Administrative Staff

---

Clinical Director

Charles Gageby is a BCBA and Clinical Director at Special Explorers Center. 

He earned his Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis from California State University, Northridge. 

He has been working with neurodiverse individuals for 17+ years and in the field of behavior analysis for 8 years. 

Charles hopes to continue to support families and staff to meet their professional and personal goals.

Clinical Supervisor

Amara Torres is a BCBA and Clinical Supervisor at Special Explorers Center.

She earned her Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis from California State University, Los Angeles.

She has been working in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis for 8 years, providing services to individuals ranging from 2 years old to adulthood in home, school, and community settings. Her experiences include data analysis, building client rapport, parent education, assessments such as the VB-Mapp, AFLS, and vineland, and focusing on overall behavior change. 

Amara hopes to continuously work to improve her consumers socially significant behavior. 

Clinical Supervisor 

Mallela Guerra is a BCBA and Clinical Supervisor at Special Explorers Center. She helps create treatment plans, trains staff, and supports families. She has been in the field for almost 9 years and started as a one-on-one therapist.

She earned her master’s degree from National University and is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst. Mallela works with children in homes, schools, clinics, and through telehealth.

She is passionate about helping Spanish-speaking families and believes in kind, team-based care that focuses on real progress.

Case Manager

Austin Toerner is Case Manager at Special Explorers Center. He earned his Bachelor of arts in Psychology degree from CSU Northridge.

He has been working at Special Explorers Center for the past three years. Austin’s experiences have included handling severe challenging behaviors, discrete trial teaching (DTT), natural environment training (NET), social skills, functional communication training (FCT), parent trainings, and errorless learning among many other ABA strategies. 

Austin hopes to provide growth to the consumers he works with as well as doing his best to set them up for continued success even after they graduate the program. “I enjoy my job and fill like the work we do here changes our consumers lives for the better.”

Case Manager

Eduardo Castro is one of the Case Managers and Trainers at Special Explorers. He has earned a bachelor’s degree in Child, Adolescent, and Family Studies (C.A.F.S) from Cal State-Bakersfield. He also holds a General Business Certificate from Bakersfield College and is fluent in both English and Spanish. He is currently working towards enrolling into a Master’s Program to further his education and development as a Case Manager. 

Eduardo has 4 years of experience applying the methods of ABA to children with Autism or other developmental disabilities. Furthermore, he contains experience collaborating with supervisors and BCBA’s to properly implement ABA strategies to improve functional communication, cognitive skills, fine motor skills, daily living skills, and other areas where deficits are present.

He hopes to provide a positive impact on consumers, families, and Special Explorers. Eduardo aims to continually improve the skills of his consumers to be able to increase the quality of life for themselves and families. 

Case Manager

Josh Hernandez is a Case Manager at Special Explorers Center. He earned his Master’s of Science in Special Education with an emphasis in ABA from Arizona State University and his Bachelor’s from Cal State University Bakersfield. He is also currently our Safety Care trainer. He is currently working on earning his BCBA certificate, and he has a background working in the field of ABA. 

Josh’s experiences have included working through severe challenging behaviors, early intervention, social skills, behavior skills training, parent training, and staff training. With his consumers, Josh hopes to help build functional and important skills to increase quality of life. He is passionate about making sure that his staff, consumers, and their families feel supported.