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 has been an Executive Council member for the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis (TxABA) since 2021 and is now the President-Elect of TxABA. She is the liaison for TxABAs Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity for Everyone (EDIE). In addition, she is an Advisory Board member for 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 OMPACs ethics committee. 

Research Interests

Dr. de la Cruzs 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.

2024-Present   Chair, Fall 2025 Tenure Track Assistant Professor Search Committee for the ABA Program

2024-Present   Member, Core Team for Carnegie Community Engagement Classification Engagement Committee

2024-Present   Undergraduate Practicum Coordinator, ABA Program

2024-Present   Faculty Mentor, College of Graduate Studies, Projecto Éxito Grant

2023-Present   Graduate Practicum Coordinator, ABA Program

2023-Present   Member, COEHD Strategic Planning Committee

2023-Present   Coordinator, BCaBA Verified Course Sequence, Association for Behavior Analysis International

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

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

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

2022-Present   Member, Institute for Autism and Related Disorders Steering Committee

2022-Present   Member, COEHD Curriculum Committee

2020-Present   Founding Program Coordinator, ABA Undergraduate and Graduate Program

Service to the Profession 

2024-Present   President-Elect, TxABA

2024-Present   Advisory Board Member, TxABA Public Policy Group Officers

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

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

2022-Present   Director, Autism Society of Texas Board of Directors

2022-Present   Past-Chair, Alamo City Behavior Analysts, Texas Association for Behavior Analysis (TxABA) Special Interest Group

2021-Present   Liaison, TxABA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity for Everyone Committee

2021-Present   Executive Council Member, TxABA

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

2021-Present   Member, OMPAC Ethics Committee

2019-Present   Member, TxABA Public Policy Group Medicaid Taskforce

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

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