Missouri ABA

By Jordan Belisle

The Missouri Association for Behavior Analysis (MOABA) is an organization founded to support and promote scientific research on basic principles of behavior and the effective and ethical application of those principles across the great state of Missouri.

This year we welcomed Alison Ducharme as the president-elect and we thank continuing board members including Jordan Belisle (president), Madeline Burke (outgoing president), John Guercio (Member at Large), Madison Imler (Student Representative), Sadiqa Reza (Member at Large), Miin-An Hošić (secretary), and Andresa DeSouza (treasurer). Last year we held our annual MOABA conference in St. Louis, Missouri in November 2023. To ensure the safety and accessibility of the conference for our members, we provided the opportunity to attend in-person or virtually. We plan to continue offering this option through Behavior Live. We offered six presentations and four workshops. Our invited presenters included Jordan Belisle, Abigail Calkin, Claudia Dozier, Clint Evans and Tony Chambers, Nicole Gravina, Tyra Sellers, and Jeffrey Tiger. Presentations highlighted diverse topics in the field of behavior analysis, including RFT and ACT, compassionate leadership, behavioral nutrition, staff training, thoughts and urges, functional assessment, and time management.

During the annual conference, the MOABA board continued to offer a student poster contest. This allowed for students to receive feedback on posters from our notable presenters and two students were selected to receive free admission to the 2024 conference. MOABA will continue to provide opportunities to support student research in the future. MOABA continues to be committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The board of directors will continue to include presentations related to culture and diversity during future workshops and conferences. This year, we led with a goal to increase diversity in speaker selection to better represent all behavior analysts in the state of Missouri. This was done systematically by identifying key areas of underrepresentation along areas of race, gender identity, sexual orientation, rural living, and neurodivergence.

Letters are being sent to invite speakers that will offer a wide range of topics and diverse cultural perspectives. We are thankful for our members and their dedication to using behavior analysis to improve the lives of others. In the future, we will continue to support behavior analysts across Missouri.