmel, allowing Victor and the Maggioli family access to crucial ABA therapy services. Gregg and Sandy became heavily involved in the center – Gregg as the chairman of the board and Sandy with the accounting and insurance departments.

Through their ABA experience with Victor, Gregg and Sandy realized a passion for bringing this type of therapy to other families in need. When a family friend who also had a child with autism visited the center in Carmel, she told Gregg and Sandy, “this is exactly what I’ve been trying to find for my son.”

As parents of a child with autism, Gregg and Sandy knew they could combine their unique experience with their passion for bringing ABA therapy to families in need. “Being a parent of a child that has autism gave us a very unique view into the needs of parents,” Green Maggioli said. “Smaller cities like Mishawaka didn’t have the same level of service as larger cities and we made it our mission to bring ABA to these smaller communities.”

Looking for ABA services for your child? Experience the Lighthouse difference.

A word from our Executive Director

The holiday season is a wonderful time to reflect on our many blessings and seek ways to give back to others who may be less fortunate. Each year, Lighthouse Autism Center participates in a community service project. Past projects have included: sponsoring a Christmas dinner and gifts for few local families, providing a day of free child care for families who attend Lighthouse Autism Center, and working with local nonprofit organizations to collect whatever donations they may need.

This year, our newest center, in Portage, MI, organized their own community project.  Angel Tree Toy Drive helped provide “angel tags” to the employees at our Portage center.  Each Portage center employee purchased gifts for a member of a local family. The gifts were dropped off to the Salvation Army in local Kalamazoo and Portage area to families in need.

Gregg Maggioli

Executive Director

New center to open in Granger, in January of 2019.  We will immediately begin serving children with autism in the Granger area. As with all other centers, the idea for a Granger location has driven primarily by the needs for increased ABA services in that community.

Many current Lighthouse families live in Granger, and many families on the waiting list for other centers also reside in this community.

With a high demand for quality, center-based ABA services, Lighthouse sought to fill this gap in services. the community asked, and Lighthouse listened.

This new Granger center will also include speech therapy services, along with all other Indiana Lighthouse centers, in the spring of 2019.

Recognising Outstanding ABA Therapy at Lighthouse Autism Center

Lighthouse Autism Center’s Company Values are at the core of everything we do. We live our values every day, and it is reflected in our standards and expectations for providing outstanding ABA therapy. This week, we want to recognize and award our own Veronica Perea for the value “Put a premium on innovation & creativity!” Veronica is from Lingonier, IN, and started at Lighthouse on June 20th of 2016!! Veronica chose Lighthouse among many ABA centers she researched online because she realized it was a place full of kind people. She loves working at Lighthouse because she gets to see all the amazing children improve and become more independent everyday! Congratulations on the award Veronica!!! 😄👏🏆

Diana Caban Demonstrates Core Lighthouse Values

We are continuing our blog series on our Lighthouse Company Values. Our values are at the core of everything we do. The way that we provide high-quality ABA therapy is built on the foundation of our values.

This week, we want to recognize and award our own Diana Caban for her demonstration of the Lighthouse Value, “Don’t separate the vision from the operations.” Diana started at Lighthouse on February 20th, 2018 as our HR Coordinator and her hometown is South Bend, Indiana! Diana has a 9 year-old son with autism so the work that Lighthouse does is very near and dear to her heart. She says she loves working at Lighthouse because everyone at Lighthouse loves what they do and is selfless. Congratulations Diana!!!! 😀👏🏆

Ally Exemplifies the LAC Values, a Well-Deserved Award!

Lighthouse Autism Center’s Company Values are so important to who we are. We are going to continue to showcase the winners of this years LAC awards. By doing this, we showcase who and what it means to be exemplary of our values.

The employee recognized for our company value “Judge people by more than their metrics” is Ally Furnas! Here is Ally pictured below!

Ally comes from her hometown of Fort Wayne, IN. In High School and College she volunteered with the Special Olympics year round. She loves working at LAC because she gets to witness the progress the kiddos make firsthand and build relationships with them and their families. Ally started at the Warsaw, Indiana location on May 23rd of 2016. Congratulations Ally for your award!!! 😁🎉🎈🏆

Lighthouse Autism Center’s Company Values are at the core of everything we do.  We live our values every day, and it is reflected in our standards and expectations for providing outstanding ABA therapy. Recently, we have recognized 7 employees who are shining examples of our values, and we would like to introduce you to one of them today…

This is Cassie Gaines from our Edison Center in Mishawaka, Indiana! Photographed with Sean Addley. Cassie is the proud recipient of the Lighthouse award “Care about People more than Anything.”

Cassie grew up in Plymouth, Indiana and has always loved helping those with autism throughout grade school and high school. In grade school, she would play with her autistic peers in the sensory room instead of going to recess. In school plays, she would help the kiddos with their roles too. She even taught swimming lessons to a child with autism!

When she started working at Lighthouse Autism Center on October 10th, 2017, she felt like for once in her life she was in a room with people with hearts like hers.

Cassie loves the fact that she gets to be an integral part of these kiddos lives. She loves that everyday she works with other ABA therapists who are also passionate about loving these kiddos.

Congratulations Cassie for your LAC Award! You earned it! 

Meet our Long Term Staff at Lighthouse Autism Center

The leading clinical staff are central to the quality of care at any ABA center. They are the Board Certified Behavior Analysts who write and oversee programs for individual clients.

When an ABA center has low turnover amongst its leading clinical staff, this is a good sign. Quality ABA centers should maintain low turnover to ensure a higher quality of care for their clients.

Another sign of a quality ABA center is a smaller caseload size per BCBA. BCBAs who are overwhelmed with higher caseload numbers simply won’t be able to provide the same level of attention to each individual child as they would with a smaller caseload.

