Experience. Dr. Berenice de la Cruz, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LBA has worked with people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities since 2001 in school, home, clinic, and community settings as a teacher, therapist, supervisor, director, and professor. Dr. de la Cruz has extensive experience providing didactic and hands-on training to caregivers, students, and professionals servicing people with disabilities. She has been an Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator of the Applied Behavior Analysis Program at A&M-SA since 2020. Prior to joining A&M-SA, Dr. de la Cruz was an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University’s ABA program and the CEO and owner of an ABA company. She regularly presents in English and Spanish at local, state, and national/international conferences. Dr. Berenice de la Cruz is the inaugural Coordinator for the new Applied Behavior Analysis Program at the College of Education and Human Development. 

San Antonio. Dr. de la Cruz has been an active member of the San Antonio community since 2010, along with her husband their two children. Dr. de la Cruz served as the Chief Operating Officer at Autism Community Network, a local nonprofit that serves families of children with ASD. She was part of the leadership team since the inception of Autism Lifeline Links (ALL), a coalition of nonprofits aimed at connecting families to services in the community. Dr. de la Cruz served as past chair and now as an active member of ALL’s Public Policy and Advocacy Committee. She also serves as an Executive Council Member for the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis (TxABA), is the liaison for TxABA's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity for Everyone (EDIE), and the chair of TxABA's Promoting ABA Ad Hoc Committee. In addition, Dr. de la Cruz is the Treasurer of the TxABA Public Policy Group (PPG). Through the legislative work with TxABA PPG, ALL, and other agencies, licensure was granted by the state of Texas to behavior analysts in 2017. Furthermore, on July 15, 2019, ABA was added as a Medicaid benefit for persons under age 20 with a diagnosis of ASD. Dr. de la Cruz continues to work with TxABA PPG and other groups to ensure that the ABA Medicaid benefit is implemented in a way that is accessible to all families. Dr. de la Cruz has been a board member of the Autism Society of Texas since 2022 and is currently the Secretary. She is a founding member of the Mexican Association for ABA Practitioners (Organización Mexicana de Practicantes de Análisis Conductual Aplicado; OMPAC) and serves on OMPAC's ethics committee. 

Research Interests

Dr. de la Cruz' research and practice focus primarily on advocacy, ethics, and evaluating the application of ABA when used by parents, teachers, and other professionals to support individuals with developmental disabilities in the home, school, and community. 

Degrees 

Ph.D. August 2009
The University of Texas at Austin (UT)
Major: Special Education
Specialization: Autism and Developmental Disabilities
Dissertation: Use of a self-monitoring treatment package to support teachers in developing and implementing self-monitoring interventions for children with developmental disabilities
Dissertation Committee: Herbert J. Rieth, Ph.D. (Co-Supervisor), Jeff Sigafoos, Ph.D. (Co-Supervisor), David P. Wacker, Ph.D., Karrie A. Shogren, Ph.D, & Mark F. O’Reilly, Ph.D.

M.A. July 2004
The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)
Major:  Clinical Psychology
Thesis:  An investigation of the 5-methoxytryptamine and valproic acid rat models of autism
Thesis Advisor:  Donald E. Moss, Ph.D.

B.S. May 2002
UTEP
Cum Laude, University Honors Degree, & Departmental Honors
Major: Psychology
Minor: Statistics
Thesis: Symbolic and realistic threats: The cognitive processes that underlie them
Thesis Advisor: Michael A. Zárate, Ph.D.

2023-Present   Co-chair, A&M-SA COEHD Curriculum Committee

2023-Present   Member, Strategic Planning Committee COEHD

2023-Present   Member, A&M-SA COEHD Undergraduate Curriculum Committee

2022-Present   Coordinator, Verified Course Sequence, Association for Behavior Analysis International

2022-Present   Chair, Graduate Admissions Committee for the ABA Program

2022-Present   Member, A&M-SA Institute for Autism and Related Disorders Steering Committee

2022-Present   Member, A&M-SA President Commission on Equity and Inclusive Excellence

2022-Present   Member, A&M-SA COEHD Curriculum Committee

2021-Present   Member, Autism Lifeline Links Adult Public Policy and Advocacy

Committee

2020-Present   Founding Program Coordinator, A&M-SA’s Applied Behavior Analysis Program

2023                Chair, Adjunct Search Committee for the ABA Program

2023                Outside Representative, Professional Track Search Committee for the

                        Counseling Program

2022-2023       Member, Planning Committee for Chancellor Diversity Summit

2022-2023       Member, Presidential Search Advisory Committee for Texas A&M University-San Antonio

2021-2023       Member, A&M-SA COEHD Policies and Procedures Taskforce

2021-2022       Chair, BCBA Search Committee for the ABA Program School Contracts

2021-2023       Member, A&M-SA Carnegie Community Engagement Classification Committee

