The Purpose of Black in ABA is to highlight, network with, and support Black Professionals in ABA. This website is a free source to collaborate with Black professionals within the field of ABA. Use this as a means to be seen, validated, and celebrated!
We want to showcase the professional and educational accomplishments of Black Behaviorists. BlackinABA.com welcomes all Black Behaviorist(cis-gender male, cis-gender female, transgender, and non-binary). It also welcomes all arms of behaviorism, including applied, conceptual, and experimental.
Our Backstory
We began in May 2020, with an Instagram page and quickly imagined extending the celebration beyond a timeline. We birthed the idea to a website in July 2020 and officially launched in February 2021!
Why the name change?
After launching Black Girls in ABA, we wanted to ensure we were allowing space to honor all Black behaviorists, and especially our trans and non-binary siblings who are often left out of conversations and spaces. While we will continue to highlight and uplift Black women on our Instagram page, Blackinaba.com is a place for all of our community members to have a place to shine. So we dropped the “girls” and brought everyone in!
Meet your founders!
Dr. Jada Tucker is from Baltimore, MD and is one of the co-founders of @blackgirlsinaba . She has 12 years of experience in the field of ABA and began her journey working and assisting in research on the Neurobehavioral Unit at Kennedy Krieger Institute in 2009 while pursuing her undergraduate degree. Dr. Tucker became a BCBA in 2015 and obtained her Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology in May of 2020. During her PhD studies, Dr. Tucker had the opportunity to study abroad in South Africa where she used ABA principles to promote justice reform and eradicate racism present within social structures across the country. Since then, she has had the opportunity to create cultural competence platforms at 2 different agencies where she holds group meetings and CEU presentations educating those on how to create behavior change to promote change at a systemic level.
Dr. Tucker has a wide range of experience across several domains of ABA but is most passionate about providing quality ABA therapeutic services and autism awareness resources to minority youth and their families. She is also very passionate about uplifting and mentoring members of her ABA community including those aspiring to obtain their BCBA or Ph.D., specifically black women. The @blackgirlsinaba community means so much to her, and she is dedicated to highlighting and celebrating the work and accomplishments of Black women in the field that may sometimes go overlooked or unnoticed.
Denisha Gingles is from St. Louis, MO and is one of the co-founders of @blackgirlsinaba. She is a passionate behavior scientist and master-level trained mental health therapist. Denisha is the Clinical Director and CEO of a group therapy practice, Signature ABA Therapy, in Baltimore that provides behavioral services to families, children, teens, and young adults. Ms. Gingles is a futuristic thought leader and liberation-centered clinician dedicated to collective social change and the creation of sacred spaces that promote wellness and awareness of self. She is a pioneer, integrating behavior analysis and social justice by unapologetically shining a light on inequities of the world, while simultaneously making it infinitely better, exuding integrity and authenticity. With the ability to be adaptable and flexible, Denisha stays true to her values and works to encourage all humans to bring attention to their own private self-defeating and community-hindering thoughts and overt behaviors, in the service of evoking committed action oftentimes outside of their immediate comfort zone.
Denisha Gingles is a leading researcher and practitioner synthesizing social justice work with contemporary behavioral science. Ms. Gingles brings a rich experience in community organizing and activism to bear on evidence-based approaches to behavior change in the science of behavior analysis, incorporating innovative approaches to complex human behavior, such as relational frame theory and acceptance and commitment training. Ms. Gingles’ work takes a radically compassionate approach to igniting the behavior change needed to produce systemic social change in support of justice and equity. Ms. Gingles works tirelessly for social justice on multiple fronts, including community organizing, co-founding and producing the @beautifulhumanschange platform, providing professional workshops and training, scholarly writing, professional conference presentations at both the national and international level, and leadership in scholarly journals, including serving as Guest Editor for the Emergency Series on Police Brutality and Systemic Racism at the peer-reviewed journal Behavior Analysis in Practice. Lastly, but not least, she is a board member and the Partnerships and Affiliate Liaison for @blackappliedbehavioranalysts