The people building Alpaca Health
A small team of founders, engineers, partnerships leads, and credentialing specialists with backgrounds at Meta, Palantir, Addepar, Elemy, Centria, Echo360, and AnswersNow — building a no-waitlist ABA therapy marketplace for children and their families.
100+
Insurance plans accepted
100+
Families served
438
Cities covered
Founders
Michael and Bao co-founded Alpaca Health in 2024 to give independent BCBAs the infrastructure to run their own practices — and families a fast way to find them.
Michael Gao
Michael Gao is the CEO and co-founder of Alpaca Health, where he's building a no-waitlist ABA therapy marketplace. Previously founded Dewey Smart (an online education company started in his Columbia dorm that scaled to seven-figure revenue) and worked in product at Addepar and FutureFit AI.
Bao Van
Bao Van is the co-founder and CTO of Alpaca Health. Previously a product engineer at Meta, he shipped features on Instagram Reels and helped launch the Threads app. Duke alum based in San Francisco.
Engineering & Growth
The people shipping the product and making sure families find Alpaca in the moments that matter.
Madhav Asok
Madhav Asok is a founding engineer at Alpaca Health. Previously a founding software engineer at Rally Technologies and software engineer at Echo360. Cal Poly SLO biomedical engineering.
Sam Seelig
Sam Seelig leads growth at Alpaca Health, working to eliminate the waitlists that prevent families from accessing ABA therapy. Previously a Deployment Strategist at Palantir. Duke Pratt School of Engineering.
State & City Leads
Connecting independent BCBAs, clinics, and referral sources with families across Alpaca's active regions.
Jake Wynant
Jake Wynant leads Houston partnerships at Alpaca Health after years as a specialty-pharmacy sales rep across the Houston metro, building relationships with physicians and clinics.
Jennifer Ray
Jennifer Ray leads credentialing at Alpaca Health, with 15 years of provider-enrollment experience across ABA and healthcare. Previously at AnswersNow and Cortica.
Dathan Johnson
Dathan Johnson leads Texas partnerships at Alpaca Health after prior business-development roles at Elemy, Centria, and Wellvana. Based in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Marius Nielsen
Marius Nielsen leads Alpaca Health's partnerships in Colorado, working with BCBAs and clinics across Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, and the Northern Colorado corridor to expand access to autism care.
Clinical Reviewers & Editors
Independent editors and Board Certified Behavior Analysts who review, fact-check, and edit Alpaca articles for clinical accuracy.
Roy Rogers, M.S., BCBA, LBA
Roy Rogers, M.S., BCBA, LBA, is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst at ABA Your Way and one of the clinical reviewers on Alpaca Health's family-resources blog. He specializes in evidence-based, data-driven ABA for autism, developmental disabilities, and other behavioral challenges.
Angelina Waterman, BCBA
Angelina Waterman is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and clinical reviewer at Alpaca Health. She practices trauma-informed, assent-based ABA, combining evidence-based behavior analysis with mindfulness and personalized coaching. Bilingual in English and Spanish.
Imani Hall
Imani Hall is the Editor at Alpaca Health, where she reviews articles for neurodiversity-affirming language and parent-first writing.
How we write and review content
Families rely on the information we publish to make real decisions about their child's care. Our writing is grounded in peer-reviewed research, clinical guidelines from the BACB and AAP, and input from practicing Board Certified Behavior Analysts.
Michael writes about the access side of ABA therapy, including insurance, cost, waitlists, and how families get care. Clinical and therapeutic content is reviewed by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst before publication. Every article names its author and, where applicable, its clinical reviewer.
What is ABA therapy?
Each article begins with primary sources: peer-reviewed research, BACB practice guidelines, CDC and AAP data, and interviews with practicing BCBAs and families. Every statistic and claim is traced to a cited source.
Clinical review
Articles covering behavioral, developmental, or therapeutic topics are reviewed by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst for clinical accuracy, neurodiversity-affirming framing, and alignment with current evidence-based practice.
Edit and publish
Editors review for clarity, structure, and source attribution. Each article shows the author, clinical reviewer where applicable, date of last review, and the sources cited.
Keep it current
We strive to keep our content up to date at all times. Articles are typically refreshed every two to four months as clinical guidelines, insurance rules, and research evolve.
We work with 100+ insurance plans across our active regions and handle verification, prior authorization, and paperwork on the family's behalf. Every provider in the Alpaca network is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst credentialed by the BACB.
Don't see your plan? Check all accepted insurances
Join the team
We're building the operating system for independent ABA therapy practice — connecting families with providers in days, not months. If you care about autism care access, clinician autonomy, and shipping work that matters, we'd love to hear from you.