2019-2020 Board of Directors

Student Representative:

Varsha Eswara Murthy, University College Dublin (Ireland)

 

Lisa Coyne is a Founding member of ACBS, an ACBS Fellow, a former vice-president of the New England Chapter of ACBS, and currently serves as Member-at-Large. In 2014, after becoming a tenured Associate Professor at Suffolk University's Clinical Psychology Doctoral program, she joined the faculty of Harvard Medical School as Assistant Professor and founded the OCD Institute for Children and Adolescents at McLean Hospital. In 2017, she began the New England Center for OCD and Anxiety (NECOA). She is a licensed psychologist and a peer-reviewed ACT trainer. Her research and writing focuses on ACT with children, adolescents, and parents. She lives in Boston with her partner John, her son Rory, and two crazy dogs. Her daughter Josie studies Biology in college. Lisa enjoys making a difference in the world, one kid at a time, and a good laugh at herself.
 

ACBS is a loving, compassionate community of scientists and practitioners. As we grow and diversify, we have an opportunity to create a stronger organization. To do so, we must be strategic; grounded and visionary at the same time.
I want us to make ACBS an equitable, inclusive, global home that values and empowers all of its members. There is an Ubuntu saying – I am because we are. It is in our differences that we will discover our strength.
I want us to nurture young scientists by funding innovative science, and to support clinicians by developing standards for excellent practice. I want us to develop streamlined ways of giving scientists and clinicians better access to our collective resources.
I want us to better disseminate our science through expanding our digital presence and skill in technology, communication, and public relations. Fellow travelers, with kindness and admiration, let’s help ACBS thrive.

 

Past President

Louise Hayes, Ph.D.
The University of Melbourne (Australia)

Community and connection has become the centre of my work and I will use this focus to benefit ACBS members. I was introduced to ACT in 2003 and became a member of ACBS in 2006. I am a peer reviewed ACT trainer. I run a training business, a private practice, and I am a Senior Fellow with The Centre for Youth Health at The University of Melbourne. My passions lie in my philanthropic work; most recently Mindful Adventures where we provide experiences for professionals, give poor people wages, and raise money to help educate remote children in Nepal. I have held a number of roles within ACBS including: Member-at-Large of the international board, President of the Australian and New Zealand Chapter, committee member for the Training Committee, the Conference Strategy Committee, the Developing Nations Committee, and lastly Program Chair for the Sydney World Conference.

Statement: I would be humbled and honoured to serve as ACBS President. My vision is to focus on evolving a professional society with two key agendas – (1) a continued strong science and research platform that is home to all types of professionals interested in the human condition; and (2) strengthen our membership through inclusiveness, cooperation, and community building. ACBS has seen wonderful growth and I see this as a major challenge for us all – the bigger we get, the easier it is to feel lost. It seems timely to me that evolution science and principles of group selection and cooperation, along with Ostrom’s principals for managing the commons will help us grow the ACBS community we want. I would seek to use our knowledge in these areas to stay connected as a community and work together in our scientific interests, our training and networking, and our SIGs and Chapters.

Secretary Treasurer

Maria Karekla, Ph.D.
University of Cyprus (Cyprus)

Maria is a licensed clinical psychologist, Assistant Professor, chairing the Clinical Psychology Doctorate program and the “ACThealthy” laboratory at the University of Cyprus. She completed her doctorate from the University at Albany, SUNY and her residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Her research focuses on health promotion and the investigation of individual difference factors as they relate to the development and maintenance of behavioural difficulties. She examines the treatment of these difficulties utilizing CBS interventions and innovative delivery methods (e.g., digitalized interventions, virtual reality). Her research received awards from: European Council and Pompidou’s group, ABCT, and Society of Behavioral Medicine; and grants from national and EU funds. She is chairing the Cyprus Bioethics Committee, is a member of the Psychologist Licensing Board, and the European Federation of Psychology Associations’ Psychology and Health and e-health task forces. In the past two years she served as a member-at-large of ACBS.

