Rate My Professor Thomas Ollendick

Thomas H. Ollendick is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Virginia Tech, having joined the Department of Psychology in 1980 and retired in June 2021. He earned a B.S. in Psychology from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1967, followed by M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Clinical Child Psychology from Purdue University in 1969 and 1971, respectively. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Child Psychology at the Institute for Training and Research, Devereux Foundation, in Devon, Pennsylvania, from 1971 to 1972. Ollendick began his academic career at Indiana State University from 1972 to 1979, advancing from assistant to associate professor. At Virginia Tech, he served as associate professor from 1980 to 1984, professor and director of clinical training from 1984 to 1996, professor and director of the Child Study Center from 1996 to 1999, and University Distinguished Professor and director of the Child Study Center from 1999 to 2021. His research and professional interests center upon clinical child and adolescent psychology, developmental psychopathology, cognitive behavior therapy, and social cognitive learning theory, with emphasis on the assessment, treatment, and prevention of child psychopathology from a social learning and social cognitive perspective, particularly phobias and anxiety disorders.

Ollendick is author or co-author of more than 350 refereed research publications, over 100 book chapters, and 38 books, including the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (2018, lead editor), Emotion Regulation and Psychopathology in Children and Adolescents (2017), Innovations in CBT Treatment for Childhood Anxiety, OCD, and PTSD (2019), and Exposure Therapy for Child and Adolescent Anxiety and OCD (2020). His highly cited works include the Fear Survey Schedule for Children and an article on evidence-based treatments co-authored with Dianne Chambless. He has received consistent funding from the National Institutes of Mental Health, mentored 45 doctoral students, and collaborated internationally. Ollendick has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Cognitive Therapy (2019), Career/Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (2013), Lifetime Achievement Award for Scientific Contributions from the Society of Clinical Psychology (2017), Distinguished Research Contributions to Clinical Child Psychology from the American Psychological Association (2007), and honorary doctorate from Stockholm University (2011). He served as past president of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy (1995), Society of Clinical Psychology (1999), Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (2007), and Society for the Science of Clinical Psychology (2010), and was ranked one of the world's most influential psychology researchers by Research.com.