Faculty and Key Personnel
R. Thomas Boone, Ph.D. received a Doctorate in Social Developmental psychology from Brandeis University in 1996. He also earned a Joint Masters in Psychology and Women’s Studies. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Dr. Boone’s primary research interests include the development of nonverbal emotional communication skills and their behavioral consequences. Some of his work in this area has demonstrated that children as young as four and five years of age can successfully encode and decode emotional meaning in expressive body movement. Another related research area focuses on the development of cooperative systems. In doing this research, Dr. Boone developed a new variant of the prisoner’s dilemma that allows the independent manipulation of both resource and relational dependency. He expanded this research to include the role of the affective signaling of trustworthiness and the role of emotional expressivity and Machiavellianism in the development of cooperation. This later work received grant funding of over $100,000 from the Russell Sage foundation. Finally, Dr. Boone is in the process of developing a theoretical model that posits the existence of an affective valence filter that is impaired or missing for individuals who fall on the autism spectrum, explaining their socio-emotional deficits.
Jack Conboy, Psy.D. is Professor of Psychology at UMass Dartmouth. He received his Doctorate in Psychology from the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology. Prior to coming to UMass Dartmouth, Dr. Conboy worked as a clinical psychologist in a variety of public and private mental health settings including the Department of Mental Health, where he was Chief Psychologist in the Fall River, Massachusetts area. His teaching duties are focused on applied courses for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in clinical psychology. Clinical interests include Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), disorders of early childhood, mental health consultation in preschools, family therapy, behavior therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, and psychological testing.
Gordon DeFalco, Ph.D., BCBA-D. University of Kansas; Vice President of Behavioral Services and Professional Development at the Evergreen Center School teaches Clinical Applications of Applied Behavior Analysis, Research design and ethical issues & Educational Applications of Applied Behavior Analysis. Interests include; social skills training; issues related to the acquisition and generalization of skills; organizational behavior management and applications to staff training; functional analysis of behavior and its relation to the reduction in serious aggression and self-injurious behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities; the use of positive reinforcement based procedures to address severe maladaptive behavior; computerized data collection and analysis technology; and the broader application of applied behavior analysis to both individuals and society at large.
Barry Haimson, Ph.D. is Chancellor Professor of Psychology and the Chairperson of the Psychology Department at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He played a key role in the development of the ABA Masters program. Dr. Haimson received a Ph.D. from Boston University in Experimental Psychology with a focus on Visual Perception. His training in graduate school also included a background in operant conditioning and the experimental analysis of behavior. In recent years Dr. Haimson has changed the focus of his research to Cognitive Neuroscience and studies brain wave (EEG) correlates of attention, hemispheric cooperation, and information processing. Recently, Dr. Haimson’s research on ERP (a form of EEG activity) correlates of stimulus equivalence was Published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Dr. Haimson teaches courses in Statistics, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience.
Robert F. Littleton Jr., Ed.D. Boston University. Executive Director and Founder, Evergreen Center; President and Founder, Beacon Services of Massachusetts, Beacon Services of Connecticut; President and Founder, Criterion Child Enrichment and Human Services Management Corporation. Primary professional interest in equity and treatment access issues pertaining to families living with autism and developmental disabilities with an emphasis on Applied Behavior Analysis. Clinical interests focus on early intervention for young children at biological or environmental risk for developmental delay, treatment of Specific Language Impairment, and prescriptive instructional techniques. Management training interests include point-of-instruction computerized data collection and graphing systems and the application Organization Behavior Management (OBM) to agency management, including quality and productivity assurance systems.
Andrew J. Revell, Ph.D. The Pennsylvania State University, 2004; Assistant Professor of Psychology and Senior Research Fellow in The Ora M. DeJesus Gerontology Center. Prior to coming to UMass Dartmouth, Dr. Revell was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH/IRP/NIH; 2004-2007). His research and clinical pursuits have focused on three specific areas of interest: 1) remediation of cognitive decline and potential gene-environment interactions; 2) measurement of normal versus pathological changes with age and mental health; and 3) developmental characteristics in parenting and healthy development. Dr. Revell maintains a cognitive aging research program, mentors graduate and undergraduate students, and teaches courses in developmental research methods, the psychology of adulthood and aging, and graduate statistics in psychology.
Robert K. Ross, Ed.D., BCBA-D. Nova Southeastern University; Senior Vice President of Curriculum and Research at BEACON Services teaches Principles of Applied Behavior Analysis, Advanced Applied Behavior Analysis, Educational Applications of Applied Behavior Analysis. He works primarily in early childhood and public school settings. His interests and expertise are in empirically validated interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders; development of social and interactional skills in children and adolescents with Aspergers syndrome; the use of video based instructional procedures; implementing intensive behavioral interventions in home and community settings; communication interventions in children with autism; and improving the quality of staff/parent implementation of instructional and behavioral interventions using technology and organizational behavior management practices.
