James L. Spira, PhD, MPH, ABPE, is a licensed psychologist, board certified in clinical health psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology. He received his doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of California at Berkeley and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine emphasizing psychosocial oncology.
Dr. Spira has served on the faculty of the Medical Schools at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has been a consultant for numerous medical centers and organizations throughout the United States, Europe, and Australia over the past 15 years, helping establish psychosocial intervention programs for medically ill patients, particularly psychosocial oncology programs, and providing training for therapists.
Dr. Spira has written several books, including Group Therapy for Medically Ill Patients and Treating Dissociative Identity Disorder and several therapist training manuals, as well as dozens of chapters and research articles. His current research focuses on the benefits of psychosocial interventions for medically ill patients for improved quality of life and psychophysiological processes.
He serves on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Clinical Health Psychology and is on the editorial boards of several health psychology journals. Currently, Dr. Spira directs the Health Psychology Division at the Naval Medical Center in San Diego, where he is also research coordinator for Mental Health Services and serves on the hospital's Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects.
Dr. Spira is also a long-time student of Zen meditation and martial arts.
Geoffrey M . Reed, PhD, is a clinical and health psychologist. His clinical work and research has focused on responses to life-threatening illnesses, including AIDS and breast cancer, and he has published numerous scientific and policy articles in such journals as American Psychologist, Health Psychology, Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, and the Journal of Social Issues. While a member of the research faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California at Los Angeles, he was named one of the 50 Most Innovative AIDS Researchers in the US by POZ Magazine, a publication by and for people living with HIV.
Dr. Reed is currently assistant executive director for professional development at APA. In this position he is responsible for the development and implementation of collaborative marketplace demonstration projects focused on improving health care outcomes and patient care. He is a leading expert in the organization of health care systems, the measurement of health care processes and outcomes, and information infrastructure for health care systems and has consulted to a wide range of health care organizations.
As a part of his work at APA, he has consulted to the U.S. Department of Defense on the integration and reorganization of the Army, Navy, and Air Force health care services in the National Capital Area. He has also worked extensively with the World Health Organization (WHO) on the implementation of WHO's International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health, a system designed to capture the functional consequences of health conditions. Most recently, he has been responsible for the design and implementation of a new Internet-based infrastructure for the collection of information regarding psychological practice.
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