BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mary Lou Kerwin, Ph.D., BCBA-D

President

Mary Lou Kerwin, Ph.D., BCBA-D is Professor of Psychology as well as the Executive Director of the Center for Behavior Analysis at Rowan University. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental and Counseling Psychology from the University of Notre Dame, and is a licensed psychologist as well as a BCBA-D. Her research interests include pediatric feeding disorders, behavioral treatments for drug addiction, parenting interventions for mothers in drug treatment, and treatments for autism.  (Term Ends: June, 2021)

Robert LaRue, Ph.D., BCBA-D

President – Elect

Robert LaRue, Ph.D., BCBA-D,  is a Clinical Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. He earned a dual doctorate in biological and school psychology from Louisiana State University in 2002. He completed his predoctoral internship with the Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins University and a postdoctoral fellowship with the Marcus Institute at Emory University. He currently serves as the Director of Behavioral and Research Services at The Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center, where he supervises several doctoral students and staff providing behavioral consultation to programs within the Center. He has authored articles in peer-reviewed journals, written several book chapters, and presented at national and international conferences. His research interests include the assessment and treatment of maladaptive behavior, staff and teacher training, and behavioral pharmacology.
(Term Ends: June, 2021)

Sandra R. Gomes, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Past President

Sandra R. Gomes, Ph.D., BCBA-D is an Assistant Director at the Somerset Hills Learning Institute and has worked in the field of autism treatment for over 15 years. She earned her Masters and Doctorate Degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from Caldwell University. Her thesis entitled: Teaching a Generalized Repertoire of Joint Attention Skills to Children with Autism, won the ABAI Autism SIG Student Research Award in 2011 and was recently published in Behavior Modification. She has presented at local, national, and international conferences on teaching joint attending skills to young children with autism. Dr. Gomes has served as an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Applied Behavior Analysis at Caldwell University. Her research interests include joint attending, social skills, food refusal, stimulus control, and sleep interventions.
(Term Ends: June, 2021)

Erin Richard White, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Events Chair

Erin Richard White, Ph.D., BCBA-D has specialized in working with adolescents and adults with autism spectrum disorders in employment, educational, community and home settings for 15 years. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and holds both teacher of the handicapped and elementary teacher certifications in New Jersey. Dr. White completed her doctorate and master’s degree in applied behavior analysis from Caldwell University. She has published articles in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and Behavior Analysis in Practice. She regularly serves as a guest review of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Dr. White has presented at many local and national conferences on a variety of topics including preparing learners for adulthood, assessing and reducing problem behavior, and ethics.  (Term Ends: June, 2022)

Catherine Taylor-Santa, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Membership Chair

Catherine Taylor-Santa, Ph.D., BCBA-D is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, a certified teacher of the handicapped, and a consultant for several public schools in NJ. She has served individuals with developmental disabilities for 23 years in public and private schools, home settings, group homes, and job sites. Dr. Taylor-Santa earned her Ph.D. and master’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis from Caldwell University. She has presented at local and national conferences and has previously served as the student group liaison to the council for the verbal behavior special interest group (VBSIG). She has won several awards for her master’s thesis which has been published in Behavioral Interventions, as well as an award for her doctoral literature review. Her research interests include perspective taking, problem solving, tacting non-visual stimuli, bi-directional relations, learning history and its effect on skill acquisition, and establishing conditioned reinforcers. She is passionate about promoting public knowledge of ABA and helping to provide continued support to those who ethically practice the science in NJ. (Term Ends: June, 2021)

Alexis Higgins Battaglia, M.Ed., BCBA

Continuing Education Chair

Alexis Higgins Battaglia M.Ed., BCBA is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst with over twenty years of experience working with children, adolescents and adults with autism, developmental disorders with behavioral challenges, as well as those with intellectual disabilities. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, a Master’s degree in Special Education, and holds a Teacher of the Handicapped certificate in the state of NJ. Ms. Higgins Battaglia is the Owner/Director of Progressive Therapy of NJ, which provides consultations to public and private schools and clients, supervision and training of staff, and development and implementation of individualized programs for individuals with disabilities. In addition, she has presented at local, national, and international conferences.

Ms. Higgins Battaglia, as a behavior analyst and business owner, has had the unique opportunity to work with hundreds of professionals in the field of ABA as well as with the administration of public school systems throughout her career. This opportunity has allowed Ms. Higgins Battaglia to advocate in the public school settings for ethical, effective practices within the classroom while maintaining a level of professionalism with the administration that allows for her to promote understanding of best practices. She has supervised a vast number of BCBAs on the ways to apply clinical practices within the school environment while educating administration on the processes to best suit the needs of their students. These students have spanned over more than 30 school districts in NJ in rural, suburban and urban settings. Ms. Higgins Battaglia is passionate about promoting the science of ABA to all people, especially those servicing the students in the public schools of NJ and brings that passion to NJABA as Continuing Education Chair.  (Term Ends: June, 2022)

Jenna Glennon, MAT, BCBA

Communications Chair

Jenna Glennon, MAT, BCBA, is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst who has been independently consulting to school districts and families since 2004. Her work in the public schools has provided her the opportunity to work closely with administration to train staff and parents, support staff in creating skill acquisition and behavior reduction programs, and create materials and data collection systems to monitor progress and conduct FBAs. Her work with families focused on quality of life issues and providing support and training for ameliorating challenging behavior in the home and community. As an independent consultant, she has been able to focus on home-school collaboration to support positive outcomes across settings.

