Steve Smith has been appointed the Interim Chair of the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology (CCSP) of UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz School, beginning July 1, 2020. He succeeds Dr. Tania Israel as Chair. Smith has also been appointed the Director of the Hosford Counseling & Psychological Services Clinic. He succeeds Dr. Heidi Zetzer, who led Hosford from 2006-2020.
Smith is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology. He teaches courses in assessment. He is interested in masculine identity development and psychotherapy with boys and men, psychotherapy with athletes, healthy models of youth sport, and diversity issues in personality assessment. Smith is a two-time nominee for the UCSB Academic Senate Outstanding Mentor Award, and has served as both CCSP Graduate Advisor and Director of Training.
He was trained in child clinical psychology at the University of Arkansas where he also specialized in personality assessment. He completed his internship and post-doctoral fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, specializing in clinical neuropsychology and child clinical psychology. After training, Smith served as the Director of Consultation Neuropsychology for Mass General Hospital and worked with children and adults dealing with bereavement and loss. Seeking more time for research and teaching, he joined the faculty of UCSB in 2004. The author of more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and chapters as well as five books, he is a Fellow of the Society for Personality Assessment, member of Division 47 (Sport and Exercise) of the American Psychological Association, and has held offices in several national organizations.