Mr. Paul Thiessen

Chief Training Officer

Paul initially became interested in education while serving in Desert Storm and Desert Shield with the United States Marine Corps. Moreover, his experience invoked a passion for understanding human behavior. Coupled with a desire to learn and understand, he entered the field of psychology earning a Bachelor of Arts from Ashford University.
Mr. Thiessen worked in the mental health field for over eight years. He started out working in a residential treatment center for severely emotionally disabled children and adolescence. He served as a treatment coordinator and later moved to a partial care setting, becoming the program supervisor. He worked closely with the day treatment programs to ensure continuity of care between the school setting and after care. Utilizing his expertise and ability to develop programs, he earned the position of Director of Quality Control to include supervising all aftercare programs, thirteen daycare centers, and providing support to all other programs. Moreover, he coordinated the effort in getting the agency accredited through the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). He was afforded an opportunity to bring his array of experiences and professionalism to the education field.

Mr. Thiessen joined Austin Centers in June of 2000 as Director of Positive Behavior Supports and overseeing quality control. He is directly responsible for the training and certifying all employees in Nonviolent Physical Crisis Intervention. Additionally, Mr. Thiessen has developed a variety of trainings specific to the needs of our students and leadership in the development and implementation of Positive Behavior Supports throughout Austin Centers.

He is a Certified Crisis Prevention Institute Master Level Instructor and has been instructing and certifying staff for over seventeen years. Additionally, he has presented at many school districts for support related to behavior issues during transportation, in programs, adjunct instructor for Nonviolent Physical Crisis Intervention, and program evaluations. Mr. Thiessen provides classes for parents, guardians, and caregivers from an introduction to Austin Centers behavior philosophy to advance classes that provided continuity from the classroom to home. Moreover, he has presented at national conferences and provided consultation. If you have had the chance to sit and talk with Mr. Thiessen, it becomes apparent that he is passionate about teaching behavior techniques, helping our students and their stakeholders.

From the side of technology, another passion, he has utilized his earlier education in computer systems engineering to design and create the student database, and behavior tracking system at Austin Centers. With his level of experience in behavior and love of technology, he has developed a system that provides pertinent, relevant information for the students, parents, guardians, school districts representatives, and teachers to assist in making data driven decisions regarding the Individual Education Plans (IEP). He is a big proponent of technology and how to utilize it in creative ways to support our students.

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