David Celiberti, PhD, BCBA-D
Association for Science in Autism Treatment

SAT Celebrates Sarah FramptonAlthough ASAT is fortunate to have an incredible Board of Directors and Professional Advisory Board, much of the work that makes our mission possible is accomplished by the many volunteers who generously share their time, expertise, and passion for science-based autism treatment. In this installment of our volunteer spotlight series, we are pleased to celebrate one of those contributors, Dr. Sarah Frampton, whose work and dedication have helped ASAT make the many concepts underlying scientific thinking more accessible to our readers.

I distinctly remember my first conversation with Dr. Sarah Frampton. I was lamenting that our Science Corner column needed some love and direction. ASAT was looking for someone who could invigorate Science Corner, a recurring column of Science in Autism Treatment designed to help consumers, young professionals, and others develop a better appreciation for the scientific method and the concepts that underlie scientific inquiry. Recognizing that not everyone has a scientific background, we wanted Science Corner to break down complex scientific concepts into accessible, practical pieces of information. Our goal was straightforward: greater knowledge can lead to more informed decisions, and more informed decisions can ultimately lead to better outcomes for children and adults with autism.

Sarah has been instrumental in bringing that vision to life, as you can readily see from the lengthy list of articles published below. Her contributions have addressed some of the fundamental questions that arise when evaluating autism research, including whether a study’s findings can be trusted, whether the results can be generalized to other people and settings, and whether factors other than the treatment itself might explain the observed changes.

More specifically, Sarah’s work on internal validity has been particularly valuable in helping readers understand why research findings must be interpreted carefully. Sarah has authored or co-authored Science Corner articles addressing threats to internal validity, including maturation, history, instrumentation, and infidelity. Her 2024 article, An Overview of Internal Validity: Was It Really the Treatment That Made a Difference?, provided a broad introduction to this essential concept.

Sarah has also helped readers move beyond asking whether a study was conducted well to consider whether its findings are meaningful to the people and circumstances that matter to them. Her Science Corner contributions on external validity, participant characteristics, and ecological validity have explored the important question of whether research findings can be generalized beyond the specific participants and settings included in a study.

More recently, Sarah has helped readers integrate these concepts. In Putting It All Together: Navigating the Gaps in Research, she examined how consumers can think critically about the limitations and gaps that inevitably exist within a body of research. In Can I Trust These Results? A Deep Dive into Quality Indicators of Autism Research, she and I provided readers with another practical framework for evaluating the quality of autism research.

Sarah’s contributions to Science Corner extend beyond research design. She has also helped readers understand the research process itself, including the importance of research ethics. Her recent co-authored article, An Introduction to Research Ethics, provides an accessible introduction to the ethical principles that guide responsible research and has laid the groundwork for a special series of articles to be published over the next several months on the topic of ethics and research. Sarah authored Rejected, Revised, Resilient: The Ultimate Path of a Peer-Reviewed Paper, which gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at the often-misunderstood process through which scientific work makes its way into the peer-reviewed literature. Furthermore, Sarah is well known and respected in the field, and as such, she has recruited several outside writers who have either co-authored articles with her or authored articles of their own. For example, Sarah co-authored ASAT’s Treatment Summary on Direct Instruction with Dr. Alice Shillingsburg.

Taken together, Sarah’s contributions reflect an important part of ASAT’s mission: not simply providing information about autism treatment but helping people develop the tools they need to evaluate information for themselves. In a landscape where claims about autism interventions are abundant, and “scientific-sounding information” can be difficult to distinguish from well-supported evidence, those skills are increasingly important.

We are deeply grateful to Sarah for the expertise, thoughtfulness, and time she has shared with ASAT. Her work has helped make complicated concepts understandable without sacrificing scientific rigor, and her contributions have strengthened our efforts to promote informed decision-making among families, professionals, and individuals with autism.

In terms of her day job, Sarah is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Nebraska Omaha, where she teaches courses on small-n research, learning, basic research, and organizational behavior management in the Master of Applied Behavior Analysis program.  As professional “side-hustles,” she is an Associate Editor for Behavior Analysis in Practice and serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, and The Analysis of Verbal Behavior. She also serves as an Area Coordinator for the Verbal Behavior and Cognition Area for the Association for Behavior Analysis International. In this role, she helps invite speakers to the conference and supports authors submitting to the conference in this domain.

For fun times, when she has them, Sarah loves watching her kids participate in dance, baseball, and basketball or going to watch the San Francisco Giants play with her husband (although last season was meh). You may also find her reading a book or drinking wine with friends while playing Splendor, which, by the way, comes with Sarah’s highest endorsement.

Thank you, Sarah! We appreciate all that you have done, and continue to do, to help ASAT share accessible, high-quality information about science-based autism treatment.

Science Corner:

Frampton, S. E. (2024). Science Corner: An overview of internal validity: Was it really the treatment that made a difference? Science in Autism Treatment, 21(8).

Frampton, S. E. (2025). Science Corner: An overview of external validity. Science in Autism Treatment, 22(7).

Frampton, S. E. (2024). Science Corner: History as a threat to internal validity. Science in Autism Treatment, 21(10).

Frampton, S., & Rocheleau, A. (2024). Science Corner: Maturation as a threat to internal validity. Science in Autism Treatment, 21(9).

Gunderson, G., & Frampton, S. E. (2026). Science Corner: An introduction to research ethics. Science in Autism Treatment, 23(8).

Rangel, C., & Frampton, S. E. (2025). Science Corner: Infidelity as a threat to internal validity. Science in Autism Treatment, 22(3).

Jackson, K., & Frampton, S. E. (2025). Science Corner: Instrumentation as a threat to internal validity. Science in Autism Treatment, 22(1).

Frampton, S. E. (2026). Science Corner: Putting it altogether: Navigating gaps in research. Science in Autism Treatment, 23(4).

Frampton, S. E., & Celiberti, D. (2026). Science Corner: Can I trust these results? A deep dive into quality indicators of autism research, Science in Autism Treatment, 23(5).

Other Articles:

Shillingsburg, A., & Frampton, S. E. (2023). Direct Instruction: A treatment summary. Science in Autism Treatment, 20(1).

Frampton, S. E. (2025). Rejected, revised, resilient: The ultimate path of a peer-reviewed paper. Science in Autism Treatment, 22(6).

Reference for this article:

Celiberti, D. (2026). Celebrating Dr. Sarah E. Frampton. Science in Autism Treatment, 23(11).

Other Volunteer Spotlights:

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