Early in her career, Jenna served on the NJABA Development Committee and as Secretary from 2005-2007). She also served on the Board of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT) and was a consumer liaison for the Parent-Professional Partnership Special Interest Group (PPP SIG) of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) and a committee member for the Autism Special Interest Group. These experiences have shaped Jenna’s career and she is excited to again be involved in these efforts to help families and professionals access credible information about science-based intervention.  (Term Ends: June, 2022)

Jason Vladescu, Ph.D., BCBA-D, NSCP, LBA (NY)

University Program Liaison 

Jason Vladescu, Ph.D., BCBA-D, NSCP, LBA (NY) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Applied Behavior Analysis at Caldwell University and a Clinical Supervisor in the Center for Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis. Jason completed his pre-doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s Munroe-Meyer Institute. His research interests include early behavioral intervention for children with autism spectrum and related disorders, increasing the efficiency of academic instruction, staff training, applied applications of equivalence-based instruction, and mainstream applications of behavior analysis. He has published 50+ peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters. Jason is an associate editor for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and is on the editorial board for several behavior analytic and school psychology journals. He is also the recipient of the APA (Division 25) B. F. Skinner New Applied Researcher Award. (Term Ends: June, 2022)

Craig Domanski, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Service Delivery Chair

Craig Domanski, Ph.D., BCBA-D has been working with individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders using ABA for almost 20 years. He received his undergraduate degree at Rutgers University while working at the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center. Dr. Domanski then went on to receive his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in Applied Behavior Analysis at Caldwell University, where his research focused on parent-training and optimizing teaching conditions for learners with ASD.

Dr. Domanski co-founded and has been serving as the Clinical Director of The DATA Group for almost 10 years. The DATA Group is an NJDOE-approved agency for ABA service delivery, focusing primarily on using ABA programming to build skills towards increasing independence in the home and community environments. By implementing programs in learners’ actual natural environments, generalization and maintenance of skills is more likely, and there are more opportunities for training caregivers and
providing support for families where they need it most.

Aside from his work in The DATA Group, Dr. Domanski also currently serves as the Chair for the NJABA Insurance Provider Workgroup, which aims to disseminate information about providing services through health insurance plans to the behavior-analytic community. He is an active member of NJABA, ABAI, and APBA and has served as an adjunct lecturer at Georgian Court University and Kaplan University. Dr.
Domanski places a high value on the importance of promoting the science of ABA to both the behavior-analytic and mainstream communities and will bring that same dedication to the Representative-at-Large position. (Term Ends: June, 2021)

Meghan A. Deshais, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Representative-At-Large

Meghan A. Deshais, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Behavior Analysis at Caldwell University and a Clinical Supervisor in the Center for Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis. She graduated with a Ph.D. in the Experimental Analysis of Behavior from the University of Florida in 2018 where she was awarded the Chris Rubow Memorial Award for Graduate Research. She has held clinical positions at a variety of programs for children with developmental disabilities including the Kennedy Krieger Institute and the New York Center for Autism Charter School. Her research interests include the evaluation of instructional procedures used in early intervention, the refinement of function-based assessment and treatment of problem behavior, and group contingencies. She has co-authored two textbook chapters and has published research in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and Education and Treatment of Children. (Term Ends: June, 2022)

Emily Gallant, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Representative-At-Large

Emily Gallant, Ph.D., BCBA-D is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and an instructor and researcher at Somerset Hills Learning Institute. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D in Applied Behavior Analysis from Caldwell University and has enjoyed working in the field of autism intervention for 13 years. She currently serves as a member of the NJABA communications committee, and previously served as the NJABA membership chair for three years and student representative for four. She has presented her own and Somerset Hills Learning Institute’s research at local, state, national, and international conferences and has published one scholarly article (with more on the way). She enjoys working with others to advocate for the science of behavior analysis, improve autism intervention technologies, and develop effective behavioral systems in organizational behavior management.(Term Ends: June, 2022)

Pierre Louis, BCBA

Representative-At-Large

Pierre Louis, BCBA is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst currently serving as Executive Director of Training and Leadership Development at Brett DiNovi and Associates. Pierre has 20 years of experience working with individuals with ASD, behavioral disorders, and other behavioral challenges in schools (private and public), homes, and residential settingsthroughout New Jersey. As a thought leader, he presents regularly at conferences and workshops on leadership and organizational management and has taught ABA courses at local colleges and universities. His current interests include using Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) and Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) to improve the coaching and mentoring repertoires of analysts. (Term Ends: June, 2022)

Jack Bowker

Student Representative

Jack Bowker is a second-year Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) graduate student at Rowan University. He is also the father of two boys (9 + 12), a First Sergeant (1SG) in the New Jersey Army National Guard, and a full-time detective.

Jack has been in the military since February 1998 and he started his law enforcement career in February 2001. Jack obtained his BA in Criminal Justice/Public Administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University as well as several Master level courses in leadership. As a father, a leader in the Army, and as a detective, Jack wants to expand his ability to help others by increasing socially significant and acceptable behavior through ABA. Jack has an interest in the dissemination and application of ABA throughout all settings. (Term Ends: June, 2021)