Gretchen LeFever-Watson

Gretchen LeFever-Watson, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and public health researcher who has worked in academic and healthcare settings for over 20 years. She is passionate about improving the health, education and safety of people and the environments in which they work and live.

LeFever-Watson led a public health psychology department in a community medical school, an award-winning patient safety and performance excellence program for a regional healthcare system and the development of work force programs to train professionals to use health information technology in safe and meaningful ways across an 11-state region and the District of Columbia. She served as the executive director of a regional community coalition and won millions of federal, state and non-profit grant dollars to conduct epidemiologic and system-wide intervention research.

As a popular speaker with a strong media presence, LeFever-Watson has appeared on national TV and radio programs such as CNN, the PBS News Hour and NPR’s Diane Rehm Show. She has been a frequent guest on HearSay with Cathy Lewis – a public radio program in her local community.

Results of her work appears in professional publications such as American Journal of Public Health, Scientific Review of Mental Health, Critical Care Medicine, Family and Community Health, Journal of Educational Research, Child Development, Developmental Psychology, Learning Disability Quarterly and Managing Infection Control. Her work has also been discussed in popular magazines such as Psychology Today, Science, Popular Science, and The Weekly Standard, as well as newspapers across the United States and in Europe.

LeFever-Watson graduated summa cum laude from Boston University. She earned a doctorate in clinical with specialization in developmental psychology from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She also completed post-doctoral training in pediatric psychology at Georgetown University Medical School.