- j.r. kantor

Dora Ragin Powell, MS, LBA, BCBA

📍 Minneapolis, b/w/o North Carolina, California, & New York City

Human / mom / educator / philosopher / scientist / writer / board certified and licensed behavior analyst / school-based behavior consultant / abolitionist / radical behaviorist / supervisor / artist / collaborator / futurist / anti-racist / curious creature / perpetual student of the world.

I am a behavior analyst, educator, consultant, and lifelong student of human behavior. I am a professional independent practitioner engaging with communities informed by behavior science. For more than 20 years, I’ve worked with individuals ages zero to eighty-five, families, educators, and organizations, and since 2017, most of my work has focused on helping public and charter schools build systems that actually support the humans inside them.

My Expertise

My work spans individual behavior, teams, organizations, and the systems that connect them. I’m especially interested in translating behavioral science into things people can actually use - given what is functional, and within its context.

Behavior & Systems
• Designing behavior systems that support staff, educators, and teams
• Practical problem-solving and “quick fixes” for leaders supporting their staff
• Informal functional assessment at the individual, group, and organizational levels
• Formal functional assessment and behavior intervention
• Tiered behavioral intervention across Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, and special education
• Short- and long-term behavior change planning for individuals and groups

Clinical & Educational Practice
• Clinical consultation and decision-making for clinicians and clinical leaders
• De-escalation, crisis prevention, and crisis management for educators and staff
• Motivational Interviewing at individual, group, and organizational scales
• ACT Matrixing with humans ages 5–105
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
• Early literacy, Precision Teaching, and fluency-based instruction

Behavioral Science & Philosophy
• Applying functional contextualism and radical behaviorism to real-world problems
• Understanding and applying philosophical concepts in behavior analysis
• Translating behavioral science into practical systems, strategies, and sustainable behavior change

I do not believe behavior exists in a vacuum. Context matters. Relationships matter. Systems matter. History matters. And sometimes the thing we are calling a “behavior problem” is actually telling us something important about the environment around it.

My work is about figuring out what that something is, and then doing something useful with it.

I provide consultation, coaching, supervision, and professional development in:

I’m interested in the corners and crannies where science meets philosophy, where individual behavior is seen as inseparable from its environment, where internal landscapes are understood as continuations of the external world, where private events are labeled, honored, believed, and cherished, and where understanding something differently might actually give us more possibilities for what to do next.

This is, more or less, what A Functional Context is about.

I’m lighting the candle. If this work speaks to you, come find me.