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Gerald is a graduate student at CSULA in midst
of attaining a Masters of Science, Applied Behavior Analysis in
Psychology. Gerald currently works as a private consultant for
Valley Achievement Center (VAC), and behavior consultant for Autism
Spectrum Therapies (AST) under the clinical direction of Dr. Doug
Moes. His past employment includes 6+ years of experience
implementing or developing applied behavior analysis (ABA) programs
for children with autism at VAC, a non-public school, in
Bakersfield, California. At VAC, he began working as an
instructional assistant (1 year) and senior instructional assistant
(1.5 yr.) implementing and assisting ABA programs. Later he was
promoted to a supervisory role as a program director/manager (3 yr.)
and program administrator/coordinator (1 yr.) which required program
development, supervision, and training amongst VAC instructional
aides, senior instructional aides, and program directors (program
administrative level). Also, Gerald helped provide in-home direct
instruction for 2 years in addition to working as a program
director/manager at VAC.
Gerald’s professional and personal interest
include positive behavior support (PBS) for school and home
settings, functional assessment strategies, communication-based
interventions for challenging behavior, applications of
reinforcement (concurrent schedules, non-contingent, fixed-time,
etc.), paraprofessional management, consultation, and training in
school and home settings, and non-aversive behavioral
treatment/applications as a part of reactive and emergency
procedures. At the moment, he would like to conduct research in the
role of manding within a functional communication training program
for access to escape and tangible related challenging behavior as
part of his master thesis. Several behaviorists Gerald admires
include, but not limited: B.F. Skinner, Robert H. Horner, Gary
LaVigna, Mark V. Durand, Thomas Willis, James Carr, Barry Lowenkron,
Edward Carr, Glenda Vittimberga, Bill Matthews, and
Douglas Moes.
Future goals for Gerald include: enrollment
into a doctorate program, conducting research (based on above
interest), and present at professional conferences such as Cal-ABA,
International ABA, etc.
Contact info:
lavarias24@yahoo.com
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