Nancy Boyd-Franklin
Brenna H. Bry
Cary Cherniss (concentration coordinator)
Maurice Elias
Daniel B. Fishman
Susan G. Forman
Lew Gantwerk
Monica Indart
Shalonda Kelly
Charlie Maher
Biographical Sketches
Nancy Boyd-Franklin: Dr. Boyd-Franklin's special interests include multicultural
issues; the treatment of African-American families; ethnicity and
family
therapy; home-based family therapy; marital and couples therapy; the
multisystems approach to the treatment of poor inner-city families;
issues for women of color; the development of a model of therapeutic
support groups for African-American families living with AIDS; and
working with African-American children and adolescents. Her
publications include numerous articles and chapters on the
aforementioned topics. She has written five books, including Black Families in Therapy:
A Multisystems Approach; Children, Families, and HIV/AIDS: Psychosocial
and Therapeutic Issues; Reaching Out in Family Therapy: Home-Based,
School, and Community Interventions, with Dr. Brenna Bry; and Boys into
Men: Raising Our African-American Teenage Sons with Dr. Anderson J.
Franklin. In 2003, the second edition of her book Black Families in
Therapy: Understanding the African-American Experience was
published.
Dr. Boyd's honors include the 2001 award for Outstanding Contributions
to the Field of Ethnic Minority Psychology and to the Mentoring of
Students from Division 45 of the American Psychological Association (APA), the award for Outstanding
Contributions to the Theory, Practice, and Research on Psychotherapy
with Women from Division 35 of the APA (1996), the Distinguished
Psychologist of the Year Award from the Association of Black
Psychologists (1994), and the Pioneering Contribution to the Field of
Family Therapy Award from the American Family Therapy Academy.
Brenna H. Bry: Dr. Bry is a professor, director of clinical training of the Psy.D. program, and chair of the Department of Clinical Psychology at the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP). She also serves as a member of the graduate faculty for the Ph.D. program in clinical psychology. To these responsibilities, she brings more than 30 years of experience working with colleagues and doctoral students to (a) study what protective and risk factors predispose certain adolescents to substance abuse problems; (b) develop data-based, manualized, selective/secondary, school-based prevention interventions to change those protective and risk factors in vulnerable adolescents; and (c) conduct efficacy and effectiveness trials in multiple mid-Atlantic urban and suburban school systems to explore the degree to which the interventions reliably change protective and risk factors and eventually substance use itself. Recently, she and her research group have begun investigating possible adolescent-centered mediators of change, such as ethnic identity, peer relations, school engagement, perception of teachers, tolerance of friends, deviant behavior, and resilience.
Dr. Bry's
previous work has brought her ample experience in reviewing the substance abuse
prevention literature, conducting controlled trials in school settings, writing
manuals, training/supervising intervention and research staff, and assessing
intervention adherence/fidelity; and risk, protective, process, and outcome
variables for statistical analysis and interpretation. Her data sources have
varied from archival school records to individual interviews, coded audio- and videotape interactions, classroom observations, and self-report questionnaires. Dr.
Bry has served on National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) grant review committees and participated in NIDA
research analysis and utilization panels. At the inception of NIDA's behavioral therapies development program, she
served as chair of that program's workshop on the role of process variable research in the development of adolescent interventions. Currently, Dr. Bry is
an investigator in the NIDA-funded Transdisciplinary Prevention Research Center at Rutgers Center
of Alcohol Studies (primary investigator, Robert J. Pandina). With a research sociologist and
two community prevention practitioners,
Dr. Bry is examining the efficacy of combining universal and selective
substance abuse prevention programs for youth entering high schools in two New Jersey urban communities, Union
City and Trenton.
Cary Cherniss: Dr. Cherniss has published widely on topics such as consultation theory and practice; planned change in community settings; the creation of alternative settings; stress and coping in the workplace; professional burnout; school change and educational reform; and the link between emotional intelligence and organizational effectiveness. His most recent book, School Change and the MicroSociety Program, examines problems associated with the implementation of a whole-school reform program that empowers students while teaching them social and emotional competencies. From 2000 to 2001, Dr. Cherniss served as president of the Society for Community Research and Action, which is Division 27 of the American Psychological Association (APA), the primary professional organization for community psychology.
