Georgia ABA

By Cassy Gayman and Videsha Marya

We are proud to continue to support the behavior analytic community in the state of Georgia through an annual conference, virtual DEI speaker series, mentoring program, social media, and networking as an affiliated chapter of the Association for Behavior Analysis International.

In 2023, we continued to expand our membership, update the functionality of our website, continued to increase our social media presence, and continued with our annual DEI series. In summer 2023, in collaboration with BehaviorLive, we hosted three virtual CEU events via our “Growing with the Seasons” DEI series. Two out of three of our speakers were Georgia-based behavior analysist. Speakers for the 2023 DEI series were Daniel Conine, Gereen Francis, and Nasiah Cirincione-Ulezi. We hosted 35 registrants for this virtual series in 2023.

In 2023, we held our 15th annual GABA conference on November 11th, 2023 with two preconvention work-shops on November 10th, 2023. The conference and pre-conference workshops were held via a hybrid model of in person as well as virtual access through BehaviorLive. We had an exceptional lineup of speakers including Linda LeBlanc, Claire St Peter, Landria Seals Green, Karen Toussiant, Chris Manente, and Julia Iannaconne. We also had pre-conference workshops from Linda LeBlanc, Landria Seals Green, and Andrew Bulla. Additionally, Jesse Dallery was invited to speak on Friday November 10th as our first annual student invited speaker. We had 400 individuals attend the conference in person and 53 attended virtually. A poster session was also held at the annual conference with more than 33 presentations. Poster awards were provided for Undergraduate Poster, Graduate Poster, and Innovative Application in Behavior Analysis.

Two new board positions went into effect in 2023.

The GABA board voted to create a standing Public Policy board position as well as a standing Diversity, Equity,
and Inclusion (DEI) position in 2022 and GABA members nominated and elected two members to each
of those positions.

In Spring 2024, we plan to offer three CEU events with a focus on diversity and inclusion in collaboration with BehaviorLive so that members can view the presentations online. We also plan to introduce a new mentorship program that will provide mentoring opportunities for up to 10 mentees throughout 2024.

GABA has plans to form an ad-hoc public policy committee in spring of 2024 to assist the board and its members in maintaining the integrity of licensure for behavior analysts in our state. We will also introduce sponsorship and fundraising opportunities to continue to support GABA’s licensure efforts in the state.

In 2024, we plan to hold our 16th annual GABA conference on November 9th, 2024 with three to four preconvention workshops on November 8th, 2024. The board will continue to offer our conference as a hybrid model to help provide access to our conference to more rural areas of Georgia. We are working to develop our schedule of presenters and content of the conference as a board currently. Information about this year’s conference can be found on our website in upcoming months: www.georgia-aba.org.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all board members for their hard work and dedication to the organization. This year we welcome back returning board members Cassondra Gayman, MS, BCBA (President); Videsha Marya, Ph.D., BCBA-D (President Elect); Alexis Pavlov, Ph.D., BCBA-D (Events); Ashley Carrigan, MS, BCBA (Membership and Finance); Jennifer Austin, Ph.D., BCBA-D (Student Affairs); Miguel Ampuero, Ph.D., BCBA-D (Student Affairs); Mandip Kaur, MA, BCBA (Marketing and Communications); Kayla Greene, MS, BCBA (DEI), and Adam Spencer, MA, BCBA (Public Policy). We also welcome our new board members Meara McMahon, Ph.D., BCBA-D (Events); Lyndsy Macri, Ph.D., BCBA-D (Membership and Finance); Jennifer Donnley, M.Ed., BCBA (Marketing and Communications); Summer Bottini, Ph.D., BCBA-D (DEI); and Kristen Vaughn, MA, BCBA (Public Policy).

For more information about GABA visit:
www.georgia-aba.org.