Staff
Pictured above (from left to right)
Gabrielle Stigant, Michele Shilvock, Bohdanna Popowycz Kvam, Joanne Ma
Bohdanna Popowycz Kvam M.Ed. BCBA- Executive Director
Bohdanna has been involved with children with autism for the past 2 decades. Bohdanna’s background includes teaching in the public school system in the states as well as working as a Clinical Director at a Lovaas’ replication site. Bohdanna prides herself on working with families to advocate for their children’s individual needs both in the home and school settings. She has travelled around the world opening clinics in the UK, USA and Canada. Bohdanna graduated from UBC with a Masters in Special Education/Counseling and Psychology with emphasis in autism. She is also a board certified behaviour analyst. As the executive director, Bohdanna is responsible for overseeing the preschool and day to day running of Harmony House. She continues to hold a small case load of children with autism who seek services from Harmony House and provides monthly supervision to staff. She lives in Surrey with her husband and three children ranging in age from 9-19, all who are avid Harmony House supporters!
Michele Shilvock M.Ed. BCBA – Director of Clinical Services
Michele is a Behaviour Consultant who has worked in the field of autism for over 12 years. She is very dedicated to the training of individuals in the community and continues to work with families and school teams to assist in the facilitation of team oriented working relationships. Michele works closely with children in the home and school settings, working collaboratively with families and community members. She is also responsible for the development of Harmony House’s internship program and works closely supervising clinical staff. Michele graduated from UBC with a Masters in Special Education/Counseling and Psychology with emphasis in autism. Michele is a board certified behaviour analyst. In addition to running the internship program, Michele also maintains a caseload of children diagnosed with Autism, providing monthly supervision for their home-based treatment.
Gabrielle Stigant & Joanne Ma – Program Supervisors
Joanne and Gabrielle graduated from Harmony House’s year long internship program over a year ago. Both individuals are well experienced and highly trained and prior to entering the intern program at Harmony House in April 2008 both were Senior therapists who had been working in the field of behavioural intervention with children with autism for over 5 years each. Together they have logged over 10000 direct service hours with children ranging in ages from 2 to 12 years of age. They have been involved in training new staff and supporting existing teams and have both acted as support staff to children in a variety of settings. They are have vast knowledge in the areas of discrete trial teaching, data collection, behaviour modification, peer play, social skills, generalization and how to train staff. Over the course of the last year both supervisors have become actively involved in the development and implementation of social skills programs currently offered at our center.
Christina Acutt – School Coordinator
Christina comes to us with over 10 years experience working with children, with the last 4 years being heavily focused on children with Autism. Christina’s creative nature and enthusiastic approach to teaching provides for a nurturing and positive environment. She currently holds an early childhood education certificate and is working towards her diploma in this field. Her philosophy embraces that every child is an individual and therefore their strengths should be the focus. Christina has also brought an early literacy component to the daily learning of all children, and believes in encouraging every child to reach their fullest potential. In addition to overseeing the preschool program and acting as a coordinator for both of our school programs, Christina also works in the home program of several Harmony House children as a senior therapist, managing their programs under the supervision of Harmony House clinicians.
Cristina Pena and Amy Ris – Interns
In February 2011 we also welcomed both Cristina and Amy to the Harmony House team. Both woman are participating in our year long intensive training program to work towards program supervisor positions.