M.Y. Savana Bak mbak@umn.edu

• Autism spectrum disorder
• Language and social communications
• Early intensive behavior intervention
• Special education

Debbie Golos Deaf/Hard of Hearing licensure and MEd coordinator
dgolos@umn.edu

• Developing and evaluating the effects of educational media in ASL on young deaf and hearing children's language and literacy skills
• Examining the portrayal of deafness in media and literature from a cultural perspective and it's effects on children's identity development
• Exploring alternative routes to literacy development, that meet the needs of visual learners, particularly deaf children

LeAnne JohnsonInterim program coordinator
chaf0032@umn.edu | Lab

• Motivating and engaging adults in the adoption and implementation of interventions that improve the quality and quantity of learning opportunities available to young children with challenging behavior
• Closing the research to practice gap and speeding the adoption of new innovations into practice by improving professional development systems
• Enhancing data driven,precision oriented, problem solving through new tools for monitoring children’s development and response to intervention
• Evaluating the effectiveness of interventions addressing the social and communication needs of young children with Autism and emotional/behavioral disorders

Jennifer McComasHead emotional behavioral disorders licensure and MEd and special education MA with emphasis in ABA and programs
jmccomas@umn.edu | Lab

• Functional analysis of problem behavior in educational and residential settings
• Basic behavioral processes maintaining desirable and undesirable behavior, such as schedules of reinforcement, stimulus control, and establishing operations
• Behavioral treatment of problem behavior based on concurrent schedules of reinforcement as well as antecedent stimuli
• Analysis of academic performance of students with behavior problems

Scott McConnellsmcconne@umn.edu | Lab

• Skills and competencies that enable pre-school aged children to learn and participate in school and other settings
• Design, evaluation, and application of:
• Easy-to-use tools for describing children’s current language, literacy, and other important skills
• Interventions that support development of these skills, particularly in “non specialized” settings
• Design and improvement of programs – from classroom efforts to comprehensive community-wide efforts – that help children of all ages develop fully

Kristen McMaster Associate department chair
mcmas004@umn.edu | Lab

Create conditions for successful response to intervention of academically diverse learners by:

• Promoting teachers’ use of data-based decision-making and evidence-based instruction
• Developing individualized interventions for students for whom generally effective instruction is not sufficient

Frank SymonsCEHD Associate Dean for Research and Policy
symon007@umn.edu | Lab

• Development, assessment, and treatment of severe problem behavior among children and adults with neurodevelopmental and emotional/behavioral disorders
• Bio-behavior analysis of self-injurious behavior
• Problem of pain among children and adults with significant cognitive impairments and associated developmental disabilities
• Rett syndrome - refining measurement approaches to improve understanding of the behavioral phenotype

Rose Vukovic rvukovic@umn.edu | Lab

• Learning disorders
• At-risk learners
• Underserved populations
• Early identification, intervention, and prevention
• Social justice

Jason WolffMcKnight Presidential Fellow, Autism Spectrum Disorder certificate coordinator
jjwolff@umn.edu | Lab

• Early brain and behavioral development in children with autism spectrum disorder
• Restricted and repetitive behaviors associated with autism and other developmental disabilities
• Identifying neurodevelopmental moderators of response to early intervention
• Integrating neuroscience with special education research