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Dr. Emily A. Jones |
| PhD, BCBA-D, Licensed Behavior Analyst New York State |
Dr. Jones is Associate Professor at Queens College, CUNY. She earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology at Stony Brook University in 2002. Dr. Jones has developed programs for young children with developmental disabilities that provide intensive intervention in inclusive placements, provided consult services to schools supporting children with developmental disabilities, and helped families by providing training and developing programming for their children.
Working in homes with families, it is impossible not to witness the challenges faced by siblings of children with autism and parents and the challenges to the sibling relationship. Recognizing the limited services available to address this need is part of the driving force in developing SIBS Club. The other driving force behind SIBS Club is the need to provide students with quality training experiences that bring them into the field and refine their skills.
Dr. Jones, along with Dr. Feeley at LIU Post, developed SIBS Club in 2009. We started with funding from Autism Speaks and Doug Flutie Foundation and the dedication of a few professionals and undergraduate volunteers interested in autism. Since then, we have grown, with expansion to Queens College in 2014.
As Co-Director Dr. Jones is responsible for the programming for the children and parents, personnel, grants, and program development as well as student supervision. Through this class students receive high quality training in the classroom and hands on experience with the children with autism and their siblings at SIBS Club.
In addition to her work in SIBS Club Dr. Jones has an active program of research examining interventions for siblings of children with autism, joint attention intervention for children with autism, applications of behavior analytic interventions to meet the critical needs of young children with Down syndrome in communication, motor, and cognitive development, and treatment intensity. Her work has been funded by the Organization for Autism Research, PSC-CUNY, Research Enhancement funds, Autism Speaks, and Doug Flutie Foundation. This research has been published in Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Infants and Young Children, Research in Developmental Disabilities, and Behavior Modification. |
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Dr. Daniel Fienup |
| PhD, BCBA-D, Licensed Behavior Analyst New York State |
Dr. Fienup is an Associate Professor at Queens College, CUNY. He earned his Master’s in Applied Behavior Analysis from Southern Illinois University and his PhD in School Psychology from Illinois State University. Dr. Fienup has developed programs for a variety of children including children diagnosed with Autism, developmental disabilities, ADHD, and children with acquired brain injury. His experiences include in-home intensive early intervention services, school consultation, and working in private schools that serve children with disabilities. While working at the Illinois State University Psychological Center, he expanded the capacity of the Autism Clinic by creating social skills groups for children with Asperger’s syndrome (e.g., Fienup, Shelvin, & Doepke, 2013) and he later expanded the clinic to provide in-home services in addition to clinic based skills instruction. The addition of in-home services dramatically increased both the number of hours of service children received as well as the number of undergraduate and graduate students who received training through the Autism Clinic.
As co-director, Dr. Fienup assists with the development and evaluation of SIBS Club. In addition to his work in SIBS Club, Dr. Fienup runs ACE Lab, a research lab that examines strategies for increasing academic performance of children with disabilities as well as college students. His work has been funded by the Organization for Autism Research, PSC-CUNY, Research Enhancement, and the Workforce Development Initiative. His research has been published in Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior Modification, and Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities.
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Susie McHugh |
| MA, Class Instructor |
Susie is enrolled in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at The Graduate Center, based at Queens College. Susie holds an BA in Psychology from SUNY Stony Brook, and an MA in Behavior Analysis from Queens College. Susie is excited to continue researching interventions for siblings of children with autism and how to improve the lives of individuals on the autism spectrum and their family members.
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Ridda Sheikh |
| BA, Sibling Group Leader |
Ridda holds a BA in Psychology from Queens College and has started her graduate career in Applied Behavior Analysis in the Master’s program. Ridda started her work with children with autism in SIBS Club and has been a Sibling Group Leader for over a year now. She hopes to build a nurturing and wholesome environment for families with a child is diagnosed with autism. She has been a research assistant in the Developmental Disabilities Lab and has assisted on several projects ranging from teaching infants with Down syndrome vocalizations and gestures to training typically developing peers to facilitate joint attention in children with autism. Her own research interests are in research training to parents and typically developing siblings of children with autism so that the skills they learn in 1:1 sessions with a therapist are generalized throughout their everyday life. Ridda is also a Behavior Therapist at Kids Learning Loft, where she provides ABA services to children with autism. Ridda looks forward to continuing her work in ABA and providing behavioral interventions for children with autism, as well as comprehensive and inclusive training for their siblings and parents.
