Kermit Anthony Crawford, a clinical associate professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, was selected by former Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia M. Burwell to serve on the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Crawford is one of 18 members on the board who will provide advice to the Health and Human Services secretary, the CDC director, and the NCIPC director about surveillance, basic epidemiological research, intervention research, and implementation, dissemination, and evaluation of promising and evidence-based strategies for the prevention and control of injury and violence. In addition, he will help make recommendations regarding policies, strategies, objectives, and priorities, and review progress on injury and violence prevention and control.

A clinical psychologist at Boston Medical Center, Crawford is also executive director of the Massachusetts Resiliency Center, for Boston Marathon bombing victims and survivors, and director of the Center for Multicultural Mental Health. He has facilitated and provided disaster behavioral health response training across the nation, on behalf of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to health responders in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake; the Tōhoku region tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear plant explosion; and Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in Mississippi and Louisiana.

Crawford has expertise in mental health, trauma, psychology training, substance abuse, and workforce development, as well as extensive experience in disaster behavioral health, mental health policy, and mental health training. He has been principal investigator for several state and federal research and training grants and has authored numerous publications, including a book chapter on the culturally competent practice of disaster behavioral health services.

He has also served on several national behavioral health advisory committees, including the American Psychological Association’s Clinical Practice Guidelines Steering Committee and the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Developing Evidence-Based Standards for Psychosocial Interventions for Mental and Substance Use Disorders.