University Series 038 | Salve Regina University

Shauna Costello (00:01):

You're listening to Operant Innovations. A podcast brought to you by ABA Technologies. This week on the University Series, we're speaking with Dr. Cody Morris from Salve Regina University. Dr. Morris is an assistant professor and the program director of applied behavior analysis. In his overarching goal of research and clinical focus is to improve the implementation of assessment and treatment practices related to severely challenging behavior. To this end, he has two major concentrations. The first and primary concentration is improving assessment and treatment methodologies for severely challenging behavior and applied settings. The second concentration is addressing organizational issues related to the implementation of assessment and treatment. Dr. Morris has extensive experience assessing and treating behaviors in an applied setting that include group homes, family homes, day programs, schools, treatment centers, and juvenile detention centers. Within these settings, he has assessed and treated challenging behaviors of children ages 3 to 18 with and without diagnoses as well as adults ages 18 to 70 plus with developmental disabilities and or mental illness. So without further ado, Dr. Cody Morris.

Shauna Costello (01:22):

Today, I am very excited to be talking with Dr. Cody Morris from Salve Regina in Rhode Island. And so thank you for joining me today.

Dr. Cody Morris (01:33):

Thank you and thanks for having me today, Shauna.

Shauna Costello (01:36):

Yeah, and I'm extra excited because Cody and I were in grad school together, back in the day. And before we go off on any of those kinds of tangents, which I will not include.

Dr. Cody Morris (01:48):

Oh, good.

Shauna Costello (01:49):

I am gonna pass it over to him to give just a general overview of the program.

Dr. Cody Morris (01:55):

Thank you. And before I get started, just so I remember to say this, thank you so much for putting this resource together for people. This is I think an unbelievable idea of giving something, putting something out there in a way that people are going to be able to consume it and learn about programs. I think back to when we were in grad school together and just before that. Thinking about what programs am I going to look at? It's so tedious and difficult to look through different websites and what websites do I even look at? You know, mainstream psychology, they have the Caplan books and books like that. They're going to lead people through different programs. What does behavior analysis have? Nothing like that. So phenomenal  resource, thank you so much for putting it together just for the field. And then of course, you know, we're honored to be part of this from a Salve Regina standpoint. So, thank you.

Shauna Costello (02:48):

Well, thank you. Yes. And even though you brought up the websites, there's one thing that I have found out very quickly from reaching out to the universities and colleges is that you can only learn so much from a website.

Dr. Cody Morris (03:01):

Absolutely. Yeah.

Shauna Costello (03:03):

So I'm very excited to learn more about this program because I know a little bit of the history of the school in general, but I'll let you kind of give the overview of your program.

Dr. Cody Morris (03:16):

Sure. Yeah, thanks. So the ABA program at Salve Regina University is a 36 credit,12 course program designed to help students build a strong foundation in the science of behavior analysis. We really emphasize the science piece in our program. We're very proud to do that. And ultimately we help students develop the skills needed to effectively and ethically implement compassionate behavior analytics services. Of course, the program is a verified course sequence through ABAI. It's located in beautiful, beautiful Newport Rhode Island. We have practicum opportunities sort of spread throughout Rhode Island, which we'll talk about I'm sure. Our courses are in person, but we are mindful of people's lives. And so we do schedule them to be flexible. So that people who have full-time jobs are able to attend the program. And then in addition to our traditional Master's program, we also have an accelerated program for Salve undergraduates that allows them to begin taking graduate courses in their senior year so that they can finish their Master's program in a little bit over a year. It's not exactly a 4 plus 1. Just with the 36 credits and sort of the course sequence of those things. But it's about a 4 plus 1 and that's sort of a general overview of the program.

Shauna Costello (04:43):

Well, and that's really exciting because I learned about Salve years ago, but for a completely different reason and for a completely different program. And I know that from social media, when I saw that you took the job there, I was really excited because I knew that at some point in time that I was going to be able to reach out to you for this. And so I know some of your history, but what about who are the faculty and what are you researching? What is really that science piece that you mentioned in the overview?

