Robyn Catagnus
Bio:
Dr. Robyn Catagnus has expertise in learning, verbal behavior, and behavior change, with special interests in OBM, diversity, culture, well-being, and mindfulness. She is a board-certified and licensed behavior analyst; an associate professor and associate chair at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology; and a past national department chair for the multi-campus Applied Behavior Analysis program, an innovative program emphasizing diversity.
Dr. Catagnus has 25 years of practical academic, real-world business and clinical experience. As a business management consultant, she supported executives in developing and implementing human capital initiatives, using science and research to improve organizational behavior. Prior to working in management consulting or academia, Dr. Catagnus owned and operated a successful behavior consulting firm and held executive roles in behavioral health and educational technology organizations.
She is a trustee of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies; a reviewer for Behavior Analysis in Practice, the Diversity in Behavior Analysis section of the American Psychological Association journal Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice; and a former member of the editorial board for Perspectives on Behavior Science, the flagship journal of Applied Behavior Analysis International (ABAI). Dr. Catagnus was the founding president of the Multicultural Alliance of Behavior Analysts, which emphasizes diversity and inclusion, and is Past President of the subsequent Culture & Diversity SIG.
Dr. Catagnus has been invited to give national and international addresses and presentations, and has received grants for her diversity, internationalization, and education projects. Her specialty is helping students create the conditions for inclusion, learning, performance, and professionalism. She consults and supervises about learning, inclusive practices, behavior change, special education, and organizational management. Her professional interests include online instruction, clinical supervision of pre-service behavior analysts, and application of behavior analysis to well-being, professional practice, and social justice. Her research interests include inter-cultural competency in behavior analysis, student and faculty satisfaction with online learning, OBM, mindfulness, and eradicating racism.
Abstract:
Chapter 36: RACISM
Applying Behavior Analysis to Dismantle Racism: From Ideas to Action
Our world faces an entrenched problem of prejudicial behaviors called racism. Despite ongoing efforts of advocacy and resistance, racism has persisted across generations and cultures. The chapter proposes ways that behavior analysts can learn about racism from a behavioral perspective, extend experimental analyses of prejudice, and intervene to reduce racism in varied settings. We aim to describe both traditional behavior-analytic and functional contextualist accounts of racism and summarize the limited related empirical and applied research. The review suggests combining traditional behavior-analytic methods with acceptance and commitment training techniques may attenuate racism more effectively.
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