Gerald C. Davison Ph.D.
Dean & Executive Director
Professor of Gerontology and Psychology

GERALD C. DAVISON (B.A., magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Harvard, 1961; Fulbright Scholar, University of Freiburg, West Germany, 1961-1962; Ph.D., Stanford, 1965) is William and Sylvia Kugel Dean’s Chair, Professor of Gerontology and Psychology, Dean of the USC Davis School of Gerontology and Executive Director of the Andrus Gerontology Center, University of Southern California.   Previously he was Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at USC (1984-1990 and 2001-2006), where he was also Director of Clinical Training (1979-1984).  From 1994 to 1996 he served as Interim Dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and from 2005 to 2006 was Interim Dean of the USC School of Architecture.  Previously he was on the psychology faculty at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (1966 to 1979). In 1969-70 he was visiting associate professor at Stanford University and in 1975-76, a National Institute of Mental Health Special Fellow at Harvard.

Dr. Davison is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and has served on the Executive Committee of the Division of Clinical Psychology, on the Board of Scientific Affairs, on the Committee on Scientific Awards, and on the Council of Representatives. He is also a member of the Gerontological Society of America, Charter Fellow of the American Psychological Society, a member of the Advisory Board of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration, a past president of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, and past Publications Coordinator of that organization. He is also a Distinguished Founding Fellow of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He served two terms on the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement of Human Performance and on APA’s Continuing Professional Education Committee. In 2004 he was elected for a three-year term to the Executive Board of the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology, and in that capacity is COGDOP’s liaison to APA’s Board of Educational Affairs.  During 2006 he served as President of the Society of Clinical Psychology (Division 12 of the American Psychological Association) and as Chair of COGDOP.

In 1988 Davison received an outstanding achievement award from APA's Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility; in 1989 was the recipient of the Albert S. Raubenheimer Distinguished Faculty Award from USC's College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; in 1993 won the Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching, a university-wide prize; in 1995 received the Distinguished Psychologist Award from the Los Angeles County Psychological Association; in 1997 was given the Outstanding Educator Award of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy; in 2003 received the Lifetime Achievement Award from AABT; and in 2005 was the recipient of the USC Mellon Award for Excellence in Mentoring. At USC he was a Faculty Fellow in the Center for Excellence in Teaching from 2001 to 2003.

Among his more than 130 publications, his book Clinical Behavior Therapy, co-authored in 1976 with Marvin Goldfried and reissued in expanded form in 1994, is one of two publications that have been recognized as Citation Classics by the Social Sciences Citation Index; it appears in German and Spanish translation. His textbook Abnormal Psychology, co-authored with Ann Kring, John Neale and Sheri Johnson, is in its tenth edition and is a widely used abnormal text in North America and around the world. It is translated into German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and Korean, with translations into Orthodox Chinese and Portuguese in preparation. Other books are Case Studies in Abnormal Psychology, Sixth Edition (2003) with Oltmanns and Neale and Exploring Abnormal Psychology (1996) with Neale and Haaga. Davison is on the editorial board of several professional journals, including Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Therapy and Research, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, Journal of Clinical Psychology, In Session: Psychotherapy in Practice, and Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice.

His publications emphasize experimental and philosophical analyses of psychopathology, assessment, and therapeutic change. His current research program focuses on the relationships between cognition and a variety of behavioral and emotional problems via his articulated thoughts in simulated situations think-aloud paradigm.

The William And Sylvia Kugel Dean's Chair

This Chair is one of five at USC which endows a dean's position. Sylvia Kugel established the Chair in 1989 as a permanent memorial to her late husband, William Kugel, who had a dream of becoming a chemist. He never had the opportunity to fulfill that dream, becoming a successful businessman instead, but he maintained an active interest in science and research throughout his lifetime. The Chair is intended to insure the Andrus Center's continuing ability to attract and retain outstanding leadership and further scientific investigation in gerontology.

Click here to view Dean Gerald C. Davison's speech upon his installation as Dean.

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