Meet ABAI’s 2024 Outstanding Mentors

Mentors play a critical role in career trajectories. To recognize those who have gone above and beyond for their students, the Student Committee created the Outstanding Mentor Awards. Student members submit a nomination letter and the Student Committee makes the selections. Awardees were recognized during the Presidential Address at the 50th ABAI Annual Convention in Philadelphia.

Dr. Dermot Barnes-Holmes

Dr. Dermot Barnes-Holmes graduated from the University of Ulster in 1985 with a B.Sc. in Psychology and in 1990 with a D.Phil. in behavior analysis. His first tenured position was in the Department of Applied Psychology at University College Cork, where he founded and led the Behavior Analysis and Cognitive Science unit. In 1999 he accepted the foundation professorship in psychology and head-of-department position at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. In 2015 he accepted a life-time senior professorship at Ghent University in Belgium. In 2020 he returned to his alma mater as a full professor at Ulster University. Dr. Barnes- Holmes is known internationally for the analysis of human language and cognition through the development of Relational Frame Theory with Steven C. Hayes, and its application in various pychological settings. He was the world’s most prolific author in the experimental analysis of human behaviour between the years 1980 and 1999. He was awarded the Don Hake Translational Research Award in 2012 by the American Psychological Association, is a past president and fellow of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, and a fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis, International. He is also a recipient of the Quad-L Lecture Award from the University of New Mexico and became an Odysseus laureate in 2015 when he received an Odysseus Type 1 award from the Flemish Science Foundation in Belgium.

Dr. Samantha (Sam) Bergmann

Dr. Samantha (Sam) Bergmann earned her bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Spanish Studies from University of Minnesota, master’s degree in Behavior Analysis from Western Michigan University, and doctoral degree in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Throughout her university education, Sam was fortunate to have several outstanding mentors including Dr. Brighid Fronapfel at Western Michigan and Dr. Tiffany Kodak at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who were always generous with their time, support, and problem solving. Sam is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas where she co-directs the Training and Research: Autism Intervention Laboratory with Dr. Karen Rader Toussaint at the UNT Kristin Farmer Autism Center and conducts research related to skill acquisition, procedural fidelity, and verbal behavior. As an assistant professor, Sam teaches several undergraduate and graduate classes, advises graduate theses and dissertations, and mentors students in their supervision and provision of applied behavior analytic interventions with children with autism. Of all of her responsibilities in her tenure-track position, helping students achieve their goals is her favorite. Along with her mentors and students, Sam has published peer- reviewed articles in several behavior-analytic journals including Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Education and Treatment of Children, Behavior Analysis in Practice, and The Analysis of Verbal Behavior.

Dr. Matthew Brodhead

Dr. Matthew Brodhead is an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education at Michigan State University. Dr. Brodhead has received exceptional mentorship throughout his career, and he continues to seek advice from those around him as he understands, firsthand, the value of ongoing mentorship. He has made student and peer support a key pillar of his professional work, recognizing that individualized and engaging mentorship can help students and peers become the best versions of themselves. After all, effective mentorship is critical to maintaining and advancing the science of behavior analysis through research, teaching, and service.

Dr. Jesse Dallery

Dr. Jesse Dallery is a UF Term Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Florida and a Licensed Psychologist in the state of Florida. Jesse received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Emory University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Behavioral Pharmacology. Jesse’s research focuses on integrating digital technologies with behavioral interventions for cigarette smoking and other health-related behavior (e.g., physical activity, medication adherence). Jesse also conducts translational research on choice and decision-making in the human laboratory, with a special emphasis on quantitative models of operant behavior. He has published over 125 articles in a diverse range of peer-reviewed journals. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. He is co-editor of the book Behavioral Health Care and Technology: Using Science-Based Innovations to Transform Practice. Jesse is a former Associate Editor for Perspectives on Behavior Science, The Behavior Analyst, Behavioural Processes, and Special Topics Associate Editor (substance abuse) for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. In 2014, he was named a Teacher of the Year in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. He is a fellow in Division 25 of the American Psychological Association and in the Association for Behavior Analysis International.

Dr. Aoife Mc Tiernan

Dr. Aoife Mc Tiernan is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst—Doctoral and Chartered Psychologist. She is the President of the European Association for Behaviour Analysis, current Director of the MSc and PhD in ABA at the University of Galway, and has worked with educational settings and disability services for over fifteen years. Dr. Mc Tiernan has an interest is in the dissemination and integration of behaviour analytic and evidence-based approaches into educational settings. She has a special interest in Precision Teaching and accelerating learning for students at risk and in areas of socio-economic disadvantage, and has a number of publications in this area, including large group studies conducted in educational settings.