Kelly Knowles has enjoyed working with children to adults, helping them achieve their goals, for over twenty years. She has worked in applied behavior analysis (ABA) since 2008. It is her passion to spark learning that makes a difference. 

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Education: Kelly earned a BA in Psychology with a minor in Education at University of California, Davis, and she enjoys combining the best of both worlds! Embarking on a professional journey in applied behavior analysis, Kelly completed an ABA certificate at California State University, Sacramento, under Caio Miguel, one of the leading experts in verbal behavior, and Becky Penrod, one of the leading experts in pediatric behavioral feeding issues. She went on to achieve an MA in applied behavior analysis at Florida Institute of Technology and became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA).​ Kelly also completed a graduate-level certificate through UC Berkeley in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL).

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Experience: Kelly has always worked to educate, beginning with peer tutoring in high school to creating Inspire's academic, enrichment, and clinical programs for children to adults throughout the Bay Area. Throughout Kelly's undergraduate and graduate school years, she worked with children and adults in academics, ESL, and behavioral health, discovering early on that she cared about the development of the whole person and not just academic achievement. She has provided emergent literacy tutoring for Pre-K and academic English tutoring for elementary school to college and university students, including typically developing students and students with autism, English Language Learners, and children in at-risk schools. In addition, she designed and oversaw an after school program integrating academics, enrichment in the arts, social-emotional development, and recreation for first through sixth graders at an at-risk elementary school. She has also enjoyed tutoring ESL for diverse learners, including native speakers of Spanish, French, Portuguese, Farsi, Russian, Lao, Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, Mandarin, and more; preschool to college students; immigrants working towards U.S. Citizenship; business professionals; and an international visiting professor at UC Berkeley. She has breadth and depth of experience in ABA healthcare for toddlers to teens in their homes, communities, public schools, preschools, after school programs, treatment centers, and integrated play groups, as well as training parents and caregivers. She has experience with training, assessment, and supervision of Registered Behavior Technicians and BCBA candidates.

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Philosophy: The word "educate" comes from the Latin educare, meaning to draw out or lead out, instead of only memorizing responses. Kelly's philosophy is to integrate head, heart, and body to be the best version of oneself. It is her philosophy in work and in life! In her free time, Kelly enjoys hiking, nature photography, and spending time with her fun-loving rescue dogs.