Dr. Peter Alter

Professional Overview

Peter Alter is a Professor of Special Education at Saint Mary’s College of California, where he has served on the faculty since 2011 and previously chaired the Teacher Education Department from 2017 to 2020. He earned his doctorate from the University of Florida and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA).

From 2022 to 2024, Dr. Alter worked as a BCBA for Carmel Unified School District, where he supported the implementation of evidence-based behavioral interventions and systems to improve student outcomes.

Dr. Alter’s areas of expertise include effective instruction for diverse learners, classroom and behavior management, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and high-quality teacher preparation. He is the principal investigator on an $8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, awarded in partnership with the University of Kansas, to expand the Class-Wide Function-related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) program.

He previously served as co-editor of Beyond Behavior, the practitioner journal of the Council for Children with Behavior Disorders, from 2010 to 2013. Dr. Alter has authored 26 publications, including the co-authored textbook Managing Classroom Behavior Using Positive Behavior Supports. He has delivered more than 35 research presentations at state, national, and international conferences and has conducted over 75 teacher-training workshops across the United States and internationally.