Marlene Watson, Ph.D., LMFT
Current Title: Director of Training
Current Organization: Ackerman Institute for the Family
Expertise:
At time of Fellowship
Marlene F. Watson, PhD, LMFT, is Director of Training at the Ackerman
Institute for the Family in New York, Clinical and Organizational
Consultant at the Eikenberg Institute for Relationships in New York,
Associate Professor Emerita in the Department of Counseling and Family Therapy at Drexel University in Philadelphia, and a licensed couple and family therapist. She was the first-ever couple and family therapist to receive the prestigious Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellowship. Marlene is invited to speak to general and professional audiences around the country on issues of race, diversity, equity, and inclusion. She has designed and taught trainings on the race shadow throughout the country and is an effective public speaker. Marlene is Past President of the Family Process Institute Board of Directors, which oversees Family Process, the highest-ranked family therapy journal. As a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, she chaired the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) and served on the Editorial Review Board of the Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy. She is also a former board member of the American Family Therapy Academy and recipient of its 2009 Distinguished Contribution to Social Justice award. She has been a columnist for Heart & Soul Magazine and is author of the 2013 book, Facing the Black Shadow.
Fellow in 2004-2005
Director of Training
Ph.D., LMFT
State at beginning of Fellowship
Placement(s):
Specialty/Discipline
Fellowship Year Biography
Incredible work since Fellowship
Marlene F. Watson, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and the Director of Graduate Programs in Couple and Family Therapy at Drexel University in Philadelphia. She is also a licensed marriage and family therapist. Dr. Watson received her Bachelor of Science Degree in psychology from Howard University, Master of Arts Degree in Psychology from Long Island University, Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Virginia Tech University, Certificate in Multiculturalism from the Multicultural Institute and George Washington University, and completed an internship in marriage and family therapy at Saint Albans Psychiatric Hospital in Radford, Virginia. Dr. Watson is Chair of the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education and on the Editorial Review Board for the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. She lectures nationally on issues of race, ethnicity, gender and class. Dr. Watson is a national leader in the field of family therapy and has been a local and
national voice to redirect the focus in education and practice on those socio-cultural forces that affect families’ lives. She has devoted much of her professional energies to establishing new and innovative programs. For example, she partnered with the City of Philadelphia’s Coordinating Office for Drug and Alcohol Abuse Programs to provide family therapy services to substance dependent clients both behind prison walls and in the community. This rewarding work was recognized in 1997 by the publication Utne
Reader who named her as one of ten most innovative therapists in the nation.
Current Info:
Current Title:
Current Organization: Ackerman Institute for the Family
Expertise: