BAO Faculty and Staff:

Manish Vaidya

Manish Vaidya, Ph.D.

Manish Vaidya is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Behavior Analysis. He earned his bachelor and master’s degrees at the University of North Texas and his Ph.D. at the University of Florida. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Kansas, he returned to the University of North Texas. Dr. Vaidya has been interested in issues related to stimulus control since nearly the beginning of his graduate training. His current research interests involve behavioral health and medicine, technology-infused contingency management, health technologies, and generative learning.

 

Micah Hope

Micah Hope, M.S., BCBA

Micah Hope is the Assistant Director for Behavior Analysis Online. Micah's pronouns are she/they. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas. Micah has worked in higher education for several years and has experience with staff training at a large residential facility for adults with intellectual disabilities, where they also provided clinical behavioral services to residents. They are passionate about providing effective education based on the principles of behavior analysis and current research on best pedagogical practices. Micah hopes your experience at BAO is positive, enriching, and most of all, helpful to you.

 

 

Kenda Morrison Ph.D., BCBA-D

Dr. Morrison is a Principal Lecturer and has worked for the University of North Texas since 2011. Dr. Morrison received a Ph.D. in Developmental and Child Psychology from the University of Kansas in 1999 under the tutelage of Dr. Donald Baer. At that time, she also became a certified Early Childhood Special Education teacher. Dr. Morrison used ABA to help children with autism and their families for 28 years. Her early work was with the Early Childhood Autism Program in Lawrence, KS. She also worked at the UCLA Young Autism Project and Princeton Child Development Institute. Dr. Morrison has published research in peer-reviewed journals and has presented talks and workshops throughout several states. She was a charter certificant of the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB) and currently serves as our Verified Course Sequences (VCS) coordinator.

 

Joe Dracobly, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Joe Dracobly is an assistant professor in the Department of Behavior Analysis at UNT. Prior to that, he was on the faculty in the Department of Psychological Science at Eastern Connecticut State University. Dr. Dracobly received his Ph.D. in Behavioral Psychology from the University of Kansas in 2014, his M.S. in Behavior Analysis from UNT in 2009, and his B.A. in Psychology and Italian Studies from Gonzaga University in 2005. He am the Director of the Behavior Analysis Resource Center (BARC). Founded in 1994 by Dr. Richard Smith, Associate Professor (Emeritus), BARC conducts clinical research at the Denton State Supported Living Center, a large residential facility for adults with intellectual disabilities. This past fall, BARC also began a Severe Behavior Clinic at UNT's Kristin Farmer Autism Center. Dr. Dracobly also supervise the Creativity and Problem Solving (CaPS) lab.

Dr. Dracobly is currently as Associate Editor of the Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities and on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. He has published work in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior Analysis in Practice, Perspectives on Behavior Science, and Learning and Motivation.

 

Ashley Lugo

Ashley M. Lugo, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Dr. Lugo earned her Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis from The University of Nebraska Medical Center and M.S. in Applied Behavior Analysis from Florida Institute of Technology. Dr. Lugo held previous faculty appointments at Saint Louis University and Southeast Missouri State University, and Florida Institute of Technology. Her behavior analytic interests include improving the efficiency and effectiveness of skill acquisition interventions, parent and staff training, and the assessment and treatment of treatment nonadherence. Dr. Lugo has over ten years of clinical experience in the implementation of behavioral interventions in the pediatric population. Her experience includes early intensive behavior intervention (EIBI) and the assessment and treatment of children diagnosed with pediatric behavior disorders. Dr. Lugo has published in Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior Analysis in Practice, and Behavioral Interventions, among other peer-reviewed journals.

 

BAO Student Teaching Assistants:

Lisia Albuquerque
Darshini Deutsch
Sophia Kirkland
April Linden
Julianne Olivieri
Ian Paterson
Danielle Pelletier
Samantha Perdeep
Maia Persinger
Aaron Sanchez
Cameron Scallon
 

 

BAO's Founding Faculty:

Sigrid Glenn

Sigrid Glenn Ph.D., BCBA-D

Dr. Glenn's passionate commitment to the future of behavior analysis has resulted in numerous contributions to her chosen field. She has co-authored four books and over 45 articles and book chapters. Although her early research was mainly in applied areas, she is widely recognized for her later conceptual work on selection at behavioral and cultural levels. As founding chair of the Department of Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas, Dr. Glenn established master's and bachelor's degree programs in behavior analysis, leading the faculty to become the first graduate program to be accredited by the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI). With characteristic prescience about important developments in the field, Dr. Glenn, a charter certificant of the Behavior Analysis Certification Board (BACB), also led the faculty in developing the first internet sequence of behavior analysis courses approved by BACB. Now retired, Dr. Glenn's legacy continues to thrive in the Department of Behavior Analysis and Behavior Analysis Online.

Leslie Burkett

Leslie Burkett Ph.D.

Leslie arrived in Texas with an M.A. in Anthropology and found Sigrid Glenn in Behavior Analysis and a mission. While earning her M.S. in Behavior Analysis at UNT, she played with databases and computer programming and was delighted to join Dr. Glenn in developing BAO courses. Serving in many roles for BAO (instructional designer and programmer, database designer and administrator, systems designer, proofreader), Leslie completed a doctorate in Information Science and co-developed six of the BAO courses. Now retired, Dr. Burkett enjoys spending her time reading and traveling.