Biographical Sketch - updated 1/1/06

Ronald F. Levant (BA, Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Honors with Great Distinction; EdD, Clinical Psychology and Public Practice, Harvard University; MBA, General Management, Boston University, High Honors) is Dean and Professor of Psychology, Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences, The University of Akron. Formerly he was Dean and Professor, Center for Psychological Studies, Nova Southeastern University, and prior to that on the faculty at Boston, Rutgers, and Harvard Universities, and a clinician in solo independent practice and a clinical supervisor in hospital settings.

Dr. Levant has authored, co-authored, edited or co-edited over 300 publications, including 14 books, over 150 refereed journal articles and book chapters in family and gender psychology and in advancing professional psychology, and over 150 newsletter columns. One of Dr. Levant’s contributions to psychology is in pioneering the new psychology of men. He has developed theory and conducted research programs on fathering and masculinity ideology in multicultural perspective. He was also the co-founder and first President of APA Division 51 (the Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity). His books include Between Father and Child (1991, Penguin), Masculinity, Reconstructed, (1995, Dutton), A New Psychology of Men, (1995, Basic Books), Men and Sex: New Psychological Perspectives (1997, John Wiley & Sons) and New Psychotherapies for Men (1998, John Wiley & Sons). In addition to his writing, Dr. Levant has served as Editor of the Journal of Family Psychology (1992-97), as guest editor for special issues of The Counseling Psychologist, Psychotherapy, Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, and The Journal of African American Men, and serves on the Editorial Boards of eleven journals. He is now Associate Editor for Professional Psychology: Research and Practice.

Dr. Levant has also served as President of the Massachusetts Psychological Association, President of APA Division 43 (Family Psychology), two term member and two term Chair of the APA Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice, two term member of the APA Council of Representatives, and Member-At-Large of the APA Board of Directors. As a member of the Board of Directors he chaired the Task Force that resolved the long-standing issue of representation of small state psychological associations and divisions on the APA Council of Representatives through the creation of the "Wildcard Plan" which brought an expanded Council into being in January 1999. He then co-chaired the “Wildcard2” effort that seated all State Psychological Associations. He co-chaired the APA Commission on Education and Training Leading to Licensure, chaired the APA Task Force on Envisioning, Identifying and Accessing New Professional Roles in Psychology, and served on the Working Group on the American Psychologist. He served a second three-year term as APA Recording Secretary, and chaired APA and American Psychological Foundation Task Force on Promoting Resilience in Response to Terrorism, 2002-2003. He was President of APA for 2005, and now serves as Past-President.

Dr. Levant was the recipient of seventeeen professional awards, including the 1984 Jack Krasner Memorial Award from Division 29 (Psychotherapy) of APA, the 1994 winner of the Heiser APA Presidential Award for Advocacy, the 1995 recipient of the Ezra Saul Psychological Service Award from the Massachusetts Psychological Association, the 2001 recipient of the Outstanding Advocacy Award from the Association for the Advancement of Psychology, the 2002 recipient of the Distinguished Psychologist award from Division 29 (Psychotherapy) of APA, and the 2002 recipient of the Harold Hildreth Award from Division 18 (Psychologists in Public Service) of APA. In 2003 he was elected as a Distinguished Psychologist in the Florida Psychological Association, and received the American Psychological Association, Division of Independent Practice (42), Distinguished Psychologist Award and the American Psychological Association, Division 55, American Society for the Advancement of Pharmacotherapy, Outstanding Contributions on a National Level. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in both Clinical and Family Psychology, and a Distinguished Practitioner of the National Academies of Practice.

Dr. Levant has been interviewed and profiled for hundreds of articles on the psychology of gender issues and family life in Fortune, Industry Week, Newsweek, Time, U.S. News and World Report, People Magazine, Men's Health, Boston Magazine, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, New York Times, New York Daily News, Christian Science Monitor, U.S.A. Today, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, United Press International, Gannett, and numerous metropolitan and local newspapers. He has also appeared on a number of national television and radio shows, including "20/20," "The Oprah Winfrey Show", and "CBS News Nightline.”



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