Hello CLMers and Colleagues,
February marks a year since Vicci Tucci’s passing. We, her friends and colleagues, will take this month to gather and publish stories about Vicci and her living legacy, The Competent Learner Model. Please enjoy the first of these stories from Kristen Wood, Program Director at Tucci Learning Solutions and 20 year collaborator in the development of the CLM.
Please send your contributions and photos, short or long, large or small to stories@
Also look for an exciting addition in the coming days to the Competent Learner Model website. Our timeline is almost finished and we are excited to share it with you!
Vicci Tucci and Kristen Wood
When I met Vicci Tucci in 1998, she completely upended my life. I was a middle school teacher on maternity leave, and Vicci was looking for help editing her curriculum & training materials. Vic always gave people chances that they wouldn’t have believed possible… and she entrusted me to edit her model. There I was with a new baby and this new approach to working with ASD learners. The offer was irresistible. As Vicci continued developing the Competent Learner Model, I helped her in every way that I could. She was a brilliant pioneer in the field of behavior analysis, and a woman who believed deeply in core values. I shared these core values and I found myself unable to return to classroom teaching.
The company continued to grow, and the CLM was constantly in development. Whatever Vicci wanted to do is what we did. It was so fun! We developed relationships with educators and regional centers and people who cared about kids and values. We served kids and families and worked really hard to ensure there was integrity in the work we provided. Vicci was the hardest working person I’ve ever met. She was so driven to help people, and support people and teach people and bring the practices of Skinner’s work to life in daily programming. Her drive to teach people with little to no training, how to change behavior through skill acquisition with zero coercive practice … This is the spirit of the company.
Covid closed our practice in March 2020 and at that time Vicci took the opportunity to step away from daily operations. She entrusted a small team of her long-time core staff to continue the work. Stabilizing TUCCi and holding onto our treasured and highly trained team members was a major accomplishment. As our leadership team was growing into our responsibilities, we were truly caught off guard on February 7, 2024 when we learned that Vicci had passed away peacefully in her sleep at her home in West Virginia.
She didn’t leave us though because our biggest asset remains the vision Vicci made a reality: to create a world of competent learners, through playful and noncoercive practices. Operationally, we continue to do all we can to serve and support our clients and support everyone using the Competent Learner Model to work with learners around the nation and around the world.
With heartfelt gratitude, we celebrate the retirement of Michele Saleh, Tucci Learning Solutions’ Early Start Program Coordinator and an extraordinary leader whose influence has shaped countless lives. Although Michele officially
