Kent man among 40 Under 40 honorees by Puget Sound Business Journal

Kent resident Andy Song is one of 40 Under 40 honorees for 2024 unveiled by the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Now in its 26th year, the list of 40 people under age 40 features a broad cross section of the Puget Sound region’s business community, from a variety of sizes and stages of growth. Honorees were selected by a panel of external judges, many of whom were former 40 Under 40 honorees.

Song, 33, is chief operating officer for Kids and Family Counseling, which has clinics in Tacoma and Duvall. The business provides applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy, mental health counseling, autism diagnostic testing and more.

“I was taken aback for a moment as I scanned the list of recipients of the honor,” Song said in a March 26 email. “I saw people from technology to finance, and people who were, in my eyes, extremely distinguished. To see myself amongst that group was confusing. After my moments of hesitation, I gave myself grace and credit for the amount of work and dedication I put in to scaling this company and the positive impacts I’ve made on the community.”

Work of the honorees spans industries from health care to real estate, tech and the arts. The judges reviewed more than 170 applications, identifying candidates with deep ties to their communities and exceptional professional accomplishments, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.

The winners will be featured in a special print edition of the Puget Sound Business Journal published on April 26 and an in-person awards reception that week.

“I’m really looking forward to this, because there aren’t a lot of people who look like me in the mental/behavioral health space,” Song said. “I see this as a platform to bring awareness and advocacy for the needs for improving our mental health systems in Washington, and a part of the conversation starts with how local agencies can move past profits and go back to putting people first. It’s doable, and I know it because I’m doing it.”

Song, a first-year member of the Kent School Board elected by voters in November 2023 when he ran unopposed, has lived in Kent for seven years after moving from Woodinville.

“At the time, it was finances,” Song said about moving to Kent. “My husband and I were looking to move out of our 500-square-foot condo and enter our first starter home. That’s when we landed in Kent, and have loved it ever since.”

They have been married for 10 years and have no children.

“Until children enter our lives, we have our dog Yoda, and two cats (gray cat and regular cat) to occupy a lot of our parental duties,” Song said.

Song is a dual licensed board certified behavior analyst and licensed mental health counselor associate. He previously worked with the state Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) where he worked on developing a program for out of home services before becoming the statewide behavior analyst for DDA headquarters.

Song then moved on to becoming the first board certified behavior analyst to work at Seattle Children’s Hospital, simultaneously in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Unit/Emergency Department, as part of the original design team developing the biobehavioral inpatient hospitalization program at the hospital.

In addition to working for Kids and Family Counseling, Song is a telemedicine emergency consultant at Seattle Children’s Hospital and a Tacoma Community College professor in art, humanities and social sciences.

Song grew up in New York and then moved back to Washington during high school, as his family is originally from Tacoma. He graduated from Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma.

Song did his undergraduate work at Seattle University, master’s work at Cornell University in New York and Azusa Pacific University in California and received his doctorate from Seattle Pacific University. He has degrees in psychology, counseling and special education.