Contact Info

Biography

Education:
BA (Psychology; Spanish Language, Literature, & Culture), Syracuse University
MA (School Psychology), University of Georgia
PhD (School Psychology), University of Georgia
Post-doctoral (Severe Behavior), Munroe-Meyer Institute, Univ. of Nebraska Medical Center

Research Expertise:
Severe Behavior | Autism Spectrum Disorder | Behavior Analysis

My research focuses on promoting socially valid outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities who engage in severe behavior. Toward that goal, I am exploring how to best facilitate caregiver involvement in the assessment, treatment, and maintenance of treatment effects through research comprising three areas: (a) refinements to the assessment of problem behavior, (b) parent and teacher training in behavioral interventions, and (c) implementation of evidence-based practice across settings. I have contributed to the development of novel indirect and direct assessment measures to identify tasks that evoke problem behavior and am currently evaluating caregivers’ accuracy at demand identification and evaluating alternative instructional methods that do not rely on physical guidance.

Honors and Awards:
2016 Certificate in Interdisciplinary Care in Developmental Disabilities, Munroe-Meyer Institute
2012 Del Jones Memorial Award, University of Georgia
2010 Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship to Spain

Member of:
Association for Behavior Analysis International (https://www.abainternational.org)
International Society for Autism Research (http://www.autism-insar.org/)
National Association of School Psychologists (https://www.nasponline.org/)

Recent Publications:
Fisher WW, Greer BD, Fuhrman AM, Saini V, Simmons CA (2017) Minimizing resurgence of destructive behavior using behavioral momentum theory. J Appl Behav Anal. In press.

Barger BD, Campbell JM, Simmons CA (2016) The relationship between autistic regression, epilepsy, and epileptiform EEGs: A meta-analytic review. J Intellect Dev Disabil. 42:45-60.

Call NA, Alvarez JP, Simmons CA, Lomas Mevers JE (2016) Clinical outcomes of behavioral treatments for elopement in individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. Autism. 21:375-379.

Call NA, Simmons CA, Lomas Mevers JE, Alvarez JP (2015) Clinical outcomes of behavioral treatments for pica in individuals with developmental disabilities. J Autism Dev Disord. 45:2105-2114.