CFS Welcomes New Faculty for Fall 2013 Semester
To keep up with the growing number of students in the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Program, CFS welcomed two new faculty members this week. Drs. Sarah Bloom and Andrew Samaha have joined the USF faculty as Assistant Professors, and will be teaching undergraduate, masters and doctoral courses for the ABA program. They will also continue their research interests.
From 2008 to 2013, Dr. Bloom served as Assistant Professor with the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation at Utah State University. She co-directed the Severe Behavior Clinic at the Center for Persons with Disabilities and was a former president of the Utah Association for Behavior Analysis. She received her BA from the University of Washington. Her MS and PhD were earned at the University of Florida in the Behavior Analysis area of the Psychology Department under Dr. Brian Iwata. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral and has served as a guest reviewer for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Journal of Early Intervention, Journal of Behavioral Education, Children and Youth Services Review and Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. She has been a guest AE for Education and Treatment of Children.
Dr. Bloom’s research interests include assessment and treatment of problem behavior in children with disabilities and translational research, including negative reinforcement and sensitivity to reinforcement parameters and applications of behavioral momentum.
Dr. Samaha was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Utah State University from 2009 to 2013, where he established an on-campus in-patient clinic for individuals who display severe problem behavior. He was also a faculty fellow at the Center for Persons with Disabilities and served as president of the Utah Association for Behavior Analysis. He received his PhD in 2008 from the Department of Psychology at the University of Florida under the supervision of Dr. Timothy R. Vollmer. He is a frequent guest reviewer for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and has also recently reviewed manuscripts for the Behavior Analyst, the Analysis of Verbal Behavior, and Education and Treatment of Children.
Dr. Samaha’s interests include extending research on conditioned reinforcement and behavioral economics to assess how and to what degree individuals with social deficits may undervalue interactions with others. Potential outcomes of this research may lead to better assessment and treatment for individuals with severe problem behavior, as well as identification of new directions for early intensive behavior interventions for children with autism.
In addition to their new positions at CFS, Drs. Bloom and Samaha have both just accepted invitations to serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. An even bigger role is planned for them this winter. In their partnership beyond the campus as husband and wife, they will become parents for the first time.
Welcome!