ACBS Foundation Board
According to our Foundation By-laws the Association of Contextual and Behavioral Sciences (ACBS) board is entitled to fill a majority of board positions and the Board of Directors of the Corporation shall fill the other positions. The Directors shall hold office until their successors have been duly appointed and qualified. Each director shall hold office until the expiration of the term for which he was appointed, and until his successor has been duly elected and qualified, or until his prior resignation or removal as hereinafter provided (see the bylaws here for more detail).
The ACBS Foundation board works without pay and consists of:
Clarissa Ong, Ph.D. (Treasurer)
Clarissa Ong (she/her) is an Assistant Professor and the Psychology Clinic Director at the University of Toledo. She completed her Ph.D. in Clinical/Counseling Psychology at Utah State University. Her research focuses on developing, evaluating, and disseminating effective and culturally responsive interventions guided by behavioral and process-based principles. She has co-written two books: a transdiagnostic ACT manual, ACT in Steps, and a self-help book for perfectionism, The Anxious Perfectionist. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science.
Dr. Lynn Farrell completed her PhD as an Irish Research Council postgraduate scholar at University College Dublin where she explored the nature and malleability of implicit bias towards women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) through the lens of Relational Frame Theory (RFT) as part of the UCD Contextual Behavioural Science lab. Lynn received the ACBS Student Spotlight award for her work on gender bias and previously served as a student representative on the Women in ACBS SIG during its establishment. After completing her doctoral research, she took up a Research Fellow position at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) where she continued to empirically explore how to improve gender equality efforts in STEM as part of the EPSRC funded Inclusion Matters project and was awarded the QUB Engineering and Physical Sciences Faculty Postdoctoral Outstanding Engagement award. Lynn is currently an Assistant Professor in Psychology and Programme Director of the part-time Psychology programme at National College of Ireland. She is also Director of EDI for the UK & Republic of Ireland ACBS Chapter. Her research interests and publications to date have focused mainly on understanding and influencing stereo types and bias particularly related to gender, improving gender equality initiatives and applying RFT to address social issues.
Georgina Cox, Psy.D. (Member at Large)
Dr Georgina Cox (she/her) is a Senior Clinical Psychologist at the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) in Melbourne. Georgie works within the Departments of Psychology and Neurodevelopment and Disability, where she supports the psychological wellbeing of children, young people and their families, on their journey with a chronic illness or disability or following an injury. She also leads the Parent Wellbeing Clinic, where she provides both individual and group based support to parents of hospital patients, grounded in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. She also especially enjoys the opportunity to support the emotional wellbeing of medical teams, and demonstrate the value of psychology within the multidisciplinary approach. Georgie teaches into postgraduate psychology courses and enjoys presenting at national and international conferences on the use of ACT with a variety of populations. She is a board approved supervisor, regularly supervising postgraduate students, psychologists completing their registrar programs, as well as staff members in various teams across RCH and in private practice. Georgie is currently a Member at Large for the Association for Contextual Behavioual Science Australia and New Zealand Chapter (ANZACBS), where she contributes to a number of activities for the chapter, including being a member of the 2024 and 2025 conference committees, as well as leading the chapter webinar series. Georgie has experience in private practice, as well as historically holding a number of research roles.
John Hoch, Ph.D. (Member at Large) 
Dr. Hoch is a Licensed Psychologist (LP). John graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Doctorate in Educational Psychology in 2007. He then completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Center for Neurobehavioral Development at the University of Minnesota. He worked as research director at Behavioral Dimensions from 2006 until 2015, when he returned to the University of Minnesota to work towards psychology licensure. He completed his internship and post-doctoral training at Fraser Child and Family Center where he continued to provide clinical care and conduct data analyses and research and until 2023. At Fraser, he provided functional behavior assessments, individual, family, and group therapy, and psychological assessment services. Dr. Hoch re-joined Behavioral Dimensions in January of 2023 to develop the Assessment and Research programs. He completes evaluations and assessments for children and adolescents with concerns about Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other neurodevelopmental disorders. He specializes in understanding the overlaps between ASD and other clinical disorders such as potentially traumatic event exposures, anxiety, and neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD or developmental delays. He brings his experience with evidence-based therapy, behavior analysis, and research knowledge to psychological assessments. Going beyond diagnostic labels, he hopes to capture each family’s strengths, values, and stories in the assessment process to recommend the most effective treatments. Dr. Hoch also continues to provide data analytics and research consulting services through Behavioral Dimensions.
Margot Osorio (Member at Large)
Margot Osorio is a Clinical and Health Psychologist at Hospital San José in Peru, where she provides clinical services and contributes to continuous quality improvement initiatives within the public healthcare system. She is the first Peruvian psychologist recognized as a Peer-Reviewed ACT Trainer by the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS) and serves as an International Trainer for Prosocial World. She is an International Member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a member of the ACBS Developed Nations Committee and the ACBS Training Committee. She is the Founder and Director of Big & Bright, an institute dedicated to evidence-based training in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Prosociality, and psychological flexibility for health professionals and organizations across Latin America. With over 15 years of clinical experience, she specializes in the assessment and treatment of emotional and behavioral difficulties, as well as in the promotion of wellbeing, resilience, and values-based leadership. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health and Global Health and is currently pursuing doctoral studies in Psychology, with research focused on prosocial systems and psychological flexibility in healthcare contexts. She is also a national facilitator for the Peruvian Ministry of Health and a Trainer of Trainers in the WISE Specialized Curriculum. Her work focuses on strengthening cooperation, psychological flexibility, self-care, burnout prevention, empowerment, and prosocial leadership among healthcare professionals and community groups.