Zachary H. Morford, Ph.D., BCBA-D, is Clinical Analytics Program Manager in the Research Department at Easterseals Southern California (ESSC). His training is in the experimental analysis of behavior and applied behavior analysis, and his work sits at the intersection of behavior analysis and data science.
Much of Morford's work centers on data science and analytics in ABA service delivery. He has developed clinical metrics and predictive models supporting more than 3,000 clients and 350 clinicians, applied machine learning to identify the controllable variables most associated with client progress, and built industry benchmarks on pay, turnover, and quality of care drawn from tens of thousands of ABA professionals. This work has translated large, complex datasets into tools that clinical leaders can use to improve care.
His broader research interests include organizational behavior management (OBM), performance management, and gamification, the application of game-design principles to behavior change. He also maintains an ongoing interest in disequilibrium theory, a behavior-regulation account of reinforcement, and has contributed to this line of work through peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, including the APA Handbook of Behavior Analysis.
His work appears in journals including Behavior Analysis in Practice, The Behavior Analyst, the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, and Behavioural Processes. He serves as a reviewer for several academic journals, serves on the ABAI Application Review Committee, and is adjunct faculty at the University of Colorado, Denver. He previously served as an assistant professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, where he taught courses in research methods, ethics, and scientific writing.
Morford earned his bachelor's in psychology from the Georgia Institute of Technology, his master's in behavior analysis from the University of North Texas, and his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Vermont.
