Demetria Contreras

Demi Contreras began her career in the field of Behavior Analysis in 2001 after learning of her godson's autism diagnosis. Refusing to believe his doctors who explained that her godson would likely not talk or have friends, she researched the treatment options available at the time. She quickly determined that ABA was the only empirically validated and effective intervention and committed herself to becoming an expert. From 2001 through 2005, Demi worked as a Lead Therapeutic Instructor, providing hundreds of hours of both direct intervention and parent training to families with children diagnosed with autism. In 2005, Ms. Contreras joined the FirstSteps team as a Lead Therapeutic Instructor. Not only did she work with countless FirstSteps children and families, she also partnered with FirstSteps Program Directors and dedicated herself to recruiting, training, and assembling bilingual therapy teams with the mission to bring ABA services to non-English speaking families.