Center for Autism and Related Disorders
The Center for Autism and Related Disorders, Inc. (CARD) is a business that administers applied behavior analysis (ABA) to autistic people.[1] HistoryCARD was founded in 1990 by Doreen Granpeesheh, a former graduate student of Ole Ivar Løvaas, the UCLA psychology professor who popularized the use of ABA on autistic children and was influential in the formal development of conversion therapy.[1][2][3][4] The Blackstone Group, a private equity firm, acquired CARD in 2018. Granpeesheh and the management at CARD invested in the company alongside Blackstone,[5][6] and Granpeesheh remained the CEO until December 2019, when she was replaced by Anthony Kilgore and moved into the role of executive director.[7] In February 2022, Kilgore resigned for undisclosed reasons and was replaced by Jennifer Webster.[8] On June 12, 2023, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[9] The following month, an agreement was reached to sell the company back to a consortium headed by Granpeesheh for $48.5m.[10] Unionization effortsIn May 2019, while it was still under the ownership of Blackstone, employees at CARD's Portland East location voted to unionize, the first ABA clinic in the United States to do so. Prior to the vote, Granpeesheh appeared in person to plead with workers to vote against unionizing, and CARD hired anti-union consultants to intimidate staff. CARD permanently closed the Portland East location in January 2021, citing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company subsequently dismissed employee speculation that the Portland East location was targeted for closure because it had unionized.[11] DocumentaryCARD co-produced (with Granpeesheh) and distributed Recovered: Journeys Through the Autism Spectrum and Back, a 2008 documentary about four children that the organization claims completely "recovered" from autism and co-occurring intellectual disability as a result of the intensive, longterm ABA they administered,[12] despite the fact that there is no known cure for autism.[13][14] In the film, Granpeesheh stated, "There's a lot of scientific research that shows children recover from autism, and yet, still, the medical community in general is not aware of how prevalent recovery is. More than half of the children receiving intervention at an early age recover completely."[12] The film was directed and edited by Michele Jaquis in collaboration with Granpeesheh and won the Best Documentary award at the 2008 Director's Chair Film Festival.[15] References
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