Entrepreneur wins award for opening ABA centers

Post Reply New Topic

You may not know the name Christopher M. Barnett, CLA ’10, but his work in autism care is changing thousands of lives—and it’s impossible to ignore. As founder and chair of ABA Centers, a behavioral healthcare organization that has grown to be a national leader for children and teens with autism, Barnett was recently named the winner of the 2024 Ernst and Young (EY) Entrepreneur Of The Year Overall National Award. Widely considered the preeminent award for American entrepreneurs, this achievement is not only a prestigious honor for the Temple University alum, but also a groundbreaking milestone for the public health sector as a whole.

Barnett made history as the first-ever healthcare provider to win EY’s national overall award. He joined the ranks of past winners like Jeff Bezos, who previously won in the Emerging Business category for Amazon but didn’t take home the overall national award.

But Barnett’s journey isn’t just about entrepreneurial success—it’s about something more personal: A father’s love for his daughter. After struggling to access the quality autism care his daughter Maddy desperately needed, Barnett quickly realized that the services available to families like his were insufficient. “What was out there wasn’t fast enough or good enough for Maddy. We could do better,” he recalled.

In 2020, he took matters into his own hands, launching ABA Centers with a vision to provide the kind of treatment he wanted for his own daughter. Now, with 22 physical care centers and plans to open 40 new centers in the next year, ABA Centers remains committed to offering timely care—typically admitting children within 47 days of initial contact—in a field where waiting lists once stretched for years.

One of his most meaningful contributions to Temple is Maddy’s Room, a sensory-friendly space for students originally located in the School of Social Work’s Ritter Hall Annex.