Beth Boone, PhD, BCBA

Associate Director of the Division of the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities, UCEDD, LEND

Dr. Beth Boone is a professional dedicated to working with individuals with autism and related disabilities and their families. She is the Associate Director of the Division of the Florida Center for Inclusive Communities (FCIC), and the Executive Director and Principal Director of the Center for Autism & Related Disabilities-USF, LAUNCH, and the Partnership for Effective Programs for Students with Autism (PEPSA). Dr. Boone received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Florida in 2001, completing a dissertation on the training and support needs of medical foster families. She completed pre-doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships at the A.I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE, and a second postdoctoral year as a Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) fellow at the Westchester Institute for Human Development, a University Center of Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDD), where she also served as faculty at the New York Medical College.

In 2008, Dr. Boone went on to direct the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) Training Project at Partners for Inclusive Communities, Arkansas’ UCEDD, providing statewide training on positive behavior support for waiver coordinators, direct support staff, and families across the state. She subsequently provided training, assessment and development of PBS plans for individuals supported by United Cerebral Palsy of Arkansas and served as the Clinical Director for Arkansas START (Systemic, Therapeutic Assessment, Resources and Treatment), a statewide crisis prevention and intervention program for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and complex behavioral health needs.

In 2014, Dr. Boone assumed the role of Executive Director of the Institute for Disability Studies (IDS) at The University of Southern Mississippi (USM), Mississippi’s UCEDD. In this role, Dr. Boone was responsible for oversight of all programmatic, personnel, fiscal, and budgetary activities for the agency, as well as facilitating disability-related research, teaching, and service collaborations between IDS and USM, and other local, state, and federal partners, also serving as Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Coordinator for the Disability Concentration through the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies.

Upon relocating to Tampa, FL in 2017, Dr. Boone completed an 18-credit graduate certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis while working as a Behavior Analyst with the Florida Mentor Network and earned the Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) designation in 2021. Dr. Boone also taught in and chaired the Psychology department for Keiser New Port Richey. She brought her wealth of experience to the CARD and LAUNCH at USF in November of 2019 and assumed the Associate Director role at FCIC and the PI role for PEPSA in 2023. In addition to this leadership, Dr. Boone also serves on the Presidential Advisory Committee on Accessibility at USF, the Board of Directors of Disability Rights Florida, the Florida DD Council, and the manuscript review board of Review of Disability Studies: An International Journal.