Dr. Cody Morris (05:23):

For sure. So right now Salve has two full-time BCBAB faculty. It's myself and Emma Grauerholz-Fisher who is from the University of Florida. She actually studied with Tim Vollmer and we're adding another full-time faculty member that's a BCBA D level with Stephanie Jones, who's finishing up her PhD at West Virginia University with Claire St. Peter right now. And so we have sort of an overlapping but different research interests between the three of us. In addition to the three sort of behavior analyst faculty, I do want to point out that we're sort of housed in the department of psychology with numerous other faculty who are incredibly supportive of our ABA program. They're phenomenal colleagues and then we've also made connections in our department of education. And I bring that up because the reality is sometimes programs are housed in colleges or universities that are less than friendly in terms of their interactions with other departments and faculty members. The entire university here is just filled with phenomenal colleagues, phenomenal faculty that really help enrich our program, whether that'd be through sort of collaborations or sort of connections. Sometimes our students will take dual Master's degrees and things like that. So I think, we're not necessarily unique in that aspect, but we're very blessed and fortunate to be in a situation like that. In terms of specific research, I'll summarize to the best of my ability what the other folks are working on. Both Emma and Stephanie. So Emma, her primary interests are in assessing and teaching chain tasks. So how different baseline methods can affect performance, under which types of conditions, prompt dependence can emerge and the evaluating different chain methods based on individual learner or cast characteristics. She's also into staff management systems and she's got a couple of recent papers focused on that topic. And then she also has interest in a category she calls quote, "Considerations regarding the scope of practice and interdisciplinary involvement." And so, for example, she's interested in assessing and treating pediatric feeding disorders and understanding what type of specialized training is required for something as nuanced as pediatric feeding. Stephanie on the other hand is interested in evaluating treatments for severe behavior that are realistic for caregivers to implement. She does this by assessing the effects of reduced integrity implementation of behavioral interventions in laboratory and applied settings. Identifying strategies to increase the likelihood of treatments that will remain robust, despite treatment integrity errors or other treatment challenges and disseminating behavioral analytic interventions to non-traditional populations. Stephanie has got a history of doing things in schools, clinics, laboratories, and therapeutic horsemanship facilities, which is quite unique, I think. In terms of my own interest, my background is in severe problem behavior and I suppose, data collection integrity. That was what my thesis and dissertation was on within the realm of severe problem behavior. But I guess my major research interest has sort of developed into or evolved, I suppose, into improving the practice of behavior analysis very broadly. So that might look at what are the procedures that we publish research about and how in the world do we translate those into something that someone can actually do, right? So if we look at something like doing a functional analysis for PICO. Those studies tend to be very rigorous, which is phenomenal. How do we make those doable in real life settings? Of course, with numerous safety precautions or something like that. But how do we translate that to doing that in practice? And so that would be one sort of theme of my research. I also enjoy looking at what I call incidental sort of research projects. There's probably a better term out there for this, honestly, but in the work that I do, the consultations that I do, the practicum support that I do, when we're working on a case and we find something that is interesting, turning that into a research project and building out from there. So it's not necessarily that I'm sitting around going, "Okay, I read these latest research articles focused on functional analyses. I want to answer a question related to that." I'm more in the clinic looking at the clients going, "Okay, what do we need to do to help this person? Let's look at the recent research on FAs. Okay, there seems to be a shortcoming there that's relevant to this client. Let's answer those questions while we help the client." And so I've got a few recent pubs within that sort of domain. So we've got a paper on the effective strategies of parent delivered instruction, which is again, just really focused on how we improve the practice of behavior analysis. I've got a paper that I'm honestly very proud of. This is maybe my favorite paper right now on risk factors of client mistreatment. So in center schools, whatever, what are the risk factors that can potentially lead to client mistreatment? And I think that's an extremely important topic that we need to spend a lot of time thinking about. And then I've got a paper coming out soon focused on the history of the treatment of LGBTQ plus by behavior analysts, which I think is an extremely important topic for behavior analysts to be well aware of. And then finally, I'll say that I'm starting to dabble in something that you're very familiar with, which is maybe what we would call dissemination science, which is I've just begun creating, producing, and hosting a podcast called "Behavior analysis and practice". The podcast, which partners with the journal behavior analysis and practice to review in depth, the articles that are coming out in that journal.

