About The Institute

The Institute for Clinical Excellence at Precision ABA offers something our field rarely provides: real-time mentorship, guidance, and teaching in the moment—the kind of clinical training many practitioners wish they had received from the very beginning.

Designed for certified clinicians, The Institute helps practitioners strengthen their clinical judgment, instructional design, and real-time decision-making through mentorship and guided practice.

Precision ABA (The Institute for Clinical Excellence) Building shot

How Training Works at The Institute

Training at The Institute blends conceptual learning with direct clinical experience.

Nothing like this currently exists in behavior-analytic training.

This is not a lecture series. It is not a library of CE courses you consume alone at your computer. The Institute is built around a teaching-hospital model of professional development, where clinicians strengthen their skills through observation, discussion, coaching, and direct participation in clinical work.

Join us inside our learning center at Precision ABA, or bring The Institute to your organization. In both settings, clinicians receive real-time coaching while observing, analyzing, and actively participating in instruction with real learners.

Participants are not simply listening to lectures. They are examining data patterns, designing instruction, analyzing contextual variables, and discussing clinical decisions in the moment with experienced clinicians.

Programs blend virtual learning with immersive in-person training, allowing clinicians to study concepts together and then apply them directly in real clinical environments.

The Institute moves beyond the passive consumption of CE units and into something far more meaningful: real clinical practice where your thinking is challenged, your skills are sharpened, and your behavior as a clinician is shaped in real time.

For many clinicians, it is the kind of training they wish had existed earlier in their careers.

Mission

Five people in a meeting at a wooden table with papers and laptops, a leafy green wall backdrop, and large windows. They appe

People's hands sharing and analyzing colorful charts at a wooden table with laptops, tablets, sticky notes, and coffee cups.

The Institute for Clinical Excellence at Precision ABA exists to advance the quality of clinical practice in applied behavior analysis. Through deliberate training, mentorship, and practice-based learning, we develop clinicians who can analyze complex behavior, design and evaluate effective instruction, and make sound decisions in real time. Our work is grounded in the belief that meaningful outcomes for learners are not produced by protocols alone, but by clinicians with deep conceptual understanding and strong clinical judgment.

Vision

Hands of diverse people in a circle, performing a fist bump indoors. Focus on teamwork and unity with a ceiling in the backgr

We envision a field where strong clinical practice is the expectation, not the exception. In this future, the experience of the learner remains the central measure of our work, guiding clinicians to design thoughtful instruction, analyze complex behavior, and make responsible decisions in real time grounded in the scientific foundation of applied behavior analysis. Clinicians are developed through mentorship, real clinical experience, and reflective practice, learning not only from success but from careful analysis of mistakes (or, as one of our dear mentors, Dr. John Eshleman would say, citing Dr. Ogden Lindsley, “not yets”). In this future, the quality of care families receive depends not on the organization they happen to encounter, but on a profession that consistently prepares its clinicians to practice with competence, integrity, and leadership.

Our Philosophy

Clinical competence develops through practice. While coursework and certification establish a foundation, the ability to analyze behavior, design effective instruction, and make sound clinical decisions is strengthened through guided experience, mentorship, and reflection.

The Institute follows a teaching-hospital model of professional development, where clinicians deepen their skills through observation, feedback, and progressively greater responsibility in real clinical work.

Our approach is also informed by traditions such as Precision Teaching, which emphasize careful measurement, analysis of learning, and the continual refinement of instruction based on data.

Your learners deserve clinicians who have had the opportunity to develop that level of skill.

Our Roots in Precision Teaching

The work of The Institute for Clinical Excellence is influenced by the traditions of Precision Teaching, an approach within applied behavior analysis that emphasizes careful measurement of learning and the continual refinement of instruction based on data.

Developed in the 1960s through the work of Ogden Lindsley and his colleagues, Precision Teaching introduced methods for analyzing learning in ways that make behavior change visible, measurable, and responsive to instructional decisions. Rather than relying on broad impressions of progress, Precision Teaching encourages clinicians and educators to examine patterns of performance closely and adjust instruction based on what the learner’s behavior reveals.

These principles—pinpointing, careful measurement, analysis of learning over time, and responsiveness to data—have shaped how many clinicians approach teaching and clinical decision-making.

At The Institute for Clinical Excellence, these principles help inform our broader approach to clinical practice. Careful measurement of behavior, attention to the learner’s experience, and a commitment to refining instruction through analysis all contribute to the development of thoughtful, responsive clinicians.

While The Institute draws inspiration from the traditions of Precision Teaching, our work focuses more broadly on strengthening clinical judgment, instructional design, and responsible decision-making across applied behavior analysis.

Business meeting with six people around a table with laptops and papers. Standing person leads, window view, bright modern se

Join The Institute Community

Receive thoughtful insights on clinical practice, instructional design, and the future of applied behavior analysis.

We share the same ideas we teach our clinicians—because raising the bar for clinical practice starts with better conversations.

Leadership

Brigid McCormick, MA, BCBA, LBA

Founder, The Institute for Clinical Excellence at Precision ABA

Brigid McCormick is the Founder of The Institute for Clinical Excellence at Precision ABA and the Founder and Clinical Director of Precision ABA, a Precision Teaching learning center and clinical practice in Naperville, Illinois. For more than a decade, her work has focused on building and disseminating thoughtful instructional design, careful analysis of behavior, and strong clinical judgment, and meaningful learning outcomes for the individuals they serve.

Before earning her Master of Arts in Applied Behavior Analysis from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Brigid received her teaching certification in Secondary Education from Illinois State University. As a Precision Teacher and instructional designer, she blends principles from education and applied behavior analysis to build meaningful repertoires for learners while coaching clinicians to strengthen their analytical and decision-making skills.

Through years of clinical practice, Brigid recognized the gap that often exists between certification and true clinical competence. The Institute for Clinical Excellence at Precision ABA was created to address that gap by supporting the development of clinicians through mentorship, analysis of practice, and ongoing professional learning.

Brigid previously served as President of the Illinois Association for Behavior Analysis, where she worked collaboratively to strengthen the organization’s structure and expand its ability to serve the professional community. She also serves on the inaugural Behavior Analyst Licensing and Disciplinary Action Board for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

While her work is grounded in careful analysis and high expectations for clinical practice, Brigid is known for bringing humor, honesty, and a refreshingly direct style to her teaching. She believes meaningful learning happens when clinicians feel both challenged and supported, and she works to create training environments where people can think critically, ask hard questions, and not take themselves too seriously along the way.

When she is not working, Brigid enjoys spending time with her family, laughing, and reading.