College of Education

Faculty Profile

Scott Ross, PhD, BCBA

Scott W. Ross, Ph.D., BCBA, started his career as a Special Educator working with students with severe challenging behavior. After getting his PhD and BCBA at the University of Oregon, he took a faculty position teaching in the Special Education and Rehabilitation department at Utah State University. Then, in 2015 he was recruited to the Colorado Department of Education to direct the Office of Learning Supports and the state’s efforts to implement a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), Response to Intervention (RtI), Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and Bullying Prevention. Recently (2020), Dr. Ross joined California State University Monterey Bay, teaching coursework in Special Education and School Psychology, directing the Reading Center, and overseeing the Applied Behavior Analysis credentialing program.

Dr. Ross has over a decade worth of experience across three states developing MTSS and systems change strategies. Prior to Colorado, he was the lead University consultant for the Utah Multi-Tiered System of Supports (UMTSS) project out of Utah State University. Prior to that he coordinated the Effective Behavioral and Instructional Support Systems (EBISS) project out of the University of Oregon.

In addition to his extensive work in MTSS and systems change, Dr. Ross is also an award-winning, national and international expert in bullying prevention, and has published and reviewed extensively for education journals including the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, School Psychology Quarterly, Teaching Exceptional Children, Review of Educational Research, Journal of Special Education, Journal of the National Association for Alternative Certification, and the Journal of Positive Behavior Support. Dr. Ross is the author of the Bullying Prevention in Positive Behavior Support curriculum and corresponding empirical analyses, which has now been implemented in thousands of schools across the country and internationally. He has also acquired over $15 million dollars in grant funds to improve outcomes for students, including the acquisition of State Personnel Development Grants, School Climate Transformation Grants, the Colorado Bullying Prevention and Education Grant Program, and an American Psychological Foundation Grant. Finally, Dr. Ross currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association on Positive Behavior Support (APBS), California PBIS, and Stand for Courage (SfC), a non-profit dedicated to increasing positive recognition for students standing up for each other.