Member Spotlight: Cortney Keene

Meet Cortney Keene

Co-owner of Keene Perspectives, a CASP member organization

Biography

Cortney is a behavior analyst who lives and works in Vermont with her husband, Dr. Chris Keene, BCBA-D, where they co-founded Keene Perspectives (KP) in 2018. As chief clinical officer, she supports clinical and operational system and team member growth and development in addition to consultation in multiple local school districts in the Upper Valley region of Vermont and New Hampshire. She thrives on building a strong, safe, and fun team culture and supporting the development of the humans in their organization while integrating OBM within KP to foster continuous improvement, always working to do better.

Prior to co-founding KP, Cortney worked in special education for 13 years as a teacher and behavioral consultant and holds four Vermont teaching and administrative endorsements. After earning her associates from Simon’s Rock College of Bard at the age of 17 she wrapped up her BA in psychology at the University of Vermont without a clue of what she wanted to be when she grew up. She then earned her MEd from Antioch University in education and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study from The University of Vermont (UVM) before discovering ABA as a career path. She then promptly pursued her Advanced Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis from Florida Institute of Technology and became a BCBA in 2014.

For the six years prior to 2022, Cortney worked with two UVM projects through the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion (CDCI): as a VTPBIS coach and trainer with the BEST project and as a state-wide behavior consultant with the Vermont ITEAM. Most recently, Cortney was recognized as one of Vermont’s 40 Under 40 Rising Stars in 2022, in 2023 Chris and Cortney were honored to be recognized by the SBA as Vermont’s Small Business Persons of the Year, and in 2023 and 2024 KP was voted by their team as a Best Place to Work in Vermont.

Interview

Tell us about Keene Perspectives.

Since 2018, at the core of our operations, we have provided progressive, child-centered, comprehensive early intervention services for children with autism and other neurodiverse profiles in a center-based medical model. So what do we REALLY do? We teach children to learn how to learn and develop their own voice. We like to say that we play all day...with a bit of science and data mixed in. The typical learner arrives at our clinic with limited abilities to communicate or connect with other people, often with significant behavioral challenges from living in a world not built for how they think. Their families have many questions, many worries, and few good answers at that point. In most cases, all they want is to connect with their children and give them what they need. That’s where families are when they put their trust in us to help their children grow. From there, we embrace a values-aligned approach to provide compassionate care for each learner meeting them where they are each day they walk through the door.

Since opening, we’ve used our clinic as our base of operations to serve many families directly through our clinic and beyond. We’ve provided early intervention services, after school services, collaborated extensively with school teams, medical providers, and community organizations, and more to help foster and develop autism and neurodiverse events, resources, and consultation to create new opportunities for connection and growth throughout our region. As many other service providers are well aware, the need for services and support is wide ranging in our rural communities.

We believe deeply in learning about the many values, perspectives, and lived experiences, so that we can continually adapt and evolve our ABA approach. Through our learning experiences and connections with other amazing ABA providers across the country, and through our connections to vital organizations like CASP, we strive to bring the best of ABA to the Vermont and New Hampshire families and communities we serve. We are proud to be part of a community of providers and educators who aren’t afraid to think differently, try new things, and collaborate to ensure our children with autism and other neuro-diverse needs get what they need, regardless of where they live. We are also committed to training a highly skilled workforce, bridging the gap of the growing need for autism services by disseminating ABA as a healthcare career and cultivating workforce development in Vermont. 

What are you most proud of about Keene Perspectives?

Our team and the amazing outcomes they help facilitate for learners and families. When we start working with a new family, I can tell them with confidence that most families tell us about something their child did for the very first time within two weeks of starting services. Our team at Keene Perspectives is why I can say that with confidence. They make learning a fun, positive experience. They make it engaging and exciting. They make it meaningful. They create opportunities for connection.

As a direct result of these efforts, our learners find new ways to learn, find new ways to interact with the world around them, find their voices, make friends, and make incredible connections with their families. That alone is more than enough reason for us to continue to put in the hard work to keep shaping Keene Perspectives into a place where our team and our families can make connections everyday.

What, in your opinion, is the single biggest challenge faced by autism service providers today?

Unity in our collective approach and promotion of ABA. As with so many other outstanding service providers, we’ve seen firsthand the life-changing and deeply meaningful impact that high quality services can have for learners and families. This potential is too often and easily obscured by confusion about what services entail and conflict in communication and social media accounts of experiences ranging from highly positive to highly negative.

The unfortunate outcome has been a perpetually uphill climb to promote ABA to potential clients, their families, and in recruiting passionate staff to work with them. By working to identify standards of what does and does not constitute high quality care, the potential benefits, and even the limitations of these services, we believe that we can better focus our efforts on what we can, and should, be doing as providers invested in socially meaningful growth and opportunities with our clients.

What's the long-term plan for Keene Perspectives?

Great question! After rapid growth through our first two years as a young company, COVID pushed a hard pause on our growth, but not the evolution of our services. We’ve always prioritized continually enhancing the quality of our services, and now we’re once again poised to scale and expand the reach of our services to connect with more learners, families, and school teams. We’re excited to replicate our early intervention model to provide services for many more learners to better meet the needs in our local communities and to delve into transition models to better support them as they build the skills vital for meaningful inclusion in their least restrictive settings.

As an autism service provider, what have you found to be the biggest benefit of CASP membership?

It is too hard to choose just one! Connection is the first that comes to mind. The ability to connect with other organizations and service providers who are values aligned and forward thinking, on a regular basis (sometimes daily!), is refreshing and incredibly supportive as an organizational owner. Related to connection, another benefit to CASP membership is the access to resources to support organizational excellence and client outcomes. The CASP community is the first place that I go to look for resources, ask questions, and learn from those in the community, while also contributing as much as I can in return.

When you're not working, what do you like to do for fun?

I don’t understand the question. In all honesty, I love to nerd out on systems and process development, and I’m a fiend for efficiency. If there’s a webinar, talk, book or a connection I can make to learn something new to integrate into our KP flows, I’m in! I really enjoy connecting with people and learning new things, especially from the experiences of others. When I can make myself slow it down for a moment or two, I love playing tabletop board games, binge watching a good drama, being a tourist in my own state, and soaking up the seasons in Vermont, especially Fall. Nothing beats a Vermont autumn!