Dr. Brian Barber
Biography
Brian R. Barber is an associate professor in the School of Lifespan Development and Educational Sciences at Kent State University. His research focuses on the intersection of behavioral intervention, developmental regulation, and environmental design for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). He studies how school systems—especially alternative and self-contained classrooms—can better align interventions with students’ developmental capacities and the contextual demands they face.
Dr. Barber’s work has been supported by more than $5 million in competitive funding from federal agencies, state departments, and research organizations. He partners with educators to examine how interventions unfold in real-world settings and consults with school districts across the country to strengthen proactive behavior supports, discipline systems, and tiered intervention frameworks.
He is a past president of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division for Emotional and Behavioral Health and serves in leadership roles within CEC, the American Educational Research Association (AERA), and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). He is also a member of several editorial boards for journals in special education and behavioral intervention.
At Kent State, Dr. Barber teaches graduate courses in research methodology, systematic review and meta-analysis, and education law, as well as undergraduate courses in classroom management and high-incidence disabilities. He has published extensively and presented his work at more than 100 conferences at the state, national, and international levels.
Before entering academia, he spent eight years as a teacher and administrator in specialized programs serving students with disabilities.
Expertise
- Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD)
- Behavioral and Regulatory Intervention Design
- Experimental, Survey, and Intervention Research Methods
- Intensive Behavior Supports and Alternative Education Settings
- Contextual Fit and Adaptation of Interventions
Recent Research and Leadership Activities
- Co-Principal Investigator of a federally funded randomized controlled trial examining the efficacy of a self-regulation intervention for middle school students with emotional and behavioral challenges
- Former President of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division for Emotional and Behavioral Health, leading national efforts in policy advocacy, professional development, and field advancement for students with high-intensity behavioral needs
- Editorial board member for leading journals in special education and behavioral science, including Behavioral Disorders and Educational Psychology
- Advances conceptual scholarship on how behavioral supports align with students’ developmental regulation needs and the structure of classroom environments in intensive educational settings
Education
M.Ed. Education Leadership, University of Florida
Publications
- Barber, B. R. (in review). Crisis fatigue and the ecology of dysregulation: A mid-level theory of regulatory exhaustion in students with emotional and behavioral disorders.
- Ma, J., Smith, S. W., & Barber, B. R. (2025). Goalsetting instruction for students who receive services for emotional and behavioral disorders. Intervention in School and Clinic, 60(3), 156-168.
- Gagnon, J. C., Gurel, S., Barber, B. R., Houchins, D., Lane, H., McCray, E., & Lambert, R. (2025). Teacher instructional approaches and student engagement and behavioral responses during reading instruction in a juvenile corrections school. Journal of Emo
- Bedesem, P. L., Barber, B. R., & Rosenblatt, K. (2024). A teacher’s guide to technology- based self-monitoring. Intervention in School and Clinic, 59(5), 312-318.
- Freeman, J., Peterson, R., Kern, L., Mathur, S., Barber, B. R., Power, M., & Perea, M. (2023). The Council for Children with Behavioral Disorders' position on eliminating the use of seclusion in educational settings. Behavioral Disorders, 48(2), 134-144.