Canopy Children’s Solutions warmly welcomes Dr. Christopher “Chris” Furlow, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LBA, as the newest addition to the Canopy Autism Solutions team. As Clinic Manager, Furlow is responsible for client assessments and periodic reassessments used to document client progress against developmental barriers to learning and troublesome behaviors. Furlow is also involved in supervision of clinical staff, strategizing appropriate interventions with other Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA), and guiding therapeutic innovation and research initiatives for the Autism Solutions team.
Furlow has spent the better part of the last decade amassing training from many of the leading experts in autism research and treatment delivery. As a biology undergraduate at Louisiana State University, Furlow’s career goals of becoming a pediatrician changed to focus on a need for autism therapy in the Deep South. It was his experience with a young child with autism in Baton Rouge following the destruction of Hurricane Katrina that altered his career focus to instead help find solutions for children with autism and related disorders.
“She wasn’t getting much therapy at all and certainly not ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis),” said Furlow. “I came to realize there weren’t many treatment options for kids on the autism spectrum in the Deep South and I wanted to help change that.”
After graduating from Louisiana State University in 2008, Furlow was recruited to attend the Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Los Angeles to study ABA therapy. He spent two and a half years at the Center for Autism and Related Disorders in Los Angeles working as an in-home therapist. Furlow then returned east, landing at the Marcus Autism Center at Emory University in Atlanta. Shortly thereafter, he attained his national accreditation as a BCBA.
He spent three years at Marcus before entering the School Psychology doctoral program at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM), where he met Dr. Jim Moore who now serves as Canopy’s Director of Autism Solutions.
As part of the program at USM, Furlow spent one year as an intern at the Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. There he worked at the Inpatient Neurobehavioral Unit and in the Pediatric Developmental Disorders Clinic working with both parents and children with autism. Furlow remained at Johns Hopkins for an additional one-year post-doctoral fellowship with the Neurobehavioral Unit-Outpatient program, bringing his experience with all ranges of the autism spectrum full circle.
“When Chris contacted me about employment opportunities at Canopy, I knew he would be a great fit for our team and a huge asset to helping our kids succeed,” said Moore. “Chris has a strong work ethic, talents and extensive training in ABA. We are fortunate to have him on our team.”
Furlow joined Canopy shortly after the opening of the Canopy Center of Excellence. The new integrated health model employed at the Center creates quicker access to care for families and increases communication and collaboration between care providers. Within the Center of Excellence is the Center for Autism Solutions and the Center for Behavioral Health Solutions. The Center’s Early Intervention Autism Clinic located at the Center is also the largest in the state with nearly two times the number of certified behavior analysts than any other clinic in Mississippi.
“We have worked very hard to build our autism program so that Canopy can deliver world-class solutions to children and families touched by autism,” said Dr. John D. Damon, Chief Executive Officer of Canopy Children’s Solutions. “Bringing in Dr. Moore and Dr. Furlow to lead this effort gives our families the experience of going to the top autism institutions in the world because our staff is being led and continues to be trained by individuals who have amassed that expert knowledge and experience. Because of this, families aren’t going to have to look outside the state for help. Canopy is bringing the best to them.”
Furlow is a native of Slidell, LA, but currently resides in Madison, MS. He and his wife, Lauren, have two children and enjoy spending time as a family exploring new milestones of young parenthood.
Canopy Children’s Solutions is the state’s most comprehensive provider of children’s behavioral health, educational and social service solutions. Canopy Autism Solutions offers specialized programs including educational autism classrooms in Jackson and Hattiesburg, ABA therapy for local school-aged students at the Jean Austin Bagley Campus in Jackson, and intensive ABA therapy for youth ages 18 months to eight years old at the Early Intervention Autism Clinic in Jackson, which will have a new location opening in the Hattiesburg area in 2019. To learn more, visit mycanopy.wpengine.com.