TAGteach Principals and Scientific Advisory Board

Aaron Clayton, President
Aaron Clayton is a management executive with over 15 years experience, much of it associated with growing service-based businesses. For the last four years, Aaron has been extensively involved with reinforcement-based teaching and learning as the president of KPCT, a company founded by Karen Pryor. Prior to joining TAGteach LLC and KPCT, Aaron helped found and fund a human resources company and was a partner at a consulting firm that focused on improving the market position and performance of Fortune 500 companies. Aaron holds a Bachelors degree from Brown University and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Aaron lives outside of Boston with his wife Wendy and two children, Michal and Elianna.


Theresa McKeon, Principal and Vice President
Theresa is a coach and flexibility expert in the field of competitive athletics and currently coaches teams of nationally competitive gymnasts with the TAGteach system.
With over 25 years of practical experience, she has personally trained athletes from a variety of disciplines, including gymnastics, dance, diving, ice-skating, ice hockey and horseback riding. Many of her students have attained national and international competitive status, including JO National gymnastic champions, and the world and five-time National Aerobic Team champions.
In addition to athletics Theresa has taught, directed and acted for major performing arts centers and councils, as well as for film and television. Theresa is also a pioneer in applying concepts from one discipline to another including using the Theatre Arts as a tool for teaching math and English.
Theresa McKeon holds Bachelor Degrees in Theatre and Dance from Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI, studied Theatre and Dance in London, NYC, and at the American Dance Festival. Theresa currently resides in North Carolina with her husband, Brian, and two children, Matt and Katie.


Joan Orr, Principal and Vice President
Joan is a scientist with 20 years of experience in the application of scientific principles to study design and data interpretation. She has used positive marker based techniques for more than 10 years and more recently has instructed others in TAGteach.
Joan is a former competitive athlete and has competed at a national level. She is the mother of two competitive athletes and has coached using TAGteach in several sports including volleyball, soccer, Special Olympics rhythmic gymnastics, long jump and high jump. She has worked with experts Theresa McKeon and Karen Pryor to develop methods for TAGteach with child athletes.
Joan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Waterloo and a Master’s degree in Biochemistry from MacMaster University and operates a private consulting practice in the fields of human health and environmental risk assessment. Joan lives in Campbellville, a small village in Southern Ontario, with her husband, Dave, two daughters, Newfoundland dog, cat and two bunnies.


Karen Pryor, CEO
Karen Pryor is a scientist with an international reputation in two fields, marine mammal biology and behavioral psychology. Through her field work in the 1960’s she pioneered modern, force-free training methods and ever since has been a pioneer in and leading proponent of marker based teaching and training, the science underlying the TAGteach system (see clicker training).
She is the author of many scientific papers and monographs and seven books including a seminal work on positive-based learning, Don’t Shoot The Dog, widely read and used in learning and behavior environments since it’s publication in the 1970s.
A native of New York, Karen has lived and worked for extensive periods in both Hawaii and Washington state. Karen has three children and seven grandchildren and now lives in the greater Boston area


Beth Wheeler, Principal and Vice President
Beth is the owner and director of A Dancer’s Dream, Inc. a successful dance studio and school with a number of offshoot businesses all geared toward educating and raising children with compassion and consideration. In keeping with this mission, Beth has been responsible for creating some of the most innovative children’s programming in the Boston area.
A Dancer’s Dream is the nation’s first studio whose teachers are all TAGteach certified and where the TAGteach philosophy is an intrinsic element of the curriculum. In addition to her continued attention to studio development, Beth has chaired the Marblehead Children’s Arts festival (the nation’s longest running arts festival), produced & directed Boston based Dance-Runway Productions and has sat on the board of the Massachusetts Arts Council & the Marblehead Festival of Arts. Additionally, her choreography has been seen on national television commercials, music videos, industrials, Marblehead Little Theatre productions and, of course, on thousands of young dancers throughout the years. Beth’s performing career included national TV, music video and industrial credits, Dance-Runway Productions as well as years of print & runway modeling.
Beth’s dance training began in the Boston area and continued at Roger Williams University and New York City. Though Beth greatly values all that TAGteach and her love for dance has lead her to, she sits in awe that nothing compares to her number one job as Jake’s mom and Frank’s partner.


TAGteach Advisory Board

Carl Binder, Ph.D., was a graduate student of B.F. Skinner’s and is now a leader in the fields of precision teaching and human performance technology, a widely sought-after speaker, and author of dozens of publications in the fields of instructional design, performance improvement, knowledge management, sales and marketing, and educational policy. He and wife Cynthia Riha,co-founded Binder-Riha Associates with the goal of enabling clients to adopt and implement research-based performance improvement methods themselves (versus outsourcing them), thereby developing their own core organizational competencies.

Cynthia Riha has been a top sales producer, sales manager, business development strategist, entrepreneur, and business development consultant in diverse industries, including transportation, hospitality, telecommunications, manufacturing/engineering, and aerospace. With husband Carl Binder, she runs Binder-Riha Associates, an organization specializing in developing training and instructional competence within corporations.

Suzann Schiemer, Ph.D., a K-5 Physical Education Specialist in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, is a nationally-recognized expert in assessing student learning in physical education. Schiemer is a consultant for numerous in-services, workshops, and organizations throughout the United States. She is a member of the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, and the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

E.A. Vargas, Ph.D., is a leading figure in the field of behavioral science. Formerly a member of the faculty of the University of West Virginia, he is vice president of the B.F. Skinner Foundation and active in the Association for Behavior Analysis and other professional organizations.

Julie S. Vargas, Ph.D., is a leading figure in the field of behavioral science. Recently retired from the faculty of the University of West Virginia, she is a director of the B.F. Skinner Foundation and active in the Association for Behavior Analysis and other professional organizations. She is dedicated to the dissemination of the principles and applications of behavior analysis and the work of her father, pioneering behavioral scientist B.F. Skinner.
 

Back to Media Page Contents List