Dr Serena Tomlinson

Dr Serena Tomlinson joined the Tizard Centre in 2012, was appointed as a Lecturer in 2017 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2023. She has a first class honours BSc in Applied Psychology, a PCert in Higher Education, PDip in Applied Behaviour Analysis and a PhD in Applied Psychology. She is also a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral Level (BCBA-D) and a UKBA(Cert).

Dr Tomlinson initially joined the Tizard Centre as a Research Assistant and has worked on a number of applied projects focusing on early intervention, family carer support and transition. Alongside this, she began teaching at the Centre in 2013 before being appointed as a Lecturer in 2017 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2023. Dr Tomlinson teaches across all the Centre’s courses with a particular focus on Applied Behaviour Analysis and Positive Behaviour Support, and she continues to carry out applied research through a number of research projects at the Centre.

Prior to joining the Centre, Dr Tomlinson worked in a range of applied settings with children and young people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, including residential specialist education for children with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC) and behaviour that challenges; placements with clinical psychologists in the NHS; short break services; and one-to-one support for children with intellectual disabilities.

Dr Tomlinson’s research interests include:

• Early intervention and prevention for behaviours that challenge in children with intellectual disabilities / developmental disabilities (IDD)
• Education for children with IDD
• Support for family carers of children with IDD, including in relation to parenting and their own wellbeing
• Early years support both for family carers of children with an IDD and for family carers of children without an IDD where family carers have an IDD themselves
• The use of ABA and PBS in the UK
• The use of telehealth for behavioural support 

Dr Tomlinson teaches across both of the Tizard Centre’s postgraduate courses, primarily focusing on the MSc in Applied Behaviour Analysis and Positive Behaviour Support.

Dr Tomlinson supervises students on the MSc in Applied Behaviour Analysis and Positive Behaviour Support working on practice based and research projects. She also supervises PhD candidates on projects related to her research interests and expertise.

• UKBA (cert)
• Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral (BCBA-D)