Shauna Costello (12:06):

No, and that's all very, very exciting and I think that you may be honing in on someone who once said, "If you find something interesting, just drop everything and study it."

Dr. Cody Morris (12:23):

Right. Exactly.

Shauna Costello (12:23):

Right? When you said that I was like are you trying to get quotes in here, Cody?

Dr. Cody Morris (12:33):

Unintentionally. Yeah, it's just so ingrained in me. Yeah. I guess for me, both of us coming from a phenomenal research program, we were really trained very well to consume research, to be able to produce very rigorous research. And that is unbelievably important for our field. Absolutely. But moving to an area that has less resources. That we don't have the Ron van Houtens and the Al Pollings and the Stephanie Petersons and the Wayne Fuquas and all these phenomenal faculty that Western Michigan has taught us how to do research and consume research. That a lot of practitioners don't know how to take that research and translate it. And so that's been my new passion. For those of us who were fortunate enough to be in a situation where that translation was explicitly taught and supported. What about the rest of the folks? Right? We need those intermediate articles. It's like, "Hey, here's what all these phenomenal researchers are doing. Here's how you might consider actually implementing it. And here's how we're going to make that doable for you." My students that are in this program and other programs, they all have the same drive interests to learn behavior analysis that any of the people that go to the major programs go to. And so what I'm particularly interested in now is how do we give what these huge large historic programs are giving to the students in small intimate programs like Salve Regina University?

Shauna Costello (14:15):

Yeah. And I honestly think that we smaller programs actually, depending on, you know, how they're set up even compared to the big programs could have a leg up.

Dr. Cody Morris (14:26):

Right. We're more flexible.

Shauna Costello (14:28):

Right.

Dr. Cody Morris (14:28):

Right? And we're on newer research topics. We're not as ingrained in some of the older, more historic projects and things like that. And so we're smaller. Yes, but I think that smaller feel is more intimate. It's more connection to the students. It gives us more flexibility in being able to pivot to the needs of the field and all those things. So I love this job. I love Salve Regina University. I'm very honored to be part of it. And I think that these newer programs, these smaller programs, I think is the future of the field.

Shauna Costello (15:08):

Yeah. I know that you mentioned the size of the program and you're growing right now as well, bringing on more faculty members. What can the students expect when coming to Salve and the classes and the faculty? And what is that student experience that they can expect with a smaller program?

Dr. Cody Morris (15:32):

Well, with a small program, they can expect really an intimate connection to the professors, the faculty. Not only do the faculty obviously teach the courses, but we're also involved in the practicum experiences. So right now I am heavily involved with our primary practicum sites and continually searching to develop more and more practicum opportunities, community connections, et cetera. And so we're very involved with basically every step of the process. So, you know, my students see me in class, I'm their advisor, I'm the director of the program. So if there are issues related to that stuff that they're speaking with me. In terms of practicum, I'm quite literally there being part of the supervision process, modeling things. At least once a week, I go out to do assessments, treatments, and I'm working with my students in that capacity. So it's a very high touch program. They're going to see us constantly, which really helps in terms of developing that mentorship model. Salve's program is a cohort model. It's not like some of the larger programs that are more, what I think is called mentor model, where you go and you enter a lab, right? So where I went, Western Michigan University went to a specific lab. I'm working with Stephanie Peterson. Yes. There are people who entered the program at the same time that I did. I'm not really as connected to those folks. I'm connected to the people within my lab who may be at different sorts of levels in the program. Some people are finishing up their PhD or, like me, brand new to the Master's program. Salve's program is a cohort, but it still really emphasizes that mentorship relationship. So we'll be able to have that level of connectedness that you would see in a mentor program, because we are mindful about how many students we let in any particular cohort. And again, we're involved with many aspects of education beyond the classroom.

