(LIVE Rejected 2025 – Dec 12 12pm EST) From Principles to Progress: The Nurture Effect as a Blueprint for Change

In The Nurture Effect, Anthony Biglan offers a compelling vision for building a more caring, cooperative, and equitable world, one rooted in decades of behavioral science. This session bridges Biglan’s evidence-based framework with the practical tools and strategies of applied behavior analysis (ABA), illustrating how our science can move beyond individual interventions to influence systems, policies, and cultural norms. Through the lens of prevention, reinforcement, and environmental design, attendees will explore how ABA can be leveraged to reduce coercion, increase prosocial behavior, and create large-scale change. Participants will leave with a clearer roadmap for applying behavior-analytic principles to some of society’s most pressing challenges, moving from theory to progress in their own spheres of influence.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the core principles outlined in The Nurture Effect and their relationship to applied behavior analysis.
• Identify key environmental factors that contribute to nurturing and coercive societal systems.
• Provide examples of how ABA strategies can be applied to promote prosocial behavior at the community and policy levels.
• Describe methods for scaling ABA-based interventions to address large-scale social issues.
• Analyze opportunities for integrating The Nurture Effect framework into professional practice to create sustainable change.

Nicole Parks has been working as a behavior analyst for two decades and has worked with clients of all ages. She has experience in early intervention, substance abuse, psychiatric disorders, organizational behavior management and acceptance and commitment therapy. Nicole has a strong proficiency for project management, operations and employee relations . She founded Rooted Consultation in 2020 to help new and established businesses focus on ethical and sustainable business practices. She is passionate about ensuring people are happy at work and specializes in employee training and retention programs. Nicole’s love for behavior science and expanding the reach of ABA has driven her to advocate for behavior analysts in spaces outside of autism and developmental disabilities. To that end, Nicole provides supervision and mentorship to both aspiring BCBAs and those looking to expand their knowledge base. When she isn’t trying to save the world with behavior analysis, she enjoys traveling with her husband and kids and trying to convince adorable wild animals to let her take care of them.