Friday photos: It's Lisa Bowman-Perrott
Even if it isn't her birthday, isn't it a great day to celebrate her contributions?
Decades ago I had the good fortune to get to know Lisa Bowman-Perrott and, thus, having the good fortune to watch her become a stellar contributor to special education, school psychology, and the education of students with disabilities. Lisa is now a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at Texas A&M University where she teaches and studies academic and social interventions for students with disabilities and English learners.
Readers with sufficient long-term memory may recognize her name because we reported about one of Lisa’s papers in “Reading interventions in high school for Els with disabilities” 11 March 2026. Lisa’s article (with colleagues, of course) that was the focus of that post has at least three features that are characteristic of how valuable she is to our SET world. First, of course, it addressed an important area of special education for selected students with disabilities, and a big part of that importance is that the area is understudied. Second, the team approached that topic with a wonderful combination of passion for helping kids and appropriate dispassion required for strong scientific work. And, third, she and her colleagues used excellent methods in their meta-analysis.
Relatively recent publications serve as illustrations of Lisa employing those same characteristics and competencies over and over again. Her full vita has too many entries to list them here, but I want to mention a few (beyond Bowman-Perrott, Boon et al., 2025, mentioned previously) to show how widely evident her talents are.
Bowman-Perrott, Davis et al. (2013) reported the effects of peer-tutoring interventions on academic outcomes;
Bowman-Perrott, Burke et al. (2014) was a study of social and behavioral outcomes in studies of peer-tutoring interventions;
Bowman-Perrott, Burke, Zaini et al (2016) described the outcomes of a specific peer-mediated intervention, the Good Behavior Game;
Bowman-Perrott, Gilson et al. (2023) examined the effects of peer-mediated interventions of students with emotional a behavioral disorders; and
Bowman-Perrott, Ragan et al. (2023) provided a companion review of peer-mediated interventions for students with intellectual disorders.
Looking across these few examples, it is clear to me that Lisa has been mining a particular vein of ore (peer-mediated interventions) and has done so across multiple categories of disability and that she knows how to integrate research reports into coherent chunks. Wins for special education.
Lisa has also been a stalwart contributor to the scientific enterprise, reviewing for many journals in special education and school psychology as well as serving in the editor’s role. I repeatedly tried to convince her to join the editorial board of Exceptional Children, during the time Bill Therrien were editors, but the timing was not right for her (I think I still extracted a couple of reviews for EC from her). In addition, she has been a panel member for the Institute of Education Sciences and other funding agencies. And, as if she wasn’t doing enough, she’s been active in national organizations such as Association for Positive Behavior Support, the American Psychological Association, the Divisions for Cultually and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Learners, for Emotional and Behavioral Health, and for Research in the Council for Exceptional Children.
As a perusal of the co-authors for her publications will reveal, she has collaborated with many fine special educators (some of whom are right here on SET—queue Mack B.). She has worked with many others such as Judy Carta, Charlie Greenwood, Cathy Kea, Kimber Vannest, and the late Jim Kauffman
Readers who are keen to learn more about Lisa can visit Texas A&M’s Web page about her or download her vita (as of 2026).
References
Bowman-Perrott, L., Boon, R. T., Ewoldt, K. B., Burke, M. D., Eslami, Z., & Mirzaei, A. (2025). Reading interventions to support English learners with disabilities in high school: A systematic review. Education Sciences, 15(2), 223. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci15020223
Bowman-Perrott, L., Burke, M. D., Zhang, N., & Zaini, S. (2014). Direct and collateral effects of peer tutoring on social and behavioral outcomes: A meta-analysis of single-case research. School Psychology Review, 43(3), 260-285. https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2014.12087427
Bowman-Perrott, L., Burke, M. D., Zaini, S., Zhang, N., & Vannest, K. (2016). Promoting positive behavior using the Good Behavior Game: A meta-analysis of single-case research. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 18(3), 180-190. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098300715592355
Bowman-Perrott, L., Davis, H., Vannest, K., Williams, L., Greenwood, C., & Parker, R. (2013). Academic benefits of peer tutoring: A meta-analytic review of single-case research. School Psychology Review, 42(1), 39-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2013.12087490
Bowman-Perrott, L., Gilson, C., Boon, R. T., & Ingles, K. E. (2023). Peer-mediated interventions for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities: A systematic review of reviews of social and behavioral outcomes. Developmental Neurorehabilitation, 26(2), 134-154. https://doi.org/10.1080/17518423.2023.2169878
Bowman-Perrott, L., Ragan, K., Boon, R. T., & Burke, M. D. (2023). Peer tutoring interventions for students with or at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders: A systematic review of reviews. Behavior Modification, 47(3), 777-815. https://doi.org/10.1177/01454455221118359