Shauna Costello (17:43):

What about those practicum sites? I know you mentioned all over Rhode Island and just for anybody who's listening to this. Rhode Island is not that large. Just a heads up.

Dr. Cody Morris (17:54):

That's true. I should've thought about that. When I say all over Rhode Island, that doesn't mean you're driving everywhere. Rhode Island, from my understanding, as long as you don't hit traffic, I think you can drive from the top to the bottom in an hour. So when I was a consultant in Michigan, I covered one County and sometimes we would dabble into the surrounding counties a little bit. I covered more space consulting than would make up the entire state of Rhode Island. So it's a small, intimate little state for sure. One of our primary practicum sites is Pathway Strategic Learning Center, which is a specialized school serving ages 3 to 22. And there's actually two separate schools. So they have a school for the younger group and a school for the older group. Pathways is part of a larger organization that provides almost the entire, full lifespan of services for individuals with developmental disabilities. And so they have early intervention programs, they have that school that I was just mentioning. They have adult day programs and group home options. Honestly, they probably have even more options that I'm not fully aware of, but those are sort of the ones that I am most familiar with and interested in. And so right now, our primary opportunities for students at that organization is working within the school. So doing things focused on problem behavior skill acquisition, everything that you would expect in a specialized school for individuals with developmental disabilities. And then our second practicum site is Bradley Hospital, which to my understanding, is actually the first psychiatric hospital for children in the United States. At least that I'm aware of. That's what my understanding is of the history of that program. Within that hospital, they have numerous, numerous programs. I couldn't even begin to list everything that they have services wise, but there's a day autism center or partial hospital. And maybe what you call an autism center that we partner with to have practicum students participate in, and those types of services as well. In addition to those two, I'm continuously reaching out to different community partners. We're working on developing a partnership with a public school district that'll be nearby that we're excited about and developing a pretty unique program there, but we're just flushing that out. So I can't speak too much about that, but we're expanding our clinical opportunities to give people sort of a full range of options that they can begin to specialize on.

Shauna Costello (20:40):

Well, and that's really exciting too, because even for.. This is one thing that I always like to look at. The types of practicum opportunities that students could be getting. And sometimes with smaller programs, they can sometimes be limited.

Dr. Cody Morris (20:56):

Right.

Shauna Costello (20:56):

But I know, knowing you personally, your history, right? When I heard about the first site, I was like, "Oh, that's right up your alley."

Dr. Cody Morris (21:04):

Right.

Shauna Costello (21:04):

You've done a ton of that stuff in the past. And so that's perfect. And I know that honestly, probably the smaller size of Rhode Island can help facilitate that growth in getting students into more and different sites because more of the state is accessible.

Dr. Cody Morris (21:23):

Absolutely. Yeah. It's very accessible. And for whatever reason, behavior analysis has not really been as developed in this particular state than you would see with its neighbors. Massachusetts, Connecticut, and some other States. And so it seems to me that people are just now learning about the benefits of behavior analysis here. So it's an exciting place to be in terms of growth opportunity, people who are interested in collaborating in those sorts of opportunities. Because we're a smaller program, there's more opportunity to go around. You have three faculty members who are really beginning their academic careers, who are very highly motivated to contribute to research and to create other opportunities and experiences. And because it's a small program, there's a lot of us recruiting various people to participate in things like that. And so there can be a lot of really unique and fun experiences. As I mentioned before, I have a podcast that I'm helping produce and host right now and my students I recruit to help with that. So that's sort of a unique experience. And then of course, any and all research that we work on as well.

Shauna Costello (22:49):

And that's really exciting because I know that some of the other schools I've talked to, the faculty are part of a podcast or run a podcast, but they don't necessarily bring in their students to it.

