Manitoba ABA – 2025 Chapter Update
Jennifer Cook
The Manitoba Association for Behaviour Analysis (MABA) is proud to be in its 20th year as an affiliated chapter of ABAI. Hereafter, we will describe several objectives that we have met during our 19th year.
As an ongoing ACE provider since 2013, MABA offered free CEUs to our BACB-certified members at the 19th Annual Conference on September 12, 2024. This was our first in-person conference since the start of the pandemic. We welcomed approximately 60 attendees at the University of Manitoba’s conference space. Jennifer Cook, PhD, BCBA opened the conference talks with her presidential address, “Role of the Anecdote: Anec-Do or Anec-Don’t?” This was followed by our invited speaker Gina Green, PhD, BCBA-D (Consultant, former Executive Director and CEO of the Association of Professional Behavior Analysts), who presented “Regulation of ABA Practitioners.” Our Keynote address was presented by Vivian Ibañez, PhD, BCBA-D (University of Florida), titled, “Behavior-Analytic Feeding Therapy: What Have We Learned?” The afternoon began with a touching tribute to the life of Joseph Pear, by our local presenter, Geneviève Roy-Wsiaki, PhD, BCBA-D (Université de Saint-Boniface), titled “A Celebration of Dr. Joseph Pear and His Lifetime Contributions to Behaviour Analysis.” This tribute included a beautiful and personal address from Dr. Pear’s widow, Fran Falzarano, who spoke about Joe Pear’s passion for science and ABA, inspiring attendees to continue the legacy of excellence in ABA in Manitoba. We met our goal to offer the first poster session since our pre-pandemic poster sessions, presented by MABA members, all of whom were also the University of Manitoba graduate students. We continued the tradition of completing our conference with a panel event including all speakers, discussing the “Evolution of ABA.” We are looking forward to our 20th Annual Conference, to be held in the fall of 2025, which we intend to present as a hybrid event. Additional information can be found at maba.ca/conference as it becomes available.
For the upcoming year, we will continue to work on our new and ongoing objectives and goals. Our key objectives for 2025 include continued CE opportunities for our members and opportunities for our members to present behaviour analytic work and network in-person at events. We also plan on continuing to explore opportunities to promote behaviour analysis in Manitoba through partnerships with local organizations, universities, and other Canadian ABAI chapters. As well, we would like to find new ways to support new students and research initiatives in behaviour analysis through the development of new awards. Finally, we would like to continue to work on increasing our membership through various recruitment initiatives.
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