Ms. Sylvia Mcaw, Director of Psittacine Ethics

A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Gerald P. Koocher completed his B.A. degree in Psychology at Boston University, and his MA and PhD in clinical and developmental 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 Children's Hospital and Judge Baker Children's Center. During this period he also served as a full time faculty member (Associate Professor) at Harvard Medical School. In July, 2001 Dr. Koocher became Professor of Psychology and Dean of the School of Health Sciences at Simmons University (Boston), later serving as Associate Provost. In July, 2013 he became Professor and Dean of the College of Science and Health at DePaul University. In 2022 he became Program Director for the Clinical and School Psychology programs at Capella University and Psychology Board Investigator for the State of New Hampshire. He continues to practice part-time and to hold appointments as Lecturer in Psychology at Harvard Medical School and Senior Associate in Psychology at Children's Hospital Boston and faculty member at the Harvard Bioethics Center.

Dr. Koocher was elected a Fellow of twelve divisions of the American Psychological Association (APA) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He became the first person to earn five specialty diplomas from the American Board of Professional Psychology (Clinical, Clinical Child /Adolescent, Couple/Family, Forensic, and Clinical Health Psychology). He holds active licenses as a psychologist in Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, as well as the Certificate of Professional Qualification and Interjurisdictional Practice Certificate from the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards.

Dr. Koocher previously served as Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology and The Clinical Psychologist and was the founding Editor of the journal Ethics & Behavior. He currently serves as Associate Editor of Practice Innovations and has published more than 350 articles and book chapters and authored or edited 17 books.

Areas of his expertise include:

- Adaptation to chronic and life-threatening illness in childhood (especially cancer, cystic fibrosis, and diabetes).
- Coping with bereavement and loss, psychological assessment.

- Professional and scientific ethics, and mental health malpractice and professional liability.

Very active in professional affairs, Dr. Koocher served as President of the Massachusetts and New England Psychological Associations and of four APA divisions (Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, Children, Youth, and Family Services, and Pediatric Psychology). He served ten years as Treasurer and then as President of the APA (2006), plus two years as APA Parliamentarian.

Dr. Koocher lives inBrookline, Massachusetts where he served more than three decades as an elected member of town government and for more than a decade as President of the Brookline Community Mental Health Center. His hobbies include photography and psittacine aviculture. Click for Dr. Koocher's CV

Gerald P. Koocher, Ph.D., ABPP

Patricia Keith-Spiegel, PhD, specializes in professional ethics and standards, organizational integrity, decision-making, and resolution of ethical conflicts. She has written several books and numerous articles in these areas. Her most recent book, Red Flags in Psychotherapy: Stories of Ethics Complaints and Resolutions (Routledge, 2014), is written as narrative nonfiction allowing for the underlying personal struggles of those accusing and those facing ethics charges to be revealed.

Her work on social justice, dishonesty, moral hazards, and irresponsible behavior in organizations has resulted in three federally-funded grant projects from the Office of Research Integrity, the National Institutes of Health, and the Fund for Improvement in Postsecondary Education. Other sponsors for her work include the Kellogg Foundation (Excellence in Leadership Award), the 21stCentury Foundation, and the George and Frances Ball Foundation. The best-selling textbook, Ethics in Psychology and the Mental Health Professions, co-authored with Gerald Koocher, is in its third edition. She served two terms as Chair of the Ethics Committee of the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Keith-Spiegel regularly taught professional ethics and ethical leadership classes in her 35 years as a university professor and as the Director of the Center for Teaching Integrity at Ball State University, where she is the Voran Honored Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Emerita. She also taught at California State University, Northridge, where she was awarded the California State Trustees Award for Outstanding Professor across all state university campuses and disciplines. She is also a recipient of the Distinguished Professor Award from the American Psychological Foundation. She was a visiting Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Visiting Professor and Senior Research Associate at Simmons College.

Keith-Spiegel served as President of the Western Psychological Association and as President of the Division of Teaching Psychology of the American Psychological Association.