Maurice Elias: Dr. Elias' primary appointment is in the clinical psychology Ph.D. program at Rutgers. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Contributions to Community Psychology Practice Award, one of the highest honors given by the Society for Community Research and Action (Division 27 of the American Psychological Association), the primary professional organization for community psychology. His primary research interest involves school-based promotion of social competence; prevention of problem behavior; and the development, implementation, evaluation, and diffusion of innovations designed to build students' social and emotional skills and the overall "emotional intelligence" of schools. He is a founding member of the leadership team of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. Dr. Elias currently directs the Rutgers Social and Emotional Learning Lab, teaches a community psychology course
focused on applications in educational contexts, and also supervises
numerous practicum and dissertation students who are actively engaged in
carrying out community psychology in educational settings.
Daniel B. Fishman:
Dr. Fishman is editor-in-chief of the online journal, Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy.
His prior appointments were as associate director of a
large community mental health center in metropolitan Denver and
director of a major National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) contract to develop a cost-effectiveness
methodology for community mental health centers. He is past president
of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society, past president of the
Society for Studying Unity Issues in Psychology, and a former board
member of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy. He's
written more than 100 articles and book chapters, and given more than 100
lectures by invitation, which have all spanned his interests in the
systematic case study method, pragmatic
psychology, philosophy of science, cognitive behavior therapy, program
evaluation, community psychology, organizational psychology, and
professional psychology training. Dr. Fishman's books include A Cost-Effectiveness Methodology for Community Mental Health Centers (1981); Assessment for Decision (with D.R. Peterson; 1987); Paradigms in Behavior Therapy: Present and Promise (with F. Rotgers and C.M. Franks; 1988); The Human Side of Corporate Competitiveness (with C. Cherniss; 1990); The
Case for Pragmatic Psychology (1999); and Caregiver Alliances for At-Risk and
Dangerous Youth: Establishing School and Agency Coordination and
Accountability (with C.A. Blechman, C.A. Fishman, & J.C. Lewis; 2004).
Dr. Fishman is a licensed psychologist with a clinical and
organizational psychology practice.
Susan G. Forman: Dr. Forman is interested in the
organizational factors that influence use of evidence-based
interventions in educational settings and the effectiveness of
cognitive-behavioral interventions with children and adolescents. Prior
to coming to Rutgers in 1992, she was a professor of psychology and
associate provost at the University of South Carolina. She served as
vice president for undergraduate education for over a decade at
Rutgers. Her work has been supported by grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the National
Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and
the National Science Foundation, as well as a number of corporate and
family foundations. She has served on the editorial boards of numerous
psychology and education journals. Her publications include
approximately 70 articles and book chapters, as well as a number of
monographs and books, including Coping Skills Interventions for Children and Adolescents (Jossey-Bass). Dr. Forman is a fellow of the APA. In addition,
she has served on the executive boards of the National
Association of Psychologists and the APA's Division of School Psychology. Lewis Gantwerk: Dr. Gantwerk is the executive director of the Center for Applied
Psychology, the training and research branch of GSAPP. His major areas
of interest are: training and supervising psychologists; providing
psychological
services to underserved populations; development of the programmatic
delivery of psychological services; and problems facing children and
adolescents. Dr.
Gantwerk has been involved in teacher training and clinical supervision
and has conducted groups for doctoral students experiencing difficulty
in completing their dissertations. He is currently the director of the
New Jersey Psychological Association's college support program. He is a
licensed practicing psychologist.
