Supervision Series: What Makes a Great Supervisor?

Dr. Bailey received his PhD from the University of Kansas and is currently Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Florida State University where he was a member of the graduate faculty for 38-years and produced a record 63 PhDs. He is currently Director of the FSU Panama City Masters Program in Applied Behavior Analysis. 

Dr. Bailey has published over 100 peer-reviewed research articles, is a past editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and is co-author of Research Methods in Applied Behavior Analysis, How Dogs Learn, Ethics for Behavior Analysts, 2nd Expanded Edition, How to Think Like a Behavior Analyst, and 25 Essential Skills and Strategies for Professional Behavior Analysts, all co-authored with Dr. Mary Burch.

Dr. Syed is currently with Lehigh University’s Special Education Department as Professor of Practice and Clinical Director for Lehigh University Autism Services.  Previously, Dr. Syed was an Assistant Professor of Special Education at Manhattanville College.

Dr. Syed has over 10 years experience in the field of applied behavior analysis, general and special education, autism, and developmental disabilities as a classroom teacher, Special Education Itinerant Teacher, ABA home based therapist, and behavioral supervisor for center and home based services.  Dr. Syed has worked in early intervention, preschool, and school aged settings, as well as with adults.

In 2018, Dr. Syed was selected as a Top Tier International Partnership Discovery Fellow in the Inaugural Fellowship Class of the Global Autism Project, a nonprofit organization that provides training for local international practitioners in the utilization of evidence-based practices when working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Her research interests lie in verbal behavior, ethical practices in behavior analysis, and the implementation of behavior analysis to curriculum and teaching. 

Jacob has over 20 years of experience applying the principles of applied behaviour analysis in home programs, clinical and school-based setting as an ASD classroom teacher, educational consultant, and special education itinerant teacher.

With the Global Autism Project, he oversees the clinical integrity of fifteen partner sites around the world with an international Telehealth supervisory model that is individualized to meet the learning needs of each partner site. To date, Jacob has travelled to thirteen different countries to collaborate with local clinicians to develop culturally-informed, socially significant, behaviour analytic strategies based on their local environment.

Through these collaborations coupled with the need to monitor each partner’s current level of achievement, internal assessments have been created to measure the effectiveness of Telehealth supervision and the skills of the overall centre or school to ensure that partnership is progressing and that local teachers are applying and independently utilizing the principles of applied behaviour analysis for their learners. The ethical challenges of disseminating ABA effectively throughout the world culminated in Understanding Ethics in Applied Behavior Analysis: Practical Applications which is currently in print and will be available in 2019. Jacob’s key areas of interest are ethics, supervision, sustainable dissemination, and services across the lifespan.