Gerald Koocher


Gerald Paul Koocher is an American psychologist and past president of the American Psychological Association. His interests include ethics, clinical child psychology and the study of scientific misconduct. He is Dean Emeritus Simmons College and also holds an academic appointment at Harvard Medical School. Koocher has over 300 publications including 16 books and has edited three scholarly journals including Ethics & Behavior which he founded. Koocher was mentioned in the Hoffman Report, an APA investigation into psychologists' involvement in interrogation at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Biography

Career

Gerald Koocher earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from Boston University in 1968. He completed a master's degree and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Missouri. He worked full-time at Boston's Children's Hospital from 1971 to 2001, ultimately serving as chief of psychology. While at Boston Children's, he was an associate professor at Harvard Medical School. In June 2001 he became a professor and dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences at Simmons College in Boston. He later served as associate provost at Simmons, while continuing part-time service at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He began serving as dean of the College of Science and Health at DePaul University on July 1, 2013. In September, 2018 he began serving as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Quincy College. https://www.patriotledger.com/news/20180717/quincy-college-hires-first-ever-provost
Koocher is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was elected a fellow of thirteen APA divisions. He is the first person to be awarded five specialty diplomas from the American Board of Professional Psychology. In 2006 he became president of the APA. He had previously served on the APA's board of directors as Treasurer of APA for ten years. Koocher is the founder of the journal Ethics & Behavior and served as editor for 26 years. He is a past editor of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology and The Clinical Psychologist.

Children's Understanding of Death and Loss

Beginning in the early 1970s while still a graduate student, Koocher began studying children's understanding of death and loss. He published several papers growing out of his doctoral dissertation research.

Family Coping with Chronic Illness

Koocher has developed an interest in the flip-side of the evidence based practice movement by studying discredited mental health theories, therapies, and assessment tools that have come into popular use. He has trademarked the term "Psychoquackery" and is developing popular press materials for the public. His scholarly work on these topics include:
The Hoffman Report, a 542-page independent review report conducted by former assistant U.S. attorney David H. Hoffman, was issued to the special committee of the American Psychological Association's board of directors relating to ethics guidelines, enhanced interrogation techniques, and torture. The Hoffman report describes how, "Leaders of the American Psychological Association secretly collaborated with officials at the Pentagon and CIA to weaken the association’s ethical guidelines and allow psychologists to take part in coercive interrogation programs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks." The Hoffman report lists Koocher as one of the leading APA officials intimately involved in the coordinated effort to align APA actions with DoD preferences. In a statement on his personal web site Koocher disputed a number of aspects of the report, and asserted that, "We never colluded with government agencies or the military to craft APA policies in order to justify their goals or the illegal 'enhanced interrogation' practices promoted by the administration of President George W. Bush".

Awards

1969 1970 United States Public Health Service Fellow, University of Missouri
1971 Psi Chi
1977 Elected a Fellow of the American Psychological Association
1981 Jack D. Krasner Memorial Award, Division of Psychotherapy, American Psychological Association
1983 Distinguished Professional Contribution Award, Section on Clinical Child Psychology, American Psychological Association
1986 Distinguished Career Contribution Award, Massachusetts Psychological Association
1986 Michael Dinoff Memorial Lecturer, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
1987 Elected to the Collegium of Distinguished Alumni, College of Liberal Arts, Boston University
1987 Distinguished Professional Contribution Award, Society of Pediatric Psychology
1987 Matthew Ryan Young Memorial Lecturer, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA
1988 Nicholas Hobbs Award for Distinguished Contributions to Children's Services, American Psychological Association, Division of Child, Youth and Family Services
1989 Elected a Fellow of the American association for the Advancement of Science
1988-1989 Linda Pollin Memorial Lecturer, Linda Pollin Foundation, Bethesda, MA
1992 American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Public Service
1993 Elected to the National Academies of Practice; Distinguished Practitioner in Psychology
1993 Karl F. Heiser Presidential Award, American Psychological Association
1996 Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Missouri, College of Arts and Sciences
1996 Robert Chin Memorial Award of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
2003 Florence Halpern Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions, Society of Clinical Psychology, American Psychological Association
2005 Distinguished Psychologist Award, Division of Psychotherapy, American Psychological Association
2005 Distinguished Career Contribution Award, Connecticut Psychological Association.
2010- National Institutes of Health, College of CSR Reviewers
2010 2010 Annual Innovation Award for Excellence in Human Research Protection, Health Improvement Institute
2011 Walter C. Randall Lecturer on Biomedical Ethics, American Physiological Society
2012 Asuncion Miteria Austria and John Robinson Distinguished Mentoring Award, Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues
2015 American Board of Professional Psychology, recognition award for leadership, service, and mentoring
Editorial Service
1976 1988 Consulting Editor, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice 1994-2000
1977 Consulting Editor, Journal of Pediatric Psychology
1977 1994 Consulting Editor, Journal of Clinical Child Psychology
1982- Consulting Editor, Journal of Psychosocial Oncology
1982 1987 Editor, Journal of Pediatric Psychology
1985 1989 Consulting Editor, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 2001-
1985 1999 Consulting Editor, Children and the Law series, University of Nebraska Press
1988-1995 Consulting Editor, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
1988-1990 Editor, The Clinical Psychologist
1989-1990 Editor, Clinical Psychology Bulletin
1990-2016 Editor, Ethics & Behavior
1992- Consulting Editor, Oxford University Press Series on Clinical Psychology
1994- Consulting Editor, Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice
1996-2000 Associate Editor, Encyclopedia of Psychology, APA and Oxford University Press
1998- Consulting Editor, Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma
2000- Consulting Editor, Journal of Trauma Practice
2004-2006 Consulting Editor, Canadian Psychologist
2009- Consulting Editor, Forensic Psychology Unbound

Selected works