Dr. Kazemi

Ellie Kazemi, PhD

Training and Supervision

Research Laboratory

Research Interests:

I am invested in alleviating the severe shortages of personnel qualified to provide evidence-based services to children with disabilities. Most of my research is centered on examining effective training strategies (e.g., performance feedback) that lead to improvements in education, training, and supervision of parents, teachers, and staff who implement behavior plans. Graduate and undergraduate students who work in my laboratory are likely to be involved in applied and in experimental research that involves direct observation and measurement of participants’ skills as they behave across of a simulated client (i.e., either a research assistant or a robot acting as the client).

Mentorship:

Students are involved in all aspects of my research and teaching and have opportunities for co-authorships at conferences as well as peer reviewed manuscripts (depending on their level of commitment and experience). Most students in my laboratory conduct literature searches, develop measurement tools, collect observational data, calculate interobserver agreement, develop tables and graphs of single-subject designs, help design experimental studies, co-author Human Subjects Committee protocols, recruit participants, conduct experiments, collect procedural fidelity data, help develop training materials, help train participants, and much more.

Background & Contributions:

I obtained my Ph.D. from UCLA under the mentorship of Drs. Robert Hodapp (thesis chair), Elizabeth Dykens, Bernie Weiner, and Jeffrey Wood (dissertation chair). I joined the CSUN Clinical Psychology faculty in 2006. My university and community contributions have included development of the post-MA BCBA Program, Masters program in Behavioral Clinical Psychology, undergraduate curriculum in applied behavior analysis (i.e., the BcaBA course-work which begun in Fall 10), Teaching in Research Program, and the the Southern California Consortium for Behavior Analysts (SCCBA; please use the navigation pane to the left to learn more about any of these).

I serve as the academic director of the behavioral programs but I also teach courses with emphasis in science-practice, methods, and ethics. I have taught Principles of Applied Behavior Analysis, Application and Ethics in Applied Behavior Analysis, Learning and Behavior, Behavioral Psychology, Behavior Measurement and Assessment, and Research Methodology to undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate students at CSUN. I have worked with individuals with disabilities and/or their parents in the past 15 years in various settings. My applied experience include working at Area Board 10, the UCLA Behavior Genetics Clinic, school districts, local behavior analytic clinical agencies, and the Lili Claire Family Resource Center. I am a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and have worked with children and adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems, genetic disorders, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and those with learning disabilities. I have conducted numerous workshops at community behavioral agencies focusing on outcome based programming, staff training, and professional ethics.