Dr. Cody Morris (23:06):

Antyhing I do, my students do. That's my whole philosophy and it's not to simply outsource time. It's that if I'm going to do something and I'm surrounded by people who want to learn how to do it, you guys are coming with me. Right? Maybe in some cases I'm just simply modeling and you're just literally watching me do something or when I can, getting people actively involved, right? I don't do anything by myself anymore. I have nothing I do by myself. Maybe grade, obviously, I do by myself. But other than that, everything. People are coming along and we're sharing those experiences and opportunities.

Shauna Costello (23:46):

Getting all of those different types of experiences for students. I think it's probably going to be one of the best things that they can do.

Dr. Cody Morris (23:56):

Absolutely. And they're interested in it, right? The students, newer generations of students, are all about podcasts and getting information from podcasts. In fact, when I first got here and I was like, "Oh, read this and do this." Like "What podcasts can we listen to that's associated with this?" I'm like, "I don't know." I don't listen to that many behavior, analytic podcasts, to be honest. I'm more of an audio book kind of person, but that's what they're interested in. And we want to tap into that, right? They have a large amount of knowledge about how to communicate via podcast and the desire to be part of something like that and to help disseminate it in those ways. And the reality is we need to understand where people are coming from. Why are people so interested in podcasts and being able to give them the information and other ways. For my particular podcast, it's associated with specific articles, right? Somebody publishes a paper in behavior analysis and practice. I want to go through that paper with that person, and it's not to replace the article. And I don't know that we'll ever be in a place where we can provide that level of detail. Though you don't need to read research articles anymore, it's a supplement. And it's ideally to give people enough information to be able to operate on and hopefully to draw people's interest into coming back to that article and goin, "Yeah. When they were talking about their message. That was interesting. I want to go back and I want to read that to better understand it" and those sorts of things.

Shauna Costello (25:25):

No, that's really, really exciting because just like you said, I think making research more accessible and more applicable through a lot of these practitioners is going to be something that is going to help immensely in the future because not everybody works for a university or pays for memberships to have easy access to journals.

Dr. Cody Morris (25:49):

Right.

Shauna Costello (25:50):

And this research. So I know that we've talked about the faculty, the practicum. And the practicum kind of got into the student experience in the area about Rhode Island. This might be a really good time to talk about Rhode Island just in general and expand on that a little bit more. We talked about the size of Rhode Island, but I mean, I have personally seen the campus. Can you explain the area?

Dr. Cody Morris (26:16):

Yeah.

Shauna Costello (26:16):

Because I was noticing how cool the campus is.

Dr. Cody Morris (26:22):

We're not over-exaggerating when we say it's one of, if not the most beautiful campuses that you can possibly imagine. It's on the Atlantic ocean coast and it's part of, and sort of encapsulated by this beautiful gilded age mansion arrangement along the coast. So Salve's primary academic buildings are actually gilded age mansions that were donated to the Sisters of Mercy who created Salve Regina University. Right next door to the campus, which again is along the coast. If you ever traveled to Newport, Rhode Island, you might do something called the cliff walks, which is this beautiful scenic walk along the ocean. Salve is literally on the cliff walks. One of the major attractions of the cliff walk and Newport in general is a mansion called The Breakers, which was created by the Van der Bilts, which is an extremely wealthy family during the gilded age. And it's literally right next door, right? So you go Salve building, Salve building, Salve building, The Breakers and it's beautiful. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Do yourself a favor and Google it or visit it. I mean, it's just beautiful. And so Newport, this is this island community that has sort of really come to age in the gilded age. And so there's all these beautiful mansions spread out throughout Newport, but it's this beautiful quaint town. It's got an amazing wharf full of restaurants and shops. And it's just what you expect when you think of a quaint, beautiful New England island town. And that's where Salve is. If we think about Rhode Island more broadly in terms of getting out and exploring, we also have Providence, Rhode Island, which is the major city here. Which again, is just a beautiful city with all sorts of culture within the city. Diverse restaurants, different sorts of art exhibits. There's this thing called The Fire on the Water, which they do in the summertime, which is a really cool event to be part of and to watch. But basically they have these pyres on the river that they light and it's just this really big event. That's pretty neat to see. And we're in between New York and Boston. We're like, I dunno, time-wise maybe an hour, hour and a half from Boston. And we're like two, two and a half hours from New York. And so if you're into big, big cities, not that far from either one of those locations. If you're like me and you're into nature, you get the whole coast here, which Rhode Island is called the ocean state. The idea is you're never more than 20 minutes or something like that from the coast. And so there are all these beautiful coastal hikes. If you're into mountains and some things, which is something that I'm into. Camping in the mountains. You're not that far from the green mountains, the white mountains and Vermont and New Hampshire respectively. And so I personally go up to Vermont, New Hampshire quite a bit. So, you know, we're three, three and a half hours from getting into mountains and sort of a major wilderness.