2021-2023       Chair, A&M-SA Measuring and Tracking Community Engagement Subcommittee

2021-2022       Name Reader, A&M-SA Commencement Ceremony

2022                Member, A&M-SA Inclusive Excellence Certification Taskforce

2022                Member, Autism Mobile Assessment Bus and Learning Environment (AMABLE) evaluation team

2022                Member, A&M-SA Dean’s Advisory Council

2021                Name Reader & Mace-Bearer, A&M-SA COEHD Graduate Hooding Ceremony

2021                Member, Autism Director Search Committee for Autism Lifeline Links

2021                Member, Associate/Full Tenure Chair Search Committee for the Department of Counseling, Health, and Kinesiology

Service to the Profession 

2023-Present   Secretary, Autism Society of Texas Board of Directors

2023                Guest Reviewer, Infant Behavior and Development

2022-Present   Guest Editor, Behavior Analysis in Practice Special Issue on Public Policy Advocacy

2021-Present   Liaison, Texas Association for Behavior Analysis (TxABA) Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity for Everyone Committee

2021-Present   Executive Council Member, TxABA

2021-Present   Chair, Promoting ABA AdHoc Committeee, TxABA

2021-Present   Member, ABA Workgroup Steering Committee, Association of University

Centers on Disabilities

2022                Past-Chair, Alamo City Behavior Analysts, TxABA Special Interest Group

2022                Chair, Alamo City Behavior Analysts, TxABA Special Interest Group

2021                President, Alamo City Behavior Analysts

2021-Present  Founding Member, (Organización Mexicana de Practicantes de Análisis Conductual Aplicado (OMPAC; Mexican Association

   for ABA Practitioners)

2021-Present  Member, OMPAC Ethics Committee

2021-2022      Member, OMPAC Education Committee

2020-2021      Guest Speaker, ABA LatAM

2020-Present  Guest Reviewer, Behavior Analysis in Practice

2019-Present  Treasurer, TxABA Public Policy Group

2019-Present  Member, TxABA Public Policy Group Medicaid Taskforce

2019-Present  Member, TxABA Public Policy Group Public Education Taskforce

2019-Present  Member, Autism Lifeline Links Public Policy and Advocacy Committee

2009-Present  Guest Reviewer, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

2013-Present  Member, Alamo City Behavior Analysts Leadership Team

2019               Guest Reviewer, Developmental Neurorehabilitation

2016-2019      Co-chair, Autism Lifeline Links Public Policy Committee

2016-2019      Member, Autism Lifeline Links Leadership Team

2016-2019      Chair, Autism Lifeline Links Professional Development & Capacity Building Committee  

2016-2019      Advisory Board Member, TxABA Public Policy Group

2015-2017      Member, Accessibly Steering Group, The DoSeum Children’s Museum

Peer-Reviewed Publications

Kunze, M., & de la Cruz, B. (2023). Research Article: A Longitudinal Study of Behavioral Consultation in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms.

Head Start Dialog: The Research-to-Practice Journal for the Early Childhood Field, 26(1), 35-46.

Kunze, M., & de la Cruz, B. (2023). Research to Practice Summary: Behavioral Consultation in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms. Head Start

Dialog: The Research-to-Practice Journal for the Early Childhood Field, 26(1), 57-63.

de la Cruz, B., Cannella, H., Son, S.-H., Edrisinha, C., Sigafoos, J., & Robinson, D. (2007). Author Productivity and Publication Trends in

Autism-Specific Journals from 1997 to 2004. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 21(4), 245-250.

Olive, M. L., de la Cruz, B., Davis, T. N., Chan, J. M., Lang, R. B., & Dickson, S. M. (2007). The Effects of Enhanced Milieu Teaching and a

Voice Output Communication Aid on the Communication of Three Children with Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental

Disabilities, 37(8), 1505-1513.

Sigafoos, J., O’Reilly, M. F., Cannella, H., Edrisinha, C., de la Cruz, B., Upadhyaya, M., Lancioni, G. E., Hundley, A., Andrews, A., Garver, C.,

& Young, D. (2007). Evaluation of a video prompting and fading procedure for teaching dish-washing skills to adults with developmental

disabilities. Journal of Behavioral Education, 16, 93-109.

Cannella, H., Sigafoos, J., O’Reilly, M., de la Cruz, B., Edrisinha, C., & Lancioni, G. E. (2006). Comparing video prompting to video modeling

for teaching daily living skills to six adults with developmental disabilities. Education and Training in Mental Retardation and

Developmental Disabilities, 41(4).

Zárate, M., Garcia, B., Garza, A. Hitlan, R. T. (2004). Cultural threat and perceived realistic group conflict as dual predictors of prejudice.

Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, 40(1), 99-105.

Book/Book Chapters