Brain Balance Achievement Center Recognized

WEST SPRINGFIELD — Talitha Abramsen, center director of the Brain Balance Achievement Center on Riverdale Street, and Megan Hudson, executive director, each received one of four leadership awards given at the Brain Balance Achievement Center National Convention, staged recently in West Palm Beach, Fla.

In the first year the leadership awards have been offered, Abramsen was selected for her role in piloting and sharing center-based innovations related to overall program effectiveness and student and family support.

One such creation is a parent support kit, called a Power Pack, that families receive when they enroll a student at the center; the kit offers resources to increase children’s engagement in the home portion of the program. Abramsen pioneered the Power Pack at the West Springfield center, and it will now be included in every welcome bag that a new family receives when they enroll at any center across the country.

Hudson was selected to receive a leadership award for her role as a sensory motor trainer for the national office, at which she is involved in training incoming center staff from across the country in the latest sensory motor assessment tools and program protocols. Since January, Hudson has worked with new staff at the company’s national training center in Hauppauge, N.Y.

While at the convention, Hudson also was elected by her peers to the national Brain Balance Franchise Advisory Board, made up of four staff members, one from each United States region, who meet to discuss program enhancements.

Abramsen noted that the honors, and Hudson’s election, showcase the center’s long-term commitment to helping students succeed, not just at the West Springfield center, but at Brain Balance Achievement Centers across the country.

“We’re in this for the long haul,” Abramsen said. “We’re able to contribute to the larger company with our skillset, and I think that’s where the leadership awards came in this year.”

Additionally, it was announced at the convention that for the second year in a row, the West Springfield center will have a family involved in the company’s national marketing campaign. Only 13 of the 89 centers currently in operation are involved in the campaign.