Bold names denote current members of ABIL
Fall, 2023
Big changes happening in ABIL! Dr. Rose Mason has moved to a new position as Professor of Special Education the University of Missouri and brought doctoral students John Augustine and Charissa Richards with her. We are excited for them in their new adventure and will miss them greatly!
Summer, 2023
Congratulations to the brand new Dr. Marie David! Dr. David successfully defended her dissertation titled “Examining the Effects, Feasibility, and Acceptability of a Multi-level Asynchronous Training Model for Trial-Based Functional Analysis for Service Providers”
Spring, 2023
Doctoral students Amanda Borosh, Eric, Shannon, and Sungwoo Kang all successfully passed their preliminary examinations, advancing them to Ph.D. Candidates. Up next is dissertation! Congratulations!
ABIL faculty and doctoral students attended and presented eight symposium presentations at the Association for Behavior Analysis International convention in Denver, CO in May.
Amanda Borosh and Charissa Richards presented at the Association for Positive Behavior Support international conference in Jacksonville, FL!
ABIL students and Dr. Mason enjoyed attending the Purdue Autism Research Center Research Conference in April! In addition to attending interdisciplinary research colloquia, students presented posters of their own research as well!
Say “hello” to ABIL’s newly promoted full Professor, Dr. Rose Mason! Congratulations, Dr. Mason!
Fall, 2022
Huge congratulations to Dr. Mason for being named a University Faculty Scholar by the Office of the Provost! This award is given to outstanding mid-career faculty who are on an accelerated path to academic distinction. We are so proud of you, Dr. Mason!
Doctoral students Charissa Richards & Amanda Borosh presented about ParaImpact at the Teacher Education Division conference in Richmond, VA. in November!
Congratulations to Ph.D. student, Amanda Borosh, for winning the Outstanding Single-Case Research Award in the student poster competition at the Teacher Education Division of CEC conference in Richmond, VA.
Dr. Rose Mason & doctoral student John Augustine were invited to present about ParaImpact at the Michigan Autism Conference in Kalamazoo, MI in October, 2022. Doctoral student Eric Shannon also presented a poster about his study evaluating telehealth coaching fathers’ implementation of a naturalistic communication strategy.
Dr. Rose Mason presented at the Purdue Autism Research Center colloquia about the current progress of the ParaImpact grant. She shared data from our preliminary studies and provided next steps for the cross-site randomized controlled trial study kicking off this fall!
In September, doctoral students John Augustine and Eric Shannon presented at the Association for Behavior Analysis International convention in Dublin, Ireland!
Summer, 2022
Farewell to Dr. Rispoli! Dr. Rispoli has accepted a prestigious position as the Quantitative Foundation Bicentennial Professor of Special Education at the University of Virginia. ABIL will miss her greatly and wish her the best of luck at UVA!
For the second year in a row, Dr. Rose Mason was selected for the Dean’s Outstanding Faculty Scholarship Award granted by the Purdue College of Education. Congratulations!
Doctoral students and faculty attended and presented at the Association for Behavior Analysis International convention in Boston in May, 2022. Our lab presented a total of nine symposia and poster presentations of current research.
Spring, 2022
Congratulations to the brand new Dr. Jasmine Begeske! Dr. Begeske defended her dissertation April 6, 2022 titled “Development, Psychometric Evaluation, and Validation of a Questionnaire to Measure Implementation and Accessibility of Preschool Arts Education.”
ABIL doctoral students presented several research posters at the Purdue Autism Research Center conference on April 1, 2022.
Congratulations to ABIL’s newest Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Hannah Collins Crosley! We are so proud of you!
ABIL doctoral students and alumni participated in the in-person and virtual Council for Exceptional Children annual convention in January and February 2022 with a total of six presentations of professional development and original research!
Fall, 2021
Dr. Rose Mason won the Dean’s Award for Outstanding Faculty Scholarship given by the Purdue College of Education. Congratulations to Dr. Mason!
Congratulations to Dr. Rose Mason, Dr. Chenell Loudermill, Dr. Mandy Rispoli, and Ph.D. candidate, Jasmine Begeske for being awarded over $1,100,000 from the U.S. Department of Education!
Summer, 2021
ABIL member and doctoral student Amanda Austin has been awarded a student research grant from the Association for Positive Behavior Support! Funds will be used to support an upcoming single-case research design project focusing on using a performance diagnostic assessment to improve special educators’ implementation of functional communication training.
Dr. Jennifer Smith and Jasmine Begeske were awarded an Arts Project Support Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission to support their project entitled Small But Mighty Mural Project. With this funding, they are able to collaboratively design and install a reusable mural for the outdoor learning lab at Linnwood Early Childhood Center in Lafayette, Indiana. Linwood serves over 150 preschool-aged students with disabilities. This mural will encourage process-based engagement with art materials (paint, markers, various painting tools) for students with limited access to arts learning. The large surface will allow children to engage in developmentally appropriate mark-making that emphasizes movement and exploration of materials.
Funding for this project will provide professional development for teachers at Linnwood to inspire them to further incorporate the arts into their curriculum by using the mural. Professional development sessions will also include opportunities for teachers, paraprofessionals, and related service providers to expand access to artmaking by creating accessible art tools for individual students with physical, visual, severe, and multiple disabilities.