Shauna Costello (29:51):

And I can a hundred percent speak to the beauty of Rhode Island just in general. And the accessibility of it. I did not get a chance to go to Boston when I was there visiting, but I did get a chance one day, we started in right outside of Newport, Rhode Island, drove through Connecticut, into Massachusetts for a concert. And then back in the same day. Very fast to get to. But I have heard that you can take a train very easily to some of these bigger cities, especially Boston. That's on my list for next time I visit Rhode Island, but it's just gorgeous. I understand that the water in the shoreline is different, but I actually like to compare it to Michigan in that if you want it, it's right there. You can have a city, you can have a quiet country, you have height. I mean, the mountains are a lot better out in Rhode Island than Michigan, but I mean, you just have as much nature or city that you want access to.

Dr. Cody Morris (31:02):

Absolutely. Yeah. Growing up in Northern Michigan, right on Lake Michigan, basically, I'm used to big bodies of water. And so coming to Rhode Island, it does have that same exact feel. A lot of people are like, "Oh, you know, visually does it feel that different?" Not really. I mean, it's a lot more populated. Rhode Island than Northern Michigan, but that's nice because you have all the resources to Providence Mall, Providence Place, I believe is what it's called. Really, really cool mall. Obviously during non COVID times to check out, but you have so many resources to do things. And I think it's anything that you're into. If you're a city person, you've got Providence. If you're a nature person, you've got the coast and you're not that far from Vermont, New Hampshire and things like that. And it's super accessible in terms of trains and driving. Yeah. That's not even to speak that much about the surrounding areas. Like New Haven, isn't that far. The other weekend my partner and I went down to New Haven for pizza. I don't know if you know, but New Haven is like the pizza capital of the world. And so we went down to check out pizza and walk around the area.

Shauna Costello (32:08):

Put that on my list is what you're saying.

Dr. Cody Morris (32:10):

Yeah. If you're into pizza, New England has got some great pizza. Definitely.

Shauna Costello (32:17):

And one thing too that I found really neat is through a mutual friend of Cody, of both of ours. And when I was visiting, if you are a history buff, this is like the place to go. If you're into ghost tours and scary things. I don't want to scare anybody away because you have to try and find it or know somebody who knows about it, but it's just a really neat thing to learn about. It was kind of like when I went to New Orleans. I could find out about all of this history and all of this obscure history that I didn't know happened. And I found a lot of that actually in Rhode Island. And when we drove through Connecticut as well.

Dr. Cody Morris (33:08):

Absolutely. Yeah. It's not like the same architecture or history, but it does have a feel of like the French Quarter, New Orleans where these big historic, beautiful mansions and the history that comes along with that. Right? I'm a hundred percent a history geek. Everybody who knows me knows this about me. And so I've just had a field day out here and getting to check out different historic sites. And it's a lot of fun to be able to experience.

Shauna Costello (33:37):

And I know we could probably talk about this all day and I could ask you about where I need to visit out there, which the list would be never-ending. But how about the application process? I know you mentioned the cohort model and I know COVID probably has taken a toll on maybe some of this, but what does the application process look like? And if there are interviews, what does that look like as well?

