PhD in ABA

Meet Our Current PhD Students

 2021 Cohort

Arturo Gargia, M.A., BCBA
Arturo Garcia, M.A., BCBA

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Research Interests:

  • ABA in Child Welfare and foster care system
  • ABA within Department of Juvenile Justice
  • Assessment and acquisition of verbal behavior
  • Assessment and treatment of automatically maintained problem behaviors

Current Research Projects:

  • An experimental analysis of voice volume for children with autism spectrum disorder

Classes Taught or Currently Teaching:

  • Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Planning in ABA (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)
  • Single Case Experimental Design (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)

Jesenia Giambrone, MS
Jesenia Giambrone, MS, BCBA

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Research Interests:

  • Assessment and treatment of severe problem behavior
  • Contextual variables and barriers to treatment effectiveness
  • ABA and the treatment of symptoms of mental diagnoses (RAD,
    ODD, PTSD)

Classes Taught or Currently Teaching:

  • Fundamentals of Applied Behavior Analysis (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)
  • Functional Assessment (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)

Ariandna Martinez, MS, BCBA

Ariandna Martinez, MS, BCBA

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Research Interests:

  • Autism/developmental disabilities
  • Assessment and treatment of problem behavior
  • Skill acquisition
  • Early intervention and family centered intervention
  • Caregiver and teacher training

Classes Taught or Currently Teaching:

  • ABA Graduate Practicum Seminar (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)
  • ABA Undergraduate Practicum Seminar (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)

Sharayah Tai-Rubinstein, M.S., BCBA

Sharayah Tai, M.S., BCBA

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Research interests:

  • ABA in health, sports, and fitness
  • Increasing long-term motivation in individuals
  • Enhancing athletic performance and improving athletic behaviors to reduce injury-risk factors

TA courses:

  • Research Methods and Ethical Issues in ABA
    Basic Principles of ABA

2020 Cohort

S Deshmukh

Shreeya Deshmukh, M.S.

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Research Interests:

  • ABA and health, sports, and fitness
  • Behavioral interventions and coaching procedures
  • ABA therapy in a dance context

Current Research Projects:

  • A comparison of the effectiveness of verbal feedback and video feedback to improve dance skills
  • An analysis of the accuracy and completeness of verbal and video feedback during dance training
  • Reviewing behavioral interventions used to promote physical activity in individuals with IDD

Classes taught or currently teaching:

  • ABA in Complex Communities (Instructor)
  • Research Methods and Ethical Issues in Behavior Analysis (Instructor)
  • ABA Basic Principles (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)

A Fuller

Asha Fuller, M.S., BCBA

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Research Interests:

  • Behavioral interventions in child welfare settings
  • Interventions for addiction recovery and maintenance
  • Teaching safety and self-advocacy skills
  • Staff training
  • Translational research

Current Research Projects:

  • A systematic review of delay discounting and alcohol use interventions in humans
  • Evaluating BST to teach identification of choking hazards to substitute caregivers
  • A meta-analysis of behavioral interventions in child welfare settings 
     

Classes taught or currently teaching:

  • Observational Methods and Functional Analysis (Instructor)
  • Behavioral Assessment and Intervention Planning in Applied Behavior Analysis (Instructor)
  • Applied Behavior Analysis in Complex Community Environments (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)
  • Experimental Analysis of Behavior (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)
  • Single Case Experimental Design (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)

Justin B Han

Justin B Han, M.S., BCBA

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Research Interests: 

  • Functional Analysis Methodology and Training
  • Assessment and Treatment of Problem Behaviors
  • Cultural Adaptation of Behavior Technology
  • Translational Research

Research Projects Underway: 

  • Visual-Inspection Fidelity of Functional Analysis 
  • Implementation and Efficacy of Indirect and Descriptive Assessment  

Classes Taught or Currently Teaching: 

  • Fundamentals of Applied Behavior Analysis (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)
  • Visual-Analysis of Functional Analysis Data (Graduate Level) 

Alyssa Rojas
Alyssa Rojas, M.S., RBT

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Research Interests:

  • Prevention of problem behavior
  • Assessment and treatment of severe problem behavior
  • Assessment and treatment of automatically maintained problem behavior
  • Early intervention
  • Interdisciplinary school-based intervention
  • Teacher training

Current Research Projects:

  • Systematic literature review of antecedent based strategies for vocal and motor stereotypy
  • Precursor Identification Assessment
  • Descriptive study on appropriate behaviors of typically developing preschoolers
  • Function analysis of topographies of problem behavior

Classes taught or currently teaching:

  • Applied Behavior Analysis in Autism and Developmental Disabilities (Instructor)
  • Applied Behavior Analysis in Autism and Developmental Disabilities (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)
  • Practicum Seminar (Doctoral Teaching Assistant)

