My Purpose
My Goal: Deliver high-quality, autism-focused training, consultation, and support to individuals, families, schools, and professionals.
My Vision: Improve the lives of people on the autism spectrum by changing the culture around inclusion, employment, and community participation in ways that maximize autonomy, advocacy, and respect for the individual.
My Mission: Connect professionals and families with resources, training, and support that gives them the confidence to engage with individuals with autism effectively and with awareness while also respecting the individual personality and preference of each person involved.
Meet Dr. Dotson
Dr. Wesley Dotson has spent over 23 years working with individuals on the spectrum of all ages across school, clinic, home, community, and residential treatment settings. He began his career as a paraprofessional in a middle school autism classroom in Oklahoma before earning his teaching certificate in special education. He was a high school special education teacher for three years before moving to Kansas for graduate school. It is his early experiences in the public schools that color and influence all of the work he has done since. It instilled a deep passion to help those doing the hardest and least-appreciated work in the most difficult settings.
He completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology at the University of Oklahoma. He earned his Master’s in Applied Behavioral Science and his Ph.D. in Behavioral Psychology from the University of Kansas. He was a tenured faculty member, graduate program coordinator, and clinical director at Texas Tech University and the University of Missouri before moving into private practice.
Dr. Dotson’s clinical experience includes assessment and treatment of severe problem behavior in school, community residential, medical, and clinical settings with an emphasis on multidisciplinary practice. He also has extensive practice in social skills and relationship development support for adolescents and young adults on the spectrum. He has spent almost twenty years leading multidisciplinary treatment teams and has thirteen years of experience as a clinical director supervising a variety of Behavior Analytic teams.
Dr. Dotson successfully secured grant and contract funding to develop and deliver high-quality training and services . He has managed and participated in multiple awards for projects including: one of the first support programs for degree-seeking college students with autism in the country, focused ABA services for under-served populations, autism training grants for school professionals, and grants regarding puberty and sexuality in autism and the inclusion of therapy dogs into social skills groups.
As a teacher and trainer, Dr. Dotson has delivered hundreds of professional presentations and training sessions to diverse audiences. At the heart of his approach to training were three years spent as a Graduate Assistant at the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Kansas and his thesis and dissertation research exploring the most effective ways to help students move from knowing about something to applying that knowledge to realistic scenarios.
He specializes in helping groups best interact with and support people on the spectrum in their setting, and he has worked with groups such as law enforcement, hospitals, residential treatment facilities, schools, Boy Scout troops, churches, businesses, and state agencies. In addition to his work training professionals and community members, he was a graduate program director for over a decade and played an active role in developing curriculum materials for multiple university ABA programs. He created and ran one of the first ABA graduate programs tailored towards school-based professionals that allowed them to complete their required supervised field experience in their school environment.
Dr. Dotson is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D) and a Licensed Behavior Analyst in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Dr. Dotson’s Career Details
Dr. Dotson in the News
https://www.newswise.com/articles/burkhart-center-director-spurs-change-across-the-state-
https://www.newschannel6now.com/2019/05/30/wfaa-hosts-autism-training-first-responders/
https://www.dfwautismconference.com/speakers/
https://thompsoncenter.missouri.edu/2020/10/finding-a-better-way-meet-dr-wesley-dotson/
https://thompsonfoundation.org/college-for-adults-with-neurodevelopmental-disorders/
https://www.uvu.edu/news/2023/03/2023_03_07_autism_conference.html