United Arab Emirates ABA

By Michelle Kelly

The Association for Behavior Analysis – United Arab Emirates (ABA-UAE) was officially affiliated with the ABAI on November 18th, 2020. ABA-UAE registered with the Dubai Association Center (DAC) in September 2020 and was licensed on February 28, 2022.

ABA-UAE’s Executive Committee includes: Dr. Michelle P. Kelly, BCBA-D (President), Ms. Sharifa Yateem, BCBA (President-Elect), Ms. Linda Bailey, BCBA (Secretary), Ms. Nipa Bhuptani, BCaBA (Treasurer), and Adel Wahdain (Student Representative). The Board consists of the Executive Committee and the following members: Dr. Ebrahim Alhajri (Chair), Ms. Khawla Barley (Vice-Chair), and our members-at-large, Mr. Nicholas Orland, BCBA, and Ms. Irene Trifyllis.

The chapter’s activities include, but are not limited to, the following:

Support a national licensing authority to test, license and renew licenses for behavior analysts in the UAE.
Organize educational activities including seminars, workshops, presentations and conferences, either alone or jointly with other professional organizations.
Organize networking opportunities for its members.
Serve the professional needs of behavior analysts in the UAE by working with relevant bodies.
Disseminate information to promote its mission to a wider audience by publishing bi-annual, bilingual, online newsletters.
Disseminate information to promote its mission to a wider audience by creating a bilingual chapter website.
Attend and present at conferences/events outside the field of behavior analysis with a mission to disseminate the science.
Organize an annual business meeting to provide a forum for discussion of the affairs of the chapter.

ABA-UAE has been very active, aiming to achieve the goals outlined above. We would like to outline one of our biggest achievements to date this year which is the organization of online continuing education events for behavior analysts, in collaboration with Emirates College for Advanced Education (ECAE; www.ecae.ac.ae), a higher education institute which offers the only VCSs in the UAE. Since May 2021, ABA-UAE has hosted 12 events, in collaboration with ECAE.

To find and follow ABA-UAE on social media: