Dr. Susan Wilczynski is the Plassman Family Distinguished Professor at Ball State University, a licensed psychologist, and a board-certified behavior analyst. She holds a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion certificate from Cornell University. Susan conducts research on training practitioners to use the diversity affirming evidence-based practice decision-making model, which strongly emphasizes social validity, quality of life, and person-centered care. She serves on the nursing division of Wolters-Kluwer Publishing House's diversity advisory board. Susan is the former Coordinator for ABAI's Practice Board, served on their Task Force for the Promotion of Quality and Values-Based ABA, and on their Licensing Committee. As the former Executive Director of the National Autism Center, she chaired the first National Standards Project, the most comprehensive systematic review of behavioral and educational interventions supporting Autistic people of its time. She developed the first center-based intervention program at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Susan has edited and/or written multiple books, including Postsecondary Transition for College- or Career-Bound Autistic Students. She has published in numerous journals such as Behavior Analysis in Practice, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, and Psychology in the Schools.

A Practical Guide for Finding Interventions that Work for Autistic People: Diversity Affirming Evidence-Based Practice, second edition, provides a socially valid, culturally sensitive, and person-centered resource to aid practitioners in guiding the selection of effective interventions. By providing multiple illustrative examples, practitioners will learn to use their professional judgment to integrate the best available evidence with client values and context. The second edition includes new chapters on diversity affirmation and cultural adaptations of interventions, quality of life, self-determination, guided decision-making, and ethics as foundational skills for identifying effective, socially valid interventions that are delivered with compassion and assent/consent.
- Presents a detailed description of the diversity-affirming evidence-based practice decision-making model
- Offers a framework that helps practitioners integrate the best available evidence with client values and context
- Demonstrates how to culturally adapt interventions and center decision-making on the client
- Guides practitioners through the process of assessing intervention outcomes that fit with client values and contextual variables
- Provides numerous concrete examples involving Autistic people holding many intersecting identities

Section I: Evidence-based practice as a treatment selection model.1. A brief overview2. Ethics and evidence-based practiceSection II: Sources and strength of evidence3. Evidence: Critically evaluating outcomes of single-subject research design studies4. Systematic reviews5. Alternate sources of evidence6. Overestimating or underestimating evidence in behavior analysisSection III: Social Validity and Initial Intervention Selection7. Three dimensions of social validity8. Social validity and your client9. Social validity and interested partiesSection IV: Professional Judgment10. Research alone is not the answer11. Consensus-building without marginalizing Autistic clients12. Initial intervention selection13. Progress monitoring14. What next?Section V: Conclusions15. Putting it all together for ethical service delivery