About Us
About Kimberly R. Mills, Ph.D. - BCBA-D
.jpg&height=406 "Kimberly R. Mills, Ph.D. - BCBA-D")
Dr. Kimberly Mills, a doctoral level Board Certified Behavior Analyst, is an international expert in the field of developmental disabilities, educational training, and program development. She has 27 years of experience working with youth with varying educational exceptionalities, including autism, giftedness, emotional disturbances, behavior disorders, learning disabilities, mild, moderate, and severe intellectual disabilities, ADD and ADHD, traumatic brain injuries, blindness, Asperger’s Syndrome, and more.
She has provided continuing educational unit, graduate school credit, and continuing legal training to teachers, parents, Master of Education university students, college administrators and professors, social workers, speech and language pathologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, other allied health professionals, attorneys, and judges.
Dr. Mills has worked extensively with young people with typically developing and exceptional needs in a variety of settings, including general education classrooms, self-contained classrooms, therapeutic wilderness schools, residential settings, private centers, private schools, military bases, juvenile detention facilities, court systems, psycho-educational programs, university classrooms, and home-based settings.
She received her Bachelor of Arts from Emory University in English and History in 1995, followed by a Master of Education degree in Behavioral Learning Disabilities from Georgia State University in 2001. In 2007, Dr. Mills completed a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Hawaii in the field of Exceptionalities with a focus on Behavior Disorders and a cognate in Multicultural Education. In 2009, she was certified as an Educational Administrator and School Leader through the University of Georgia. In 2011, Dr. Mills completed a certificate in Behavior Analysis from the University of North Texas. In 2012, she was certified as a Behavior Analyst through the Behavior Analyst Certification Board.
Dr. Mills has served as the Executive Director of an international school for youth with autism and other developmental disabilities in the country of Bermuda. She is the Founder and former President of the Bermuda Association for Behavior Analysis. Dr. Mills also served as the Clinical Director of a groundbreaking school for children with autism spectrum disorders in the New York area. She provided consultation services to the first autism center in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai) and helped develop their clinical program. Dr. Mills has provided service, consultation, and expertise around disability issues in diverse locations throughout the continental United States and in locations around the world, including Japan, Hawaii, Bermuda, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Middle East.
She has served as a board member for many national youth-serving organizations, including The KIPP Foundation and the NFL/YET Center in collaboration with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. She currently serves as a member of the Board for the St. Croix Animla and Welfare Center as well as the Women's Coalition of St. Croix. Dr. Mills was an article reviewer for the National Autism Center’s (NAC) National Standards Project. In that capacity, she helped evaluate the worldwide scholarly research related to effective treatments for people with autism. She served a term as Vice-Chairperson for the Council on Research and Evaluation with the Association of University Centers on Disability (AUCD).
Dr. Mills has worked on several national and international policy initiatives, including helping to rewrite the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice legal codes, advising on changes in special education regulations in the state of Georgia, and helping to ensure that nonprofit organizations in the country of Bermuda exercised practices in adherence with the best international standards and indicators of civic wellness. Dr. Mills is the Executive Director of the U.S. Virgin Islands University Center on Excellence in Developmental Disabilities and holds an Affiliate Faculty appointment with the University of Hawaii.
Dr. Kimberly Mills is currently the Senior Executive Director of the Virgin Islands University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (VIUCEDD) at the University of the Virgin Islands. In this capacity, she helped establish the first Tricare Autism Demonstration Project in the U.S. Virgin Islands and is also the creator of The Autism and Developmental Disability Research Center (ADDRC) at the University of the Virgin Islands. The ADDRC is a model research and assessment center that is used as a training space to teach best practices in early intervention assessment and screening as well as verbal behavior and other adaptive skills to youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities. She is an Affiliate Faculty with the University of Hawaii Center on Disabilities Studies (CDS). She is the former Vice Chairperson for the Council on Research and Evaluation (CORE) at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities. Kimberly Mills participated as a Professional Fellow with the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Professional Fellows Program on Inclusive Disability Employment (PFP-IDE), which supports mid-career professionals (Fellows) from Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Dr. Mills’ current research activities include mixed-method analyses of Technical Assistance Outcomes for Early Head Start, Head Start, and Department of Education employees, as well as empirical analyses of practices relating to the effective treatment of youth and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Her current practice also includes person-centered behavioral supports for persons with disabilities in the USVI and work related to the school-to-prison pipeline on the U.S. mainland, in the U.S. territories, and in international locations.
She is an internationally renowned speaker, published author, educational trainer, and educational and legislative policy advocate who has been featured at disability, educational, legal, and social service conferences around the globe as an expert in the field of research-based service delivery to youth with disabilities, autism, learning challenges, as well as those considered to be at-risk. Dr. Mills has taken fledgling programs and elevated them to the status of national models of excellence.
When she is not working, Dr. Mills enjoys playing musical instruments and composing original music. She is an accomplished and self-taught pianist and guitarist. She also enjoys scuba diving, traveling, having tea, and spending time in nature with family and friends.