Nadine Kaslow

Biography

Growing up near Philadelphia, Kaslow was the daughter of psychologist Florence Kaslow. Kaslow studied dance when she was young and belonged to the Pennsylvania Ballet in high school and part of college. She attended the University of Pennsylvania and completed a PhD in psychology at the University of Houston. She nearly joined the Houston Ballet while she was in graduate school, but she decided that she would have had to lose an unhealthy amount of weight to do so.

After completing a predoctoral internship and postgraduate training at the University of Wisconsin, Kaslow worked at Yale University before moving to Emory University in 1990. She is in private practice at the Emory Clinic, is the chief psychologist for the Grady Health System and is the psychologist for the Atlanta Ballet. She is the editor of the Journal of Family Psychology. One of Kaslow's key accomplishments was founding the Grady Nia Project. This program began in the early 1990s and has impacted the lives of about 1,000 women. The Grady Nia Project is a program in suicide and domestic violence prevention for African-American women. The program aims to empower women to lead lives without violence, and to boost their self-esteem.

Prior to becoming president of the APA, Kaslow chaired the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers from 1998-2002 and now is a board member emeritus of that organization. In 2002, she chaired the multinational 2002 Competencies Conference: Future Directions in Education and Credentialing in Professional Psychology. After serving as president of the American Board of Clinical Psychology, she was President of the American Board of Professional Psychology in 2010 and 2011. She also served as the President of Family Process Institute and the Wynne Center for Family Research. Kaslow was a fellow in the 2003-2004 Class of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women, a fellow in the 2004 Woodruff Leadership Academy, and a Primary Care Public Policy fellow through the United States Public Health Service - Department of Health and Human Services.

Kaslow has served on the APA Board of Educational Affairs and as chair of the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers. She was elected to serve a term as president-elect of the APA for 2013 followed by a term as president in 2014. Her presidential initiatives included work with healthcare reform, bridging the gap between training and practice for early-career psychologists, and the retention of scholars and scientists within the organization.

In a lawsuit filed by 3 retired military officers and the former head of the APA Ethics Office, Dr. Kaslow was prominently cited as having engaged in many controversial acts regarding the Hoffman Report, which she oversaw as an APA Board member. The lawsuit was filed in state court in Ohio by attorneys James E. Arnold, Bonny J. Forrest, and Louis J. Freeh, former director of the FBI. Louis J. Freeh, the former FBI director who now has his own law practice, is representing Behnke. He said the APA’s board knew the report had gotten the facts wrong and compounded the problem.

The suit describes her concerns expressed to Dr. Behnke about allegations made by a patient that she had engaged in a sexual-boundary violation with him. Dr. Kaslow reported concluding a Settlement with the patient in 2014 by paying $100,000 of her private money, but not informing her state licensing board of this settlement.

Kaslow has received 20 years of funding from the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration for her research.

Her three primary areas of research focus include: child and adolescent psychopathology, with particular attention to the assessment and treatment of depressed, suicidal, and medically ill (e.g., sickle cell disease) youth and their families; women's mental health, with attention paid to depression, suicidal behavior, and the link between domestic violence and suicidal behavior in African American women; and family violence, notably childhood maltreatment and domestic violence.