Dr. Cody Morris (34:06):

So the application process has really been streamlined by the graduate college and the administration here at Salve. They've really set up, I think, a very easy process to apply. Ultimately, we're looking at needing two letters of recommendation, personal statement, all the things you can kind of expect to be required in a graduate school application. As far as criteria, we're looking for people who have obviously demonstrated the ability to handle a graduate school rigor. And we're looking for people who understand what behavior analysis is in terms of, "Do you understand what your career is going to look like? Do you understand and have the skills to be able to enter a graduate level behavior, analytic content sort of set up? And so those are the things we're looking for. In terms of deadlines and things like that. We have a few different deadlines that would depend on when you would want to enter the program and the type of student you are. But our primary application window is from February 15th to July 1st. And basically what the application window means is that on February 15th, I begin and the team begins looking at applications and we might fill up our seats well before July 1st, or we might be able to continue looking at applications to that deadline. And then in which case, that would sort of close that window of applications. And so people who are interested in the program. It's important to try to apply as early in that application window, if not before that application window as possible to give yourself the best chance of getting into the program.

Shauna Costello (35:53):

So technically the application is currently open.

Dr. Cody Morris (36:00):

It is currently open. We are still accepting applications. And so if you're listening to this and considering the program, absolutely submit an application as quickly as you can, really. It's going to be beneficial to have it in as early as possible.

Shauna Costello (36:14):

And I know that this is something I always just ask. Would you be the person to contact if anybody has questions regarding that?

Dr. Cody Morris (36:26):

Yeah, for sure. Anyone can reach out to me. I'm sure we can put my email somewhere, but it's just Cody. So cody.morris@salve.edu.

Shauna Costello (36:39):

Yep. And that will definitely be in the podcast description along with a link to the page for the program as well. Yes. We've covered the general overview, faculty, practicums, area, application, and interview process. Is there anything else that you want to make sure that potential students know about the program?

Dr. Cody Morris (37:10):

We've sorta spoken about this a little before, but I think to understand the ABA program, you have to begin to understand Salve Regina University as an institution and Salve Regina is a Mercy institution. So it was founded by the Sisters of Mercy and they have a number of values that I think are central to the university. One of the primary values is the need to serve people in need. And this is permeated and obvious and on display, basically every aspect of the university. But you can imagine how a university who values serving people in need and their central sort of focus. Mercy really, really aligns extremely well with the practice of behavior analysis. Considering we serve typically the most under-represented or the most underserved vulnerable populations you can imagine. And so, because we're housed in an institution that values serving people in need, I think it adds a layer of compassion and understanding and value driven behavior that I think is unique and is something we're certainly very proud of.

Shauna Costello (38:33):

I think that that's really important because like I said I've gotten to visit, I've seen the campus, but it was for different reasons. And I know that our mutual friend who ended up going there into a completely different program, but that was one of the reasons that she decided to go there was because of not only the program that she found, but also just the school's history as well. And so I was really excited when I learned about the program and that you were now running it as well. I was very excited to actually learn more about this specific program, because it's a really cool university in general. For me, it's nice knowing who's in charge of it and knowing what their background is to be like, "Cody and whoever is helping Cody there is going to do some really cool stuff." If you don't have anything else, thank you so much.

Dr. Cody Morris (39:39):

Yeah. Again, thank you. I mean, phenomenal resource. Really great idea. I don't know how you came up with this idea. When I saw your podcast, I was like, "Oh my goodness!" It seems like such an obvious thing that should be out there, but wow. A great idea, a really great resource for the field. And this obviously ties into trying to disseminate our field and to help meet people where they're at and help them learn about analysis. So thank you for your work on that.

Shauna Costello (40:07):

Thank you for listening to this episode of the University Series. And as always, if you have questions, comments, feedback, or suggestions, please feel free to reach out to us at operantinnovations@abatechnologies.com.