Posted on July 20th, 2023.

Meet Ms. J! Recently Jaded Lotus’ owner, Jojuan Fullwiley, sat down with The Memphis Voyager to talk about her experience in the ABA field and how her career has transformed to bring her to where she is today!

“Today we’d like to introduce you to Jojuan “Ms. J” Fullwiley.Ms J Headshot

Hi Jojuan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?

I got my start in Applied Behavior Analysis from my mother and father, who had a combined 60 years in the company SRVS here in Memphis, TN.

I would go to work with my parents, especially my mother who was a case manager who worked by taking the adults with disabilities to their doctor appointments. As I got older, my parents would pose problems they faced and I was quite good at coming to conclusions and such about why behaviors could be occurring and how they could be changed.

I went to the University of Memphis for my bachelor’s in Psychology and Masters in Applied Behavior Analysis. I worked under Ms. Brandee Masterson and Sarah Vasquez-Carter as my BCBA mentors with children, teens, and adults with autism and disabilities. I learned so much and when I graduated in August 2018 with honors and passed my BCBA exam in November 2018, I was so thrilled.

I began my first BCBA job in February 2019 where I learned a tremendous amount and improved my understanding of ABA with up to 25 clients. I was even more enchanted with my profession when I traveled to Europe in September/October 2019 for my first ABAI conference where I was able to collaborate and network with other professionals in the field.

2020 was a mind-blowing year on multiple levels. I began my own company Jaded Lotus ABA in March 2020 and I planned to work with adults. Since the pandemic came the company, I worked for downsized and I found myself at a crossroads, did I want to take a leap of faith alone or go work for someone else?

I choose to partner with an associate and we worked together to get our companies off the ground. I went under the mentorship of another BCBA in January 2021 to focus on the business aspect of the company where I felt I needed more tutelage and competence. In July 2021, I opened my first clinic in Memphis, TN.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

It definitely has not! There are a lot of moving parts, such as hiring, onboarding new hires, gaining new clients, and co-mingling with different personalities with workers, parents, and children.

Money has been a huge factor, I started with 30K and it went QUICKLY! But otherwise, our highs and lows are a whole vibe for being a business owner.

As you know, we’re big fans of Jaded Lotus ABA. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?

Our clinic is a NET (naturalistic environmental teaching) clinic with a small dash of DTT (direct trial training). We pride ourselves on playing to learn concepts and such. We work with children ages 1-13 with autism, developmental disorders, or behavioral issues.

We are able to provide the ADOS-2 assessment and are trained in safety care crisis management. We are the proudest of our connection with the parents and children that come to the clinic.

We offer autism testing via ADOS-2 testing, Functional Behavior Assessments, Behavior Implementation Plans, Consultation, and Parent Training. I mainly focus on skills that the child has deficits in and what the parents are interested in their child learning.”