“As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery…” (Kavafis)
Growing up in the island of Cyprus, I had Kavafis’ poems and his allegorical meanings deeply influencing my choices in life. These same meanings I have found in the ACBS community, which drew me to this work, the organization and its people. I have been a part of ACBS almost from its inception and I have tried to serve the association through various capacities: serving on conference committees, boards of various SIGs, becoming an ACT trainer, starting the Cyprus-Greece ACBS chapter, and serving on the ACBS executive board as member-at-large. My experiences, my drive and love for this association and the group of individuals who constitute it, will enable me to continue to serve ACBS from the post of secretary/treasurer, with continued fervor towards excellence.

Member at Large 1

Miranda Morris, Ph.D.
Private Practice (USA)

Miranda is a Clinical Psychologist in private practice just outside of Washington, DC. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Missouri - St. Louis under the mentorship of Patricia Resick, PhD. She is the founder of DC ACT, a consortium of therapists who provide training in ACT to professionals in the region. Miranda helped found the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of ACBS (MAC-ACBS) and has served on the MAC-ACBS Board for six years. She and her MAC colleagues regularly conduct free ACT workshops for students and professionals in their region. She also serves as Manager of the ACBS Women’s SIG and as a member of the Diversity and Chapter/SIG committees. In addition, she teaches Psychology and Social Justice a local cooperative high school. Miranda lives in Takoma Park, MD with her partner, two kids and two impossibly small dogs.

ACBS has been a home to me for ten years. In that time, my experiences within our community have inspired and shaped me. ACBS has provided me a context in which I can move continuously toward my values of community building and sharing CBS. My desire to serve as MAL was born of these values. Given the opportunity, I would like to focus on creating a more inclusive community, one attuned to the needs of groups nested within ACBS (e.g., Chapters. SIGs) as well as individuals from diverse professional and personal backgrounds. Our membership is growing — maintaining a sense of connection within ACBS will be an ongoing challenge. I’d like us to invest in creating support for the diverse groups/individuals that make ACBS the vibrant community I love. My hope is to help make ACBS as much a home for others as it has been for me.

Member at Large 2 (basic science)

Diana Ferroni Bast, Ph.D.
Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

I’m a Brazilian/Italian BCBA, clinical psychologist, and researcher presently living in Ireland. I started my career working and researching in the psychiatric hospital of São Paulo University. In 2011, I did my doctorate in Maynooth University under the supervision of Professor Dermot Barnes-Holmes and then did postdoctoral research under the supervision of Dr. Celso Goyos (UFSCAR, Brazil) in collaboration with Dr. Ian Stewart (NUI Galway). Recently, I’ve become course director of the Applied Behavior Analysis Masters program in Trinity College Dublin. I’m interested in the dynamic interaction between basic and applied research and have worked in a number of areas of RFT/ACT focus including the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP), hierarchical relational framing, Prosocial, RFT analysis of ACT processes and translational research. My work has been funded by various agencies (FAPESP, BEPE, CAPES, Enterprise Ireland) and has involved collaboration with a variety of international researchers and a multidisciplinary team.
 

My experience as a researcher and clinician, and as a member of different overlapping scientific communities (Behavior Analysis and ACBS), as well as of diverse national chapters within ACBS (Brazil and UK) gives me extensive perspective on the challenges faced by researchers in terms of research priorities, conference attendance, community involvement, and issues of inclusion. The future of our community lies in actively working on creating bridges between basic and applied science, and between different communities and in fostering a democratic science. I will help achieve this through support of members and sponsors via several initiatives including (i) developing an accessible online conference (ii) developing programs for assistance in writing funding grants (iii) promoting members’ participation and discussion, especially of those from developing countries (iv) promoting new online channels to support international cooperation and collaboration (v) promoting greater accessibility of RFT to a broad public including especially investors.

 

Member at Large 3 (basic science)

Student Representative

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The ACBS bylaws say:

The officers of the Association shall consist of a President, President-Elect, Past-President, Secretary-Treasurer, a student representative, and four Members-at-Large of the Board of Directors. Each shall perform the usual duties of the respective office and specific duties provided elsewhere in these Bylaws or as assigned by the Board of Directors. Elections for officers shall be held every year. The President, President-Elect, Past-President, and student representative shall each serve a one-year term and may not hold any other offices within the Association. The Members-at-Large shall be elected every two years. In each two-year cycle one of the Members-at-Large shall have a strong background and interest in basic science relevant to the purposes of the Association. The Secretary-Treasurer shall serve a three year term.