Christina Alligood

Dr. Christy Alligood is a doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst whose 20 years of experience spans the science and practice of behavior analysis. She began her career in behavior analysis conducting human operant research on emergent stimulus relations in adults and children. She has also worked in home, school, and clinic settings with children with challenging behavior and their caregivers and teachers, and has supervised students in these areas of practice. For over 14 years, Dr. Alligood has used her expertise in the application of behavior analysis to enhance the welfare of nonhuman animals through cooperative training, environmental enrichment, behavioral problem solving, and behavior change strategies supporting the conservation of wildlife and wild places. At Disney’s Animals, Science, and Environment, much of her initial work focused on a multi-faceted conservation program for Key Largo woodrats, which received a Bean Award for Significant Achievement in Captive Breeding from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (2009) and a Federal Challenge Grant (2010) in collaboration with the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge for population monitoring work on Key Largo. More recently she has worked with the Behavioral Husbandry team, where she focuses on projects involving training, enrichment, and animal learning in a wide variety of nonhuman animal species, as well as science communication to both internal staff and the general public.

Dr. Alligood has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in on-ground, online, and hybrid formats. She has taught courses focusing on a variety of topics, including introductory behavior analysis, research methods, radical behaviorism, supervision, and applications of behavior analysis with humans and animals. She maintains a strong interest in designing effective, evidence-based instruction, and has used innovative methods such as interteaching and student-led inquiry in online instruction. She was a 2021 nominee for the University of Florida College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teacher of the Year Award. Outside the higher-education setting, Dr. Alligood has taught professional development courses for behavior analysts and animal professionals. She is an instructor for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums “Environmental Enrichment in Zoos and Aquariums” course, and the creator and instructor of the BehaviorWorks “How Research Works” course.

Dr. Alligood has served in many leadership roles in the Association for Behavior Analysis International, including president of the Applied Animal Behavior Special Interest Group, Coordinator of the Special Interest Groups Board, Co-coordinator of the Applied Animal Behavior program area, and At-large Representative to the Executive Council. She is also a past president and secretary of the Southeastern Association for Behavior Analysis. She is currently a general member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums Behavior Advisory Group serving on the Culture Change working group. She sits on the editorial boards of Zoo Biology and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB) In 2022, she was the guest editor of a special issue of JEAB, “Strengthening the Research-Practice Loop in Applied Animal Behavior”. She frequently serves as an ad-hoc reviewer for other behavior-analytic and animal-focused journals, and as a grant reviewer for the Disney Conservation Fund. She has published in both peer-reviewed and popular outlets on topics related to applications of behavior analysis with animals as well as graduate training in behavior analysis. She is also frequently invited to speak at regional, national, and international conferences, and has given over 50 scholarly presentations.