Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 2
Pennsylvania ABA
By Bridget Gibbons
Pennsylvania ABA (PennABA) was founded in the late 1990s by Richard M. Foxx and William J. Helsel to provide an opportunity for Pennsylvania’s growing number of behavior analysts to further their knowledge in the field and to connect with other behavior analysts. Since then, PennABA has held an annual conference attracting participants from across the state and has a membership of over 200. Dr. Foxx continues to serve as the organization’s Executive Director, and Dr. Helsel recently began a two-year term as President.
PennABA held its annual conference this spring in Hershey, PA. Following the successful two-day format used in 2005, this year’s conference included one day of workshops and poster presentations, followed by an impressive array of speakers on the second day. Topics included treating severe behavior problems, using video modeling to teach play skills to children with autism, ethics, applying B. F. Skinner’s model of verbal behavior to the classroom, and behavioral approaches to pediatric procedure-related anxiety and pain. The wide range of topics covered reflects the interests of PennABA’s diverse membership of behavior analysts, psychologists, special educators, students, and colleagues from Pennsylvania and neighboring states. In order to meet the needs of our membership, PennABA has provided continuing education credits for behavior analyst and psychologists, as well as ACT 48 credits to Pennsylvania educators at no additional cost. Students are an integral part of our membership, and PennABA has benefited from our relationship with several universities in Pennsylvania with graduate-level programs in behavior analysis. Students are represented on PennABA’s executive council and have presented their research at our annual conferences.
An exciting new development for PennABA in 2006 has been the launching of our Web site, www.pennaba1.org. The Web site contains information about upcoming events, conference and membership registration forms, links to organizations that may be of interest to our members, and job postings in behavior analysis in Pennsylvania. PennABA also continues to publish a printed newsletter that is sent to our members in the early spring.
After successful two-day conferences in 2005 and 2006, PennABA plans to continue this format for our spring 2007 conference, which will be held in the Pittsburgh area. For more information about PennABA, please visit www.pennaba1.org or contact Bridget Gibbens at bgibbons@psu.edu.