401 Groveland Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403 contact@autismrecoveryfoundation.org (612) 925-8364

Kathryn Nordberg

Kathryn NordbergKathryn Nordberg is Founder and CEO, Erik’s Ranch & Retreats, Inc. and VP, Administration, Heritage of Edina, Inc.

Throughout her career, Ms. Nordberg has held executive positions with organizations in technology, finance, packaged goods and healthcare. She is recognized for innovative solutions to long-standing operational challenges and her ability to bring together disparate groups of individuals to create positive outcomes for expansive, long-term projects with multi-million dollar budgets. She has extensive leadership experience in strategic and organizational planning, management, marketing, developing partnerships and alliances, sales, new product development, brand renovation and communications. Nordberg is also an exceptional leader, whose vision and perseverance have created a history of successful outcomes.

For the last decade, Nordberg has assisted her family in running the largest privately held Assisted Living facility in MN, now over 50 years old. She knows first-hand how critical it is for residents to depend upon the same caring and dedicated staff day after day. The biggest differentiator for the family business is the number of staff-more than 30 individuals-who have been with the Assisted Living Facility for over 15 years, some over 30 – unprecedented in the industry. Recently, Ms. Nordberg restructured the entire health care operation. By streamlining the documentation process and improving efficiencies, the nursing staff has more time to focus on the emotional care of each resident, often overlooked as people focus on physical care. Nordberg’s background in the healthcare industry brings a wealth and depth of knowledge regarding recruiting and training high quality nursing staff, implementing best practices, and running a care facility for individuals with a multitude of special needs. This talent and expertise will be paramount to the future success of Erik’s Ranch & Retreats.

But most importantly, Nordberg is also the parent of a child with autism who is now 19 years old. She became the founding chairperson of Families for Early Autism Treatment (FEAT) of MN in 1995 when no funding or early intervention programming was available in Minnesota. In 1997, she participated in bringing world-renown behavioral therapist, Ivar Lovaas, to Minnesota to share the proven “Lovaas Therapy”: Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), for early intervention with children with autism. She also challenged the Minneapolis Public school system’s status quo in two years of litigation, creating awareness about the lack of efficacy of the system’s program for children with autism, and laying the groundwork for the current medical assistance programs now available for families desiring ABA programming.