Equity

Description of Committee 

The APBS Equity Committee is a diverse group of individuals who come together as a team to help center intersectionality and equity, belonging, and inclusion throughout APBS and within positive behavior support practices. Our committee is comprised of practitioners, leaders, higher education instructors, researchers, and technical assistance providers. We would love for you to join!

List of Members

Chairs: Satish Moorthy, Erika McDowell (dedicated Equity seat), Jessica Swain-Bradway, 

Attending members: Alejandra Gallego (ex-officio), Milaney Leverson, Jodie Soracco, Kelly Perales, Kelsey Schmitz, Steve Goodman, Clynita Grafenreed, Jennifer Jeffrey-Pearsal, Kent McIntosh, Muna Khalif , Dianna Yip, Nikole Hollins-Sims, Marney Pollack, Bob Putnam, Felicia Rutledge, Kimberly Selders, Lesley Gomez, Shiralee Poed

Ways To Get Involved

Our committee meets the last week of the month, during the evening for our America-based members, so our international members can attend.  Committee meetings usually last one hour. During our meetings we check in on each other and progress toward completing tasks and goals, and discuss new ideas. The types of tasks our committee works on include data collection related to DEI, learning opportunities for the board and APBS membership, important position statements to guide the field, and plans to celebrate and promote diversity in the PBS community. Our committee is also represented across all other APBS committees in order for equity to be centered in across all APBS work (e.g., Board policies, strategic plans, conference, communication, and professional development).

  • Email committee chairs to join our meetings.  

              Satish Moorthy: nycpbis@gmail.com

              Erika McDowell: emcdowell714@gmail.com

              Jessica Swain-Bradway: jessica@pbisnetwork.org 

  • Attend upcoming equity strand at 2024 conference in Chicago, IL. 
  • Support data collection, for your own network, that allows you to examine access and outcomes disaggregated by ethnicity, language, gender identity, etc. 
  • Nominate and vote for APBS board members that represent a range of ethnicities, languages, gender identities, people with disabilities, etc.

Equity Position Statement:

Racial Justice Statement from spring 2020, (linked on website somewhere already)

Update to Racial Justice statement 2021 (linked on website somewhere already)

https://apbs.org/apbs-statement-on-racial-injustice-2/

APBS Commitment to Equity

Sample Work: 

Board Approved Equity Statement: APBS is committed to equity and social justice for historically marginalized and oppressed families, communities, students, and practitioners. Our work informs individuals, institutions, and organizations through systems development and strategies designed to disrupt interpersonal and structural forms of inequity, discrimination, and racism.

Equity Webinars:

October 2022: Supporting the LGBTQ Community through Positive Behavior Support, Panel Discussion, APBS Member Archives 

November 2021: Equity & Mental Health, Voices From the Field An APBS, Panel Discussion

July 2021: Equity & APBS Panel Discussion Part 1 

Equity Podcasts:

Feb 8th 2022: Episode 8 :What does equity mean to PBIS?
In this episode we discuss anti-racism in implementation science, specifically PBIS. PBIS as a liberatory tool is explored.

Co-hosts for this episode are leaders in the PBS world. The host (Muna KHalif) welcomes the following guest co-hosts (APBS leaders) Dr. Kurt Hatch, Dr. Nikole Hollins-Sims, Dr. Erika McDowell, and Dr. Jessica Swain-Bradway. 

December 16, 2022. Episode 10: Equity and Inclusion in APBS, an Interview with Drs. Don Kincaid and Erika Leslie McDowell 

In this episode, Tanya Misgen, co-host of the APBS podcast, along with Drs. Don Kincaid and Erika McDowell, discusses the topic of equity and inclusion within APBS and more broadly as it relates to the positive behavior support framework.

 Episode 11: Integrated Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) and Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) with Drs. Goodman & McIntosh

In this episode co-hosts of the APBS Podcast, Muna Khalif and Tanya Misgen, conduct an interview with our guest speaker, Drs. Goodman and McIntosh. 

Together in 2016, Drs. Goodman and McIntosh co-authored the book Integrated Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Blending RTI and PBIS. The book’s purpose is to combine the response to intervention (RTI) and positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) models into a single multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). Join us in this episode as your APBS podcast hosts Muna Khalif and Tanya Misgen talk with the book’s authors.

Scroll to Top