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Adriana Arline |
| BA, Coordinator |
Adriana is a Masters candidate in Behavioral Analysis at CUNY Queens College. She has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from CUNY Queens College as well.
She started in the field of ABA through SIBS Club, where she started as a 372 student in the practicum class and continued to the 391 research class where she helped implement Behavioral Skills Training (BST).
She also works in an after school based agency doing home based therapies. After receiving her Masters, Adriana plans on working and gaining experience in the field, and then following with getting her PhD.
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Theresa Fiani |
| MA, BCBA, Research Supervisor, Webmaster |
Theresa is a doctoral candidate in the Behavior Analysis Training Area at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
She holds her BA in Psychology from American University of Beirut and her MA in Psychology from Queens College. She has over 4 years of experience working with individuals with autism.
Theresa's main interest lies in conducting research using ABA to teach social communication skills to children with autism.
She is currently working on her pre-dissertation, which focuses on examining generalization to different social-communicative contexts and responses.
Her examination of generalization is associated with an intervention involving prompting and reinforcement to teach gaze shifting to 2-3 year old children with autism in the context of a small sample of social communicative contexts.
Outside of school she plays volleyball, basketball, soccer, tennis, squash, and taekwondo.
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Zulei Vargas |
| BA, Skills Leader In Training |
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Vanessa Patino |
| BA, Sibling Group Leader |
Vanessa holds a BA in Psychology from Queens College. She is currently enrolled in the Certificate Program for Applied Behavior Analysis, with plans to apply to the Masters program by the end of her first year. Vanessa has worked with children in public school settings and in clinical settings, but her first experience with children with autism was as a 372 student in SIBS Club. Since then, she has developed a passion to continue working with children with autism and their families. Being a part of the Developmental Disabilities Lab has also given her the opportunity to collaborate with a couple of projects using applied behavior analysis. Vanessa now works as a behavior therapist, providing at-home ABA services to young children. She is excited to continue being a member of the SIBS Club program, and is determined to preserve a positive and significant environment to all participating families.
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Andrew Ng |
| BA, Assistant Interventionist, Sibling Group Interventionist |
Andrew is an Graduate Psychology student at Queens College. He has several years of experience working with young children as a teaching assistant, but his first experience working with children with autism was here at SIBS club. As a sibling group assistant at SIBS, Andrew’s main focus is fostering the relationship between siblings by teaching coping skills and general autism knowledge. He currently works as a Behavior Therapist at Build N’ Care, and has intentions to earn his BCBA after completing his bachelors degree.
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Benjamin Bravo |
| Assistant Interventionist, Sibling Group Interventionist |
Ben is currently an undergraduate pre-med student earning a BA in Psychology, Neuroscience, and Biology from Queens College and is a research assistant in the Developmental Disabilities Lab assisting with projects. He has previously worked with students ages 18-21 with intellectual, behavioral, developmental, and physical disabilities in the STRIVE program in Connecticut assisting as a role model, advocate, mentor, and friend. Ben started working with children with autism through SIBS club, first as a 372 student to learn how to implement Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and then in the 391 research class to implement Behavioral Skills Training (BST) for a year. Ben has also been involved in Sunday Funday with YM&YWHA, a recreational program for children with autism. After receiving his triple Bachelors, Ben plans on applying to Medical School studying to become a Neurologist or pursuing a Masters in Behavioral Neuroscience, followed by a PhD in Neuroscience and conducting research involving children with autism.
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Victoria Yaguadayeva |
| Research Assistant |
Victoria Yagudayeva is currently double majoring in communication sciences and disorders and psychology at Queens College. Victoria started as a research assistant in the Developmental Disabilities lab and assisted on coding videos from SIBS Club. She eventually joined SIBS Club and continued to examine the effects that ABA had on children with autism and their typically developing siblings. After SIBS Club, Victoria completed an internship where she was able to continue to work with children with autism and implement ABA services. She still works in the lab where she assists on various projects and has the ability to research her own interests, which include comparing the impacts of various intervention approaches. She looks forward to continuing her work in the lab and eventually hopes to bridge the gap between ABA and developmental approaches.
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Service Corps |
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Fall 2014 - Spring 2015:
- Angelique Bartomeo
- Zulei Vargas
- Christine Yaptangco
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Service Corps |
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Fall 2015 - Spring 2016:
- Adriana Arline
- Christina Vandian
- Janelle Donegal
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Service Corps |
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Fall 2016 - Spring 2017:
- Elizabeth Contreras
- Alejandra Goico
- Melody Rey
- Karina Sanchez
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