Is social media just a digitized form of verbal behavior? Do dating apps purposefully use variable ratio schedules of reinforcement to keep you swiping? Doctoral student Amanda Austin was invited as a guest on The Reinforcer Podcast (Episode 6) examining the use of social media and dating apps through a behavior-analytic lens. Jump to minute 50 to hear the take on verbal behavior.
Dr. Catharine Lory will begin her Postdoctoral Research position in the Department of Educational Psychology at Baylor University in June 2021. Her areas of research focus will include developmental disabilities, applied behavior analysis, and caregiver coaching. Congratulations to Dr. Lory!
Spring, 2021
ABIL member and Clinical Instructor in Special Education, Jasmine Begeske, received the Sidney Marsh Moon Outstanding Service Award for embodying service above and beyond what is expected of her position. This is one of the most prestigious awards provided by the Purdue College of Education, and is only given out once every two years. Congratulations to Jasmine!
Congratulations to Dr. Catharine Lory for the successful defense of her dissertation on April 9, 2021! Dr. Lory’s dissertation study was one of the first of its kind, evaluating methods for identifying positive or negative reinforcement subtypes of automatic-maintained behaviors in children ASD and correlation with heart rate variability (HRV) across conditions. Her committee included Dr. Mandy Rispoli (advisor & chair), Dr. Rose Mason, Dr. Ben Mason and Dr. Brandon Keehn.
Dr. Mandy Rispoli was interviewed by the local news station, WLFI, for Autism Awareness month. Dr. Rispoli provided information regarding early signs of autism and steps parents can take if they have concerns.
Dr. Rose Mason was featured in the March, 2021 Institute for Education Sciences (IES) “Inside IES Research” blog post regarding her IES-funded Para-Impact project!
Doctoral students Jasmine Begeske, Eric Shannon, Amanda Austin, Jingyuan Zhang, and Mehmet Sulu won 1st place for Best In-Progress Research Poster at the Annual Graduate Student Educational Research Symposium (AGSERS) hosted by the Purdue College of Education Graduate School! The poster described the on-going Participatory Action Research project with a Midwestern elementary school to improve special education programming. The project began in Fall 2020, as part of a doctoral seminar class lead by Dr. Rose Mason.
Congratulations to Dr. Rose Mason and Dr. Mandy Rispoli for winning 2020 Department of Educational Studies Faculty Awards!
Dr. Mason received two of the awards for Associate Professors in Discovery and Engagement.
Dr. Rispoli received an award for Full Professors in Engagement.
Congratulations to Ph.D. Candidate, Catharine Lory for winning the Senior Student Presenter grant from the Society for the Advancement in Behavior Analysis (SABA)!
The Autism and Behavior Intervention Lab is excited to congratulate two of our doctoral students for passing the behavior analyst certification exam this February! Charissa Voorhis and Mehmet Sulu are now Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs)!
The Purdue College of Education has been awarded 2 Instruction Equipment Grants totaling nearly $200K!
Empowering Pre-service Teaching with Emerging Technologies and In-depth Faculty Feedback – $99,393
Rose Mason, Christy Wessel-Powell, Wanju Huang, David Sears, Adrie Koehler, and Bill Watson
The College of Education’s Innovative Initiative (I2) will increase field placements for all preservice teachers. I2 will leverage technologies to deliver cutting-edge pedagogical training via a combination of practice in simulated and real-world classroom environments. Thus, this proposal seeks to purchase a suite of virtual reality and remote coaching technologies.
Creative Assistive and Rehabilitative Technology Solutions (CARTS) – $99,907
Jasmine Begeske & Jennifer Smith
CARTS is a novel and innovative instructional approach to increase pre-service teacher knowledge and implementation of rehabilitative and assistive technology (AT) for students with disabilities. The CARTS will be used across teacher education at Purdue to demonstrate how to individualize, create, and adapt AT.
Congratulations to Dr. Mandy Rispoli for becoming the new Co-editor in Chief for the Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions!
“Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions (JPBI) offers sound, research-based principles of positive behavior support for use in school, home, and community settings with people with challenges in behavioral adaptation. Regular features include empirical research; discussion, literature reviews, and conceptual papers; programs, practices, and innovations; forum; and media reviews.”
2020
CO-LEAD Special Education Doctoral Fellowship
Collaboration across Universities to develop Leaders in Evidence-based Practices, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Diversity
Purdue College of Education is proud to announce the award of a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs to provide full funding to special education doctoral students interested in autism intervention. Project CO-LEAD is a consortium between Purdue University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Oregon.
Accepted students receive:
-Full tuition
-Competitive stipend
-Funding for research supplies
-Health Insurance
-Support for attending professional conferences
-Research & publication opportunities
-Mentorship and training with national and international experts in autism intervention research
-Internships in high needs schools
PI: Wendy Machalicek, Ph.D., BCBA-D (University of Oregon); CO-PIs: Mandy Rispoli, Ph.D., BCBA-D (Purdue University); Hedda Meadan-Kaplansky, Ph.D., BCBA-D (University of Illinois); Key Personnel: Rose Mason, Ph.D., BCBA-D (Purdue University); Stephanie Shire, Ph.D., (University of Oregon)