William Frea, Ph.D., BCBA-D
Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer
Dr. William Frea is an autism expert with a background in special education, clinical psychology, family therapy, and language development. He earned a Master’s degree in Speech Pathology and a Doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology. His early training was at the UCSB Koegel Autism Center. He also completed a clinical internship at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a research fellowship at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Frea created the autism program at California State University, Los Angeles, and secured federal funding to grow it into one of the largest university-based training facilities for autism professionals in the United States. He has written and presented extensively over the course of his career. He has served on numerous editorial boards, and is an associate editor for the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions. Dr. Frea has served on many advisory boards including the California State Legislative Blue Ribbon Commission on Autism and the Autism Spectrum Disorders Guidelines for Effective Interventions committee, which is a project of the California Department of Developmental Services. He participated in the National Standards Project which evaluates the evidence base for autism treatments. Presently, he is the Moderator and Co-Chair of the Insurance Workgroup of the North Los Angeles County Regional Task Force (NLAART) of the California Senate Select Committee on Autism & Related Disorders. This Workgroup is focused on expanding private insurance coverage for evidence based autism therapies in California. Dr. Frea's current work within Autism Spectrum Therapies focuses on the development of innovative programs and outcomes research.