Our People

Melissa Willa, M.A., BCBA
Executive Director

Melissa Willa is the founder and Executive Director of Gateway Learning Group. Melissa designs behavioral intervention programs for our clients and conducts parent and staff training.

In addition to her role at Gateway, Melissa is a frequent guest lecturer at San Francisco State University. She lectures on topics that include Structured Teaching Models for Students with Autism, Conducting Functional Behavior Assessments, and Designing Positive Behavior Support Plans. Melissa also serves on the Board of Directors at CASE, an agency whose mission is to assist families and school districts in working together to design appropriate special education programs for students with disabilities.

Prior to founding Gateway, Melissa worked as an Autism Content Specialist at San Francisco Unified School District, where she designed and launched the LEAP program. LEAP was SFUSD's first formal effort to offer ABA early intervention services to preschoolers with autism. Since its founding, LEAP has quadrupled in size and continues to grow, serving an ever increasing number of children and families in San Francisco. Melissa continues to provide behaviorist consult to the LEAP program.

Melissa has worked with children with autism for over ten years. She began her career as a teacher and has taught in both special education and general education classrooms.

Melissa is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She holds a M.A. in Behavior Disorders from Teachers College, Columbia University and a B.S. in Education from SUNY Geneseo.

Staff

Gateway staffs talented program supervisors and instructors to conduct on site therapy. Team members have extensive backgrounds in behavior treatment and receive additional training through Gateway.