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.

Mariah Hope, M.S., BCBA, LBA

Mariah Hope is the acting Associate Director for Behavior Analysis Online. She received her bachelor’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas and then went on to receive her master’s degree in Behavior Analysis from UNT. Mariah 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 she also provided clinical behavioral services to residents. She is passionate about providing effective education based on the principles of behavior analysis and current research. Mariah 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.  Kenda 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. Kenda 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.  Kenda 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.

Sandy Magee, BCBA

Sandy earned her B.S. in aviation at Northwestern State University where she became a licensed pilot and certified flight instructor. Sandy taught people to fly for over 10 years when her love of teaching led her back into education at UNT. While completing her M.S. in behavior analysis, Sandy served as Senior Trainer for BATSS, under the guidance of Dr. Janet Ellis. Sandy has worked as an in-home therapist, a consultant for school districts, and has taught classes on campus for nearly 20 years. In 2001, Sandy received UNT’s Outstanding Alumna/Alumnus Service Award and the Faculty Excellence Leadership in Diversity Award in 2013. In 2009, she joined BAO as an instructor, assisting in instructional design, using ABA to teach ABA. Sandy leads a team of student researchers investigating the relationships between measures of brain activation and operant response with an emphasis on approach-avoidance conflict. With 16 peer-reviewed journal publications and over 50 professional presentations, Sandy still enjoys learning and helping others to learn.

Katrina Hille, M.S., BCBA

Katrina Hille earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Behavior Analysis department at the University of North Texas, where she did research on sibling interactions. She has been a Board Certified Behavior Analyst since 2009 and is also licensed in the state of Texas. Katrina is bilingual and currently lives in Bogota Colombia, where her family is stationed on diplomatic assignment. She has devoted most of her career to serving children in West Texas and rural New Mexico and continues to provide consultation and supervision to a small clinic through telehealth and video conferencing platforms. Katrina has presented at conferences and workshops throughout several states, and has published a cultural awareness piece, highlighting cultural norms that impact in-home ABA services, in a parents’ support magazine in the Bay Area. Katrina has worked for Behavior Analysis Online since 2017 and loves sharing her passion for behavior analysis. She hopes that you will enjoy the course and learn to better help those you serve.

Kimberly James-Kelly, M.S., BCBA

Kimberly James-Kelly holds her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of North Texas in Behavior Analysis, and is currently working toward a second Master’s degree at the University of Kansas in Secondary Special Education and Transition. Kimberly was introduced to Behavior Analysis in 2004 while working at United Cerebral Palsy. Since then, she has worn many hats, including in-home therapist, therapist in an EIBI setting, undergraduate and graduate teaching assistant, research assistant and clinic coordinator. Kimberly is currently a Behavior Analyst for a multidisciplinary Center serving children with developmental disabilities.

Audrey Newkirk, M.S., BCBA

Audrey Newkirk received her Bachelors and Masters degrees in Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas, is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, and is a Licensed Behavior Analyst in the State of Texas. In addition to serving as instructor for BEHV 5910, Audrey is the Senior Project Coordinator for UNT’s Behavior Analysis Resource Center. Audrey supervises and mentors students who obtain practical training in the assessment and treatment of behavior disorders, competency-based staff training, behavior skills training, teaching clients to cooperate with and tolerate routine health care procedures, and evaluation of procedural fidelity in program implementation. Audrey has completed research on the development and evaluation of a large-scale pyramidal staff training program for behavior management. Audrey is passionate about developing and disseminating effective training and teaching programs to enhance the quality of services for learners of all ages and abilities.

Awab Abdel-Jalil

Williams Espericueta

Sarah Sumner

Elizabeth Vera

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 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.