Gerald P. Koocher

Gerald P. Koocher completed his BA in psychology at Boston University (1968), and his MA (1970) and PhD (1972) in clinical psychology at the University of Missouri.

From 1971 through 2001, he served successively as an intern, post-doctoral fellow and ultimately as chief of psychology at Boston's Children's Hospital and Judge Baker Children's Center. During this period, he also served as a full-time associate professor at Harvard Medical School. In June 2001, Koocher became professor and dean of the School for Health Sciences at Simmons College in Boston.

Koocher earned fellow status in 12 APA divisions and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is the first psychologist to earn five specialty diplomas from the American Boards of Professional Psychology (clinical, clinical child /adolescent, family, forensic and health psychology).

Koocher has  served as editor of the journals Ethics & Behavior, the Journal of Pediatric Psychology and The Clinical Psychologist. He has published more than 200 articles and book chapters and authored or edited 12 books. Koocher has frequently been an invited lecturer across the United States and abroad, including in Australia, Bahrain, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Thailand and the United Kingdom.

He has served as an expert witness to the courts of 10 states and three federal jurisdictions.

Active in professional affairs, Koocher served as president of the Massachusetts and New England Psychological Associations and of three APA divisions (Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Children, Youth, and Family Services). He served as treasurer and member of the Board of Directors of APA (1995-2004) and as president in 2006.

Koocher lives with his wife and three parrots in Brookline, MA, where he has served more than two decades as an elected member of town government and for more than a decade as a trustee of the Brookline Community Mental Health Center.