Danielle RussoDanielle Russo, M.S., BCBA

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 Research Interests:

  • Multidisciplinary school-based services
  • Assessment and treatment of problem behavior
  • Evidence-based staff training
  • Early intervention
  • Increasing quality of school-based behavioral assessment and intervention

Current Research Projects:

  • Using class-wide intervention to increase handwashing in schools
  • Review of multicomponent function-based interventions implemented by school personnel for students with disabilities
  • Review of teacher training on use of function-based interventions for students with disabilities
  • Evaluation of teacher-implemented latency-based functional analysis and intervention in the classroom setting

Classes taught or currently teaching:

  • Functional Assessment (Teaching Assistant)
  • Behavior Modification (Teaching Assistant
  • Practicum Seminar in ABA (Co-Instructor)
  • Practicum Seminar in ABA (Instructor)

2019 Cohort

Rasha Rida Baruni

Rasha Baruni, M.S., BCBA

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Research Interests:
  • BST and safety skills
  • Clinical practices and safety skills training for children with ASD
  • Increasing behavior variability for children with ASD using lag schedules of reinforcement
  • Assessment and treatment of problem behavior
Current Research Projects:
  • A survey of safety skills training
  • An evaluation of an enhanced safety skills program for practitioners
  • Critical issues in teaching safety skills to children
  • An evaluation of video self-modeling to teach firearm safety skills
  • An evaluation of parent implemented web-based behavior skills training for firearm safety skills
  • Using behavioral skills training to increase fidelity of staff room searches at a juvenile residential facility
  • Passive cooperation: A review of procedures to teach tolerance of unavoidable aversive events in daily life for individuals with autism or related disabilities
  • Evaluating behavioral skills training to train online gaming safety skills
  • Teaching poison safety skills to children with autism using small-scale simulation training
Classes taught or currently teaching:
  • Fundamentals of ABA (Co-instructor)

  • ABA Basic Principles (Teaching Assistant)

  • Fundamentals of ABA (Instructor)

  • Behavior Assessment and Intervention Planning (Instructor)

  • Supervision in ABA (Instructor; Fall 2021)

Amalix Maria Flores Montero

Amalix Flores, M.S., BCBA

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Research Interests:
  • Translational Research
  • Adventitious reinforcement of problem behavior/ errors
  • High-Probability Instructional Sequence Procedural Variations and Effectiveness
Research Projects Underway:
  • High-Probability Instructional Sequence: A Review on Current Procedural Variations

  • A Survey on Current Practices for Designing and Implementing High-Probability Instructional Sequences

  • The Effects of Choice on High-Probability Instructional Sequence Effectiveness

  • Assessment of the Reinforcer Value of High-Probability Instructional Sequence

  • Behavioral Principles Survey

  • Evaluating the Effects of Multiple Exemplar Training on Tact-to-Mand Transfer in Children with Autism

  • Evaluating the Class Pass Intervention: Reducing Disruptive Behaviors of Children with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Classes taught or currently teaching:
  • Single-Case Experimental Design

    Child Clinical Psychology- Behavior Therapy

  • Basic Statistics

  • Psychology: Basic Process

  • Behavior Modification

  • Research Methods

  • Health Socio-Anhropology

  • Practicum Seminar in Applied Behavior Analysis

  • Applied Behavior Analysis and Developmental Disabilities

  • Practicum in Applied Behavior Analysis

2018 Cohort

Trevor Maxfield
Trevor Maxfield, M.A., BCBA

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Research Interests:
  • Safety Skills

  • Incorporation of technology into treatment

Research Projects Underway:
  • An Investigation into the Effectiveness of Bullying Interventions: A Meta-Analysis
  • Video Self-modeling to Teach Firearm Safety Skills
  • Evaluation of Parent Implemented Web-Based Behavior Skills Training for Firearm Safety Skills Group Study
Classes taught or currently teaching:
  • Practicum in Applied Behavior Analysis

  • Research Methods and Ethical Issues in Applied Behavior Analysis

 


 Program Graduates (by year)

2021

Jennifer Cook/Summer

Jesse DePaolo/Summer

Natalie Mandel/Summer

2020

Marlesha Bell/ August

Anthony Concepcion/ August

Hannah MacNaul/ May

Bryon Miller/ August

Heather Zerger/Fall

2019

Spencer Gauert/ December

Karie John/May

Daniel Kwak/August

Jessica Moore/ May

Marissa Novotny/ May

Merritt Schenk/ August

Lindsey Slattery/ May

Jennifer Weyman/ May

2018

Claudia Campos/ August

Anna Garcia/ May

Cynthia Livingston/ August

Sindy Sanchez/ August

Leslie Singer/ December

Diego Valbuena/ May

2017

Rocky Haynes/ May

Mallory Quinn/ May