Faculty

---

One of the primary reasons Penn State is recognized around the globe as a distinguished university is the sterling caliber of its faculty. As a World Campus student, you will have the opportunity to learn from the same instructors who teach traditional, face-to-face classes on Penn State's twenty-four campuses across Pennsylvania.

Pamela Wolfe, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Education, Academic Program Director of the Professional Development Certificate Program in Autism, Penn State

Dr. Wolfe is an associate professor of special education at Penn State. Her research interests center on persons with autism, severe disabilities, and cognitive disabilities. Dr. Wolfe recently co-edited a book, The Autism Encyclopedia, and co-directs a federally funded grant to provide education on autism to preservice professionals in special education and work with speech-language disorders. She is the academic coordinator for the professional development certificate in autism, a distance education program offered jointly by Penn State and the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She is a member of a number of editorial boards having to do with persons with disabilities.

Dr. Vince Carbone, Ed.D., BCBA
Director, Carbone Clinic

Dr. Carbone is a board-certified behavior analyst with more than twenty-five years of experience in designing learning environments for persons with autism and developmental disabilities. He received his graduate training in applied behavior analysis (ABA) at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. He has served on the Florida Peer Review Committee, which monitors and guides the provision of behavior analysis services for persons with autism and related developmental disabilities in Florida. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at Penn State and the Florida Institute of Technology and is currently visiting professor in the behavioral education doctoral program at Simmons College in Boston, Massachusetts. His teaching responsibilities include courses in applied behavior analysis and verbal behavior. 

His behavioral analytic research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including School Application of Learning Theory, Education and Treatment of Children, Journal of Special Education Technology, and Corrective and Social Psychiatry. Dr. Carbone currently serves on the editorial review board of the Journal of Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention. He is a frequently invited speaker at professional workshops and conferences. He has provided preparatory training and clinical consultation for hundreds of certified behavior analysts in several states. He is the developer and presenter of a series of workshops on teaching verbal behavior to children with autism, based on B. F. Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior. He and his clinic staff are currently working with several school districts, agencies, and families across the United States, and providing services to persons in Canada and the United Kingdom. He is the director of a center-based clinic for children with autism in Rockland County, New York. The clinic provides consultation, training, and therapeutic services to children, their families, and instructional teams.

Joanne Gerenser, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
Executive Director, The Eden II Programs

Dr. Gerenser is the executive director of the Eden II Programs in Staten Island, New York. She is an adjunct associate professor at Brooklyn College as well as at Penn State. She received her doctorate in speech and hearing science from the City University of New York Graduate Center. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Council for the Organization for Autism Research. She is on the boards of the Partnership for Autism Education, the Interagency Council for Mental Retardation, and the New York State Association for Behavior Analysis. Dr. Gerenser is co-author of the interactive CD-ROM entitled Behavioral Programming for Children with Autism, and she has authored several book chapters on autism and developmental disabilities. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis. She sits on a number of professional advisory boards for programs serving children and adults with autism.

Ben Handen, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Thomas Kitchen, M.S., BCBA
Clinical Supervisor, Intensive Autism Program, Dr. Gertrude A. Barber National Institute

Mr. Kitchen is responsible for program development, staff supervision, curriculum consultation, and training for his program at the Dr. Gertrude A. Barber National Institute in Erie, Pennsylvania. In addition, he has worked as a private consultant, hired by families and school districts to provide educational and behavioral programming. Recently he served as co-author and co-coordinator of a grant funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide training to parents and practitioners working with children with autism. He speaks at national, state, and regional conferences, and he has written for national publications.

Vincent LaMarca, M.A., BCBA
Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention

Mr. LaMarca is a behavior consultant with the Lovaas Institute. He has been working with children with autism, using the Lovaas Model of Applied Behavior Analysis for the past eleven years. Throughout the country, he has presented at conferences and informational sessions, both in school districts and to parent groups, on a variety of applied behavior analysis topics. He currently supervises intensive behavioral treatment for children in Indiana. He also serves on the quality control committee that oversees certification of personnel at the Lovaas Institute.

Jose Martinez-Diaz, Ph.D., BCBA
Adjunct Instructor in Special Education, Penn State; Chair of the Master of Science Program in Applied Behavior Analysis at the Florida Institute of Technology; President and Director of A.B.A. Technologies, Inc.

Ray Romanczyk, Ph.D., BCBA
Director, Institute for Child Development; Professor of Clinical Psychology, State University of New York at Binghamton

Dr. Romanczyk is a professor of clinical psychology at SUNY Binghamton. He is a licensed clinical psychologist and a board-certified behavior analyst specializing in the problems of children. In addition, he is an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the SUNY Health Science Center at Syracuse, New York. He is the founder and director of the Institute for Child Development, which provides clinical and educational services to children and families. He has been involved in advocacy, program development, the judicial and legislative process as expert witness, and direct services to children and families. His work has been published in many professional journals and books, and he has written extensively in the fields of early childhood behavior and developmental, emotional, and learning disabilities. Dr. Romanczyk has presented several hundred addresses at regional, national, and international professional conferences regarding his applied and research work at the institute.

Kim Schreck, Ph.D., BCBA
Associate Professor of Psychology, Penn State Harrisburg

Dr. Schreck received her doctorate from Ohio State University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pediatric psychology at the Columbus Children's Hospital. She is a board-certified behavior analyst and is currently an associate professor of psychology and the acting coordinator of the applied behavior analysis (ABA) master's degree program at Penn State Harrisburg. She specializes in early intervention and treatment of children with autism and developmental disabilities and continues to provide private consultative services in matters of behavioral assessment; ABA program development and maintenance; education of children with autism; and assessment and treatment of sleep problems. Her clinical work is reflected in her research. Dr. Schreck publishes research investigating sleep problems, feeding problems, and ABA interventions with typically developing children and those with autism and developmental disabilities. She is also the current associate editor of the journal Behavioral Interventions.

Brenda Smith Myles, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Special Education, University of Kansas

Kay Toomey, Ph.D.
Pediatric Psychologist