Faculty Profiles

Dr. Diana Ginns

Diana Ginns

Dr. Diana Ginns, Ph.D. BCBA-D, Instructor and Postdoctoral Fellow

Email: dianasocie@usf.edu

Dr. Diana Ginns is an instructor and postdoctoral fellow in the School Psychology Program and a licensed psychologist (PY# 06174, Maryland). She graduated with a M.S. in Counseling with an emphasis in School Psychology from California State University, Northridge in 2008 and received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside in 2016.

Before returning to school for her doctorate, Dr. Ginns worked as a school psychologist in the Los Angeles Unified School District. She completed a pre-doctoral internship and postdoctoral fellowship in the Neurobehavioral Unit at the Kennedy Krieger Institute/Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In both the internship and fellowship, she provided assessment and intervention to individuals with severe behavioral difficulties. Throughout the assessment and intervention process, Dr. Ginns consulted with schools around intervention feasibility, staff training, and generalization of intervention processes.

Dr. Ginns’ research interests include empowering teachers to use evidence-based classroom management practices, especially as it applies to teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders. In addition, Dr. Ginns applies her experience working as a school psychologist and board certified behavior analyst working with individuals with severe behavioral difficulties to her research agenda. She is most interested in determining which types of behavioral, social, and emotional interventions are effective in reducing students’ problem behaviors. In general, Dr. Ginns is interested in educator training and what types of support systems and consultation help to improve teacher practices and student outcomes. Although trained in various research methods, Dr. Ginns primarily employs single case methodology to carry out her research in the schools.

COURSES TAUGHT

  • Assessment 1
  • Assessment 2
  • Behavior Learning
  • Practicum 1 & 2

HONORS AND AWARDS

  • Robert C. Calfee and Nel Little Calfee Doctoral Graduate Student Fellowship for outstanding achievement, 2015
  • Institute of Education Sciences Summer Research Training Institute: Single-Case Intervention Research Design and Analysis (award and scholarship, 2018)

GRANTS

Co-Principal Investigator for a grant entitled, “A Mixed Methods Systematic Review of the Effects of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Focused Professional Learning on Educator and Implementation Outcomes” funded by the USF College of Education. June 2018. Amount Awarded = $5,000.

Publications

Book Chapters

Socie, D. & Vanderwood, M. (2016). Response to intervention for English learners. In S. R. Jimerson, M. K. Burns, & A. M. VanDerHeyden (Eds.), Handbook of Response to Intervention: The Science and Practice of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, Second Edition (pp. 519-537). New York: Springer Science.

Vanderwood, M. & Socie, D. (2014). Best practices in assessing and improving English learners’ literacy performance. In A. Thomas & P. Harrison (Eds.), Best Practices in School Psychology, Fifth Edition. NASP Publications: Bethesda, MD.

Journal Articles

Collins, T. A., Cook, C. R., Dart, E. H., Socie, D., Renshaw, T., & Long, A. (2016). Improving Classroom Engagement Among High School Students with Disruptive Behavior: Evaluation of the Class Pass Intervention. Psychology in the Schools, 53, 204 - 219.

Devaney, A. A., Begeny, J., Ginns, D. S., & Haskett, M. (2018). Effects of a reading fluency intervention on middle school students attending a residential treatment center for youth with emotional and behavioral disorders. Journal of Contemporary School Psychology, 22, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40688-018-0184-z

Begeny, J., Bernardo, A., B. I., Earle, O. B., Ginns, D. S., Grazioso, M. P., Srioano-Ferrer, M., Suzuki, H. & Zapata, R. (2018). Internationalization within school and educational psychology: Perspectives about positive indicators, critical considerations, and needs. Psychology in the Schools. doi: 10.1002/pits.22160

Ginns, D. S. & Begeny, J. (in press). The use of performance feedback to improve a class-wide behavior intervention for students with Emotional Disturbance. Behavioral Disorders.

Ginns, D. S., Joseph, L. M., Tanaka, M. L., Xia, Q. (in press). Supplemental phonological awareness and phonics instruction for Spanish-speaking English learners: Implications for school psychologists. Journal of Contemporary School Psychology.

Recent National and State Presentations to Learned Societies

Presentations

Ginns, D. S., Murdock, K., & Renaker, D. (2018). Class-wide Interventions for Students with Emotional or Behavioral Disorders. Mini-skills presented at the Florida Association of Behavior Analysists in Bonita Springs, FL.

Ginns, D. S., Schenk, Y., & Kurtz, P. (2018) Behavioral skills training to increase treatment fidelity with parents of children with problem behavior. Poster presented at the annual convention of Association for Behavior Analysis International, San Diego, CA.

Ginns D. S., Hodnett, J. Schmidt, J. D., & Bernard, J. L. (2018) Self-injurious behavior and the use of programmatic restraints in schools. Paper presented at the annual convention of Association for Behavior Analysis International, San Diego, CA.

Socie, D., O’Brennan, L., Parker, J. Smith, H. & Nishikawa, C. (2018). Internships in School Psychology: Reports from the Field. Symposium presented at the National Association of School Psychologists in Chicago, IL.

Ryan, A. D., Goetzel, A., Socie, D., Hardesty, S., Bowman, L. G., & Schmidt, J. D. (2017). Developing a Profile for Individuals with Problem Behavior Maintained by Adult Compliance with Mands. Paper presented at the annual convention of Association for Behavior Analysis International, Denver, Colorado.

Socie, D., Goetzel, A., Kim, B., Rooker, G., Schmidt, J. (2017). Assessment and treatment of severe skin picking and lip biting: A clinical case study. Poster presented at Applied Behavior Analysis International Autism Conference in Puerto Rico.