At Lighthouse, we are all about low turnover and small caseloads. To prove it, we wanted to showcase the staff who have been with us for the long haul:

 

Leila Allen, Clinical Director
Our Clinical Director and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst(BCBA) who has been directing our clinical team for six years. Leila is an animal rescue lover with two large dogs who weigh over 120 lbs!

 

Jordan Kujawski, Senior Program Manager
Jordan is a BCBA and our Senior Program Manager at the Park Place Center in Mishawaka, IN. Jordan is a full-blown boy mom with 3 energetic sons under 5 years old.

 

Torie Itani, Senior Program Manager
A Board Certified Behavior Analyst and the Senior Program Manager at the founding center of Lighthouse. One of Torie’s favorite things to do is to attend music festivals throughout the country.

 

Katie Meyer, Senior Program Manager
Our Senior Program Manager in Plymouth is Katie. Katie loves to travel and go hiking in various countries. Katie is also a Board Certified Behavior Analyst!

 

Nicole Smoker, Program Manager
Nicole is the Program Manager and BCBA in Warsaw, Lighthouse’s second ever center. In her spare time, Nicole enjoys spending time with her family out on the lake they reside on!

 

Natalie Donkersloot, Senior Program Manager
A Board Certified Behavior Analyst and our Senior Program Manager in Portage Michigan. Natalie loves to partake in outdoor activities throughout Michigan.

Opening of Lighthouse Autism Center in Portage, Michigan

Lighthouse Autism Center has grown drastically in the nearly six years it has been open. Since 2012, Lighthouse has opened a new center in a new location each year, with its most recent center opening in the Fall of 2017 in Portage, Michigan. This is Lighthouse’s fifth center overall and its first center in Michigan. When Gregg and Sandy Maggioli, the founders of Lighthouse Autism Center, moved back to Mishawaka, Indiana, they came with a mission of helping families and children with autism. With over a decade of experience with ABA centers, Gregg and Sandy had the tools, knowledge, and
passion to open Lighthouse Autism Center. “Starting out, we knew what it was like to raise a child with autism and wanted to provide support and services to other families. We wanted them to know they aren’t alone in this,” said Gregg.

Nearly six years later, Lighthouse Autism Center is now branching out to other states, with its newest center now operating in Portage, Michigan. At the Portage center, local families will receive quality, center-based, ABA therapy for their child, as well as support for the entire family. Furthermore, the center not only provides services for local families but is also creating jobs in the area by employing ten therapists, program managers and administrative staff, with plans to expand.

At Lighthouse, we believe in hope for every child and family. We are excited to bring our services to a new community in Michigan and continuing our mission by serving families in need.

When Natalie Donkersloot was an undergrad psych student at WMU, she didn’t know that one day she would be working with children with autism. In fact, Natalie thought she would end up in an organizational behavior management or industrial organizational position in a large company. That all changed when she took a class on applied behavior analysis(ABA).

When I was an undergrad, I wasn’t entirely sure about what I wanted to do in psychology. So I decided to try the autism practicum. I took one of Dr. Malott’s classes, Introduction to the Concepts and Principles of Behavior Analysis, and fell in love!

After getting her undergraduate degree, she began to work towards her Master’s by serving as a tutor at a special education school known as Woodsedge Learning Center. While working at Woodsedge, she worked with children with autism. Natalie practiced applied behavior analysis(ABA) therapy, a core therapy that is used to treat autism.

When I worked at Woodsedge, I saw the difference that the therapy could make in the kids. I loved it. I loved the difference that it could make in just one semester.

As Natalie Donkersloot was finishing her Master’s of Arts in Applied Behavior Analysis, she knew she wanted to continue to work with children doing ABA therapy. That’s when she met Gregg Maggioli, the founder of Lighthouse Autism Center.

I went to a WMU Job Fair and Lighthouse had a booth. That’s where I met Gregg. After our meeting, he offered me a job to start in May once I had my degree. I accepted the position.

At the time, Lighthouse Autism Center was only located in Indiana. Natalie didn’t like leaving her community in Kalamazoo, but she knew that Lighthouse was the place for her.

If there had been an option like Lighthouse in Michigan, I would have worked up there. I liked how Gregg was a parent of a child with autism. Plus, Gregg seemed like a great businessman. The centers were well organized and clean. Most centers aren’t like that.

After being in Indiana for awhile, Natalie was missing Kalamazoo more and more.

I was in Indiana for two and a half years and at the beginning I was open to living there. I gave it a chance and it just wasn’t for me. I wanted to get back up near my friends and family. My support group. I had friends from undergrad school and friends from grad school all in Kalamazoo. I basically spent every weekend driving up to Kalamazoo because that was where my friends were.

When Gregg decided to open up a therapy center in Portage, Michigan, Natalie couldn’t have been more excited.

It was perfect. I always wanted to move back to Michigan, but I really wanted to stay with Lighthouse. I asked for the opportunity to work at the Portage center almost as soon as I heard about it.

Natalie says that the therapy center is a HUGE opportunity for WMU students.

They have huge opportunity for growth and advancement. I started out as a junior program manager, got promoted to a program manager and now I am a senior program manager!

Lighthouse Autism Center isn’t just for Master’s of Arts in Applied Behavior Analysis, like Natalie. Lighthouse also needs students with undergraduate degrees in Psychology, Education or a related field to work as ABA therapists. ABA therapists work 1 on 1 with children to implement the actual therapy program.

Natalie spends her days working with the kiddo’s at Lighthouse Autism Center and taking great pride in the work she does. She spends her evenings and weekends hanging out with her family and friends in the area. Now that Lighthouse is located in Kalamazoo, it’s the perfect set up for her.