Jill Scarbro-McLaury
CEO, Bright Futures Learning Services
KRISTEN UPPERCUE
Jill Scarbro-McLaury grew up with a
learning disability. She considers herself
blessed to have parents who supported
and advocated for her, doing everything
they could to provide her with the care
and support she needed. Because of her
experience in understanding the chal-
lenges those with learning disabilities
face, Scarbro-McLaury knew from a
young age she wanted to help children
like her who struggled.
“From about the third grade, I knew
I wanted to specialize in helping children
with learning challenges in a way that
would make a trajectory-changing impact
on their lives,” she says.
Scarbro-McLaury earned her bachelor’s
degree in education from Marshall Uni-
versity, specializing in mental impairments
and physical handicaps in primary and
secondary education. It was during her
undergraduate experience that she began
working in a home-based applied be-
havior analysis (ABA) program where
she worked with a child named Mike
who had a number of health and learning
challenges, including autism.
Mike’s family routinely brought in ex-
perts from out of state to train other families
and college students in how to implement
ABA services. Because of this experience,
Scarbro-McLaury began offering ABA
services to individuals with autism in
1997 and continues to do so today.
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
Photo by Bambi Hayes.
“Helping Mike make progress in com-
munication, play and academic skills
confirmed that ABA was exactly what I
was looking for,” says Scarbro-McLaury.
“It was a perfect combination of science,
psychology and teaching that packed a
powerful punch and brought truly trans-
formative results. I was willing to go any-
where to receive the best training possible
so every child in West Virginia could
eventually have access to ABA’s powerful
technology.”
Scarbro-McLaury attended the Univer-
sity of North Texas to receive a master’s
degree in the world’s first behavior analysis
degree program. Following graduation,
she operated a private practice in Texas
before returning to West Virginia as a
behavior analyst in 2006, becoming the
first board-certified behavior analyst in
the southern part of the state. Attempting
to fill the gap of available ABA services
in the state, Scarbro-McLaury traveled
throughout West Virginia and into Kentucky
to provide ABA services while flying back
and forth to Texas to see clients.
About 12 years ago, Scarbro-McLaury
started a private school for Mike in her
grandmother’s kitchen alongside a team
of others who were just as dedicated to
providing ABA services in the state. That
private school has since grown into Bright
Futures Learning Services (BFLS), an orga-
nization based out of Putnam County that