Monica Indart: Dr. Indart has over 20 years of experience working in the related fields of crisis
intervention, trauma, and grief and loss. She earned her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from GSAPP, where she is
currently a visiting faculty member. She worked as a field operations
supervisor and clinical supervisor for Project Phoenix, New Jersey's
federally funded 9/11 response program, overseeing
community-based programs for three years. She remains
active in the field of disaster mental health as an emergency response coordinator with the New Jersey Division of Mental Health Services, Disaster
and Terrorism Branch, focusing on workforce development and community disaster
preparedness projects. For the past few years, she has provided consultation and training to the United
Nations (UN) on issues related to crisis intervention, trauma, grief and loss, and
development of psychosocial support programs for staff. In March 2005, she
traveled to Bangkok
to provide training to UN and nongovernmental organization offices in the region that were providing
relief services for the December 2004 tsunami that devastated southeast Asia. Dr.
Indart also serves as a consultant to the International Institute of New
Jersey, assisting in developing psychosocial programs for survivors of torture
seeking political asylum. She maintains a private practice in Maplewood, New Jersey. Her current interests focus on
understanding resiliency and the importance of cultural, religious, and
spiritual beliefs in trauma recovery within individuals, families, and
communities.
Shalonda Kelly: Dr. Kelly is a core faculty member in the clinical psychology program, and she has a dual degree in clinical psychology and urban studies
from the University
of Michigan. She teaches
the diversity and racial identity course that addresses topics in community
psychology, particularly those that affect ethnic minority groups and those
from disadvantaged backgrounds. Dr. Kelly does community-based work with
organizations that impact the African-American community, such as serving on
the advisory board of the couples ministry of a large local African-American
church, mentoring and community programming as a member of a prominent African-American public service organization, and facilitating GSAPP's hosting of an
annual cultural conference that includes methods of working with schools,
clinics, and other organizations to promote cultural competence. Dr. Kelly is
interested in working with students on the design, implementation, and
evaluation of community-based interventions that have a positive impact on ethnic
minority communities and families.
Charles A. Maher: Dr. Maher is
professor of psychology at GSAPP and a professor with the Center of
Alcohol Studies. He
is founder and director of the sport psychology concentration and he is
in
charge of the Sport Psychology Institute, which is associated with the
Center of Applied Psychology. Dr. Maher is a licensed psychologist, a
diplomate
of the American Board of Sport Psychology, and a fellow of many
divisions and societies including the APA, the American Psychological Society, and the
American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, as well as
the Academy of Learning and Developmental Disorders. He also is
credentialed as a chief school administrator, school psychologist,
learning consultant, principal, and teacher of the handicapped.
At GSAPP, Dr. Maher teaches courses in the planning and evaluation of
human services programs; program evaluation for clinical psychologists;
sport psychology: theory, research, and practice; and assessment and
intervention in sport psychology. He supervises projects and related
experiences of students in all programs in these aforementioned areas
as well as
student dissertation research. His research and program development
interests span a range of domains including: evaluation of special
education programs and services; incorporating planning and evaluation
services into decision-making routines of for-profit and not-for-profit
organizations; work team development; enhancement of the performance of
athletes and coaches in sport settings; performance enhancement of
executives, managers, and supervisors in organizational settings; and
professional self-management.
Dr. Maher has published in a range of professional and scientific journals and he is the
author and editor of numerous books in the above areas. He is editor of
the Journal of Applied School Psychology and the executive editor of the Sport and Sport Psychology book series (Haworth Press). He has been member of many journal editorial boards, currently including the Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology and the Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation. In addition, he sits on the boards of directors of numerous agencies and foundations.
For
more than 25 years, Dr. Maher has served as a national and
international consultant to many diverse for-profit and non-profit
organizations, including those in professional sports, large urban
public schools,
manufacturing organizations, protective services, public utilities, and
government agencies. He also works with professional teams and
professional athletes in many
sports including football, basketball, and baseball as a sport
psychologist, and also serves as a sport psychology consultant to the
Rutgers Division of Intercollegiate Athletics, particularly its
football and men's and women's basketball programs. Before coming to
GSAPP, Dr. Maher served as
a teacher and administrator of programs for emotionally disturbed
adolescents, a school psychologist, a director of special services, and
an assistant school superintendent, as well as a high school
and college coach in football, basketball, and baseball.
Academic Programs 
