Three Decades of Dedication to Professional Expertise

Meet the Certified Brain Injury Specialists who have maintained their credentials since the early days of ACBIS

In the 30 years since it was founded, the Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists (ACBIS) has trained thousands of professionals working across the spectrum of brain injury care. Many of them have been there since the beginning.

Tom Brown, BS, CBIST, certified since 1998, was part of the initial team tasked with building the ACBIS program. Providing training for brain injury professionals was something he was – and remains – passionate about.

“I was all about creating a curriculum that could begin to set a foundation for creating brain injury specialists and brain injury professionals,” Tom says.

When he started his career in 1992, getting an education in brain injury was done mainly through self-teaching, he recalls. He borrowed and checked out books from the library, and at one point hired a neuropsychologist to train him in this specialty.

“I thought, ‘This isn’t the way. Self-teaching isn’t the way to grow brain injury professionals,’” he says. “There is nothing more important to me than having the success of growing a brain injury professional.”

Tom is dedicated to increasing the system’s capacity to serve individuals with brain injuries, but growing the number of brain injury professionals isn’t easy. CBIS certification helps with not only training, but retaining employees, addressing the high rate of turnover in the field.

“CBIS certification covers all of the core aspects that a brain injury professional needs to know and understand, and each of them has as great an importance as the other,” he says. “When folks understand what they’re doing, they can better cope with the struggles that are in front of them. And when people can cope, they stick around longer.”

In fact, Tom says that seeing people who went through his trainings go on to thrive and establish careers in all areas of the brain injury field – from vocational rehabilitation and long-term care to government and advocacy roles – is one of the most rewarding parts of being involved with ACBIS.

“When they flourish, so do the people they serve,” he says. “It’s so cool to see that happen.”

Making Brain Injury a Career

Els Van den Eynde, OTR/L, MBA, CBIS, is a professional who established a career in the brain injury field early. Her first job, with an adult neurorehabilitation program in Switzerland, drew her toward specializing in brain injury rehabilitation. “I quickly saw how meaningful the work was – the way rehabilitation could improve a person’s quality of life and how closely we were able to partner with families,” she says.

When she moved to the United States, she actively sought out opportunities to deepen that experience. She worked across the continuum of care, including acute rehabilitation, community re-entry, and neurobehavioral programs, before ultimately finding her way to pediatric neurorehabilitation – her perfect fit. “It brings together my passion for working with children and my commitment to supporting patients with brain injuries and their families through every stage of recovery,” she says.

Early in her career, Els had the opportunity to attend and present at the Brain Injury Association of America’s national conference, where she first learned about the development of ACBIS.

“I was looking for a certification that aligned with my preferred field and reflected both my experience and my commitment to providing specialized care for individuals with brain injury,” she says. “The Certified Brain Injury Specialist credential stood out because it offers a comprehensive, well-rounded review of brain injury care and a respected certification that demonstrates a high standard of knowledge and practice in this area.”

After going through the certification process, which she found both challenging and highly beneficial to her own practice, Els became a Certified Brain Injury Specialist Trainer in 1999. “Going through (the CBIS certification process) reinforced my knowledge and elevated my skills, and I wanted my team to have that same opportunity,” she says. “Becoming a trainer allowed me to help bring our entire group to a shared, higher level of expertise, so we could provide consistently excellent, specialized care for individuals with brain injury.”

Keeping Up with Best Practices

Els has maintained her certification since 1999, making her one of the longest-running certificants in ACBIS. She views maintaining her certification as a way to stay actively engaged in brain injury-specific education, pushing her to continually seek out new knowledge and best practices.

“Renewing my CBIS also helps me stay closely connected to the Brain Injury Association of America through their newsletters, webinars, and conferences,” Els adds. “That ongoing connection ensures I remain current with emerging research, clinical approaches, and advocacy efforts, which ultimately benefits the patients and families I serve.”

Tom says the continuing education requirements for maintaining his certification keep him fresh.

“There’s a lot that comes at us in this world, and one of the easy things to let go of is learning,” he says. “Learning is the key component – learning the new trends, new ideas, new evidence-based practices, listening to other folks’ perspectives and what they’ve learned in their careers help keep us all fresh and see new perspectives that lead us down the road of being able to help people better.”

About ACBIS

The Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists is the nation’s largest and longest-running professional brain injury certification program. Learn more about the certification and certificate programs available through ACBIS here.