Faculty Profiles

Clinical Psychologist Crosses Country to Teach in Amherst

“My research with troubled adolescents has contributed to knowledge on best practices for treating adolescents with psychological problems,” says David Scherer, newly hired lecturer in the Psychology Department in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UMass Amherst. “My research on medical ethics and informed consent has implications for how families and adolescents are approached about medical and research participation decisions.” In addition to these research interests, he has been actively involved in providing therapeutic interventions for and training psychotherapists to work with children, adolescents, and families.    

After earning his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Virginia in 1989, Scherer took his first academic position at the University of South Carolina. There he earned tenure and was promoted to associate professor. He moved on to the University of New Mexico in 1995 where he became a full professor of counseling in the College of Education and held a dual appointment, as assistant professor of psychiatry, in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine. 

A licensed psychologist in New Mexico and South Carolina and widely published, Scherer attributes his successes to teamwork and persistence. He continues his affiliation with his New Mexico collaborators as co-investigator for two major research projects in the Center for Family and Adolescent Research: “Transitional Treatment for Adolescents in Family Therapy,” funded by a grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse; and “Barriers to Voluntary Assent in Asthma Youth Research,” funded by the National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Scherer moved to Massachusetts this past summer and was invited to join the psychology department. He’ll bring his expertise to undergraduate classes in educational psychology, adolescent psychology, classes offered through the Center for Public Policy Administration as well as graduate classes in psychopathology. Scherer’s arrival on campus underscores once again how the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences is dedicated to hiring the best and the brightest faculty available, making an already well respected department even stronger.

November 7, 2005