The Name on Your Textbook: Raymond Miltenberger Wins SABA Award

By the Ripley Fieldwork Tracker team · Published September 12, 2026 · Reviewed September 2, 2026 · 4 min read

Watercolor illustration of a professor at a lectern accepting a glass award, a well-worn textbook tucked under his arm

If you are working toward BCBA certification, you probably know Raymond Miltenberger from the spine of your textbook. "Behavior Modification: Principles and Procedures" has introduced the core principles of behavior analysis to a generation of trainees. This spring, the field recognized the program he built around that work.

Raymond Miltenberger accepted the Society for the Advancement of Behavior Analysis's Enduring Programmatic Contributions in Behavior Analysis award on May 23, 2026, at the Association for Behavior Analysis International's 52nd annual convention in San Francisco. Miltenberger is a professor and director of the applied behavior analysis program at the University of South Florida.

SABA President Kent Johnson presented the award at Moscone Center West. The honor, given since 1998, recognizes lasting programmatic contributions to the development of behavior analysis.

USF's Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis, which Miltenberger has directed since founding it in 2006, marks its 20th anniversary this year. The program, accredited by the ABAI Accreditation Board, is housed in the Department of Child and Family Studies within USF's College of Behavioral and Community Sciences. Miltenberger invited fellow ABA faculty in attendance to join him on stage.

"I was honored to accept this award on behalf of the faculty and students in the USF ABA program," he said in a USF announcement. "The award reflects the hard work and dedication of our faculty who have made our program an enduring success."

Four decades in the field

Miltenberger earned his PhD in clinical psychology from Western Michigan University in 1985 after a predoctoral internship in developmental disabilities and behavioral pediatrics at the Kennedy Institute at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He spent 21 years at North Dakota State University before moving to Tampa in 2006 to launch the USF ABA program.

His research centers on behavioral skills training, the teaching method built on instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. Much of that work has focused on child safety, including firearm safety and abduction prevention, alongside applications of ABA to sports and fitness. He has published more than 250 journal articles and chapters. His textbook, "Behavior Modification: Principles and Procedures" (Cengage), is now in its seventh edition and, according to USF, has been published in six languages.

Miltenberger served as president of both ABAI and SABA and holds fellowships in ABAI and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2008 he received APA Division 25's Distinguished Contributions to Applied Behavioral Research Award. In 2022, ABAI's Student Committee gave him its Outstanding Mentorship Award; he has co-authored published research with 173 students across his two institutional posts.

In May 2025, he delivered the Montrose Wolf/Don Baer Lecture at ABAI's 51st convention in Washington, D.C., an invited address drawn from 40 years of applied behavioral skills training research. He has attended every ABAI annual convention since 1979.

Why this matters if you're in fieldwork right now

Behavioral skills training is not just Miltenberger's research area; it is likely how you are being trained. When a supervisor explains a procedure, models it, has you rehearse it, and gives you feedback, that is BST. Personnel supervision and training is its own content area in the BACB's test content outline for the sixth-edition exam, and the BCBA Handbook sets the supervision and training standards your fieldwork is measured against, both drawing on the research tradition Miltenberger helped build.

His career is also a useful reminder for trainees logging hours: the award recognizes a program, not a single study. Consistent, well-documented work over time is what the field values, the same habit that makes accurate fieldwork tracking worth building early.

Ripley is independent and is not affiliated with the BACB, SABA, ABAI, or the University of South Florida. No endorsement is implied.

Sources

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