James D. Herbert, Ph.D., serves as the University of New England’s sixth president. He assumed the position on July 1, 2017, immediately following the 11-year tenure of Danielle N. Ripich.
Dr. Herbert arrived at UNE via Drexel University in Philadelphia, where he had served most recently as executive vice provost and dean of the Graduate College. Before that, he had held a variety of administrative positions at Drexel, including interim provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, head of the Department of Psychology, interim head of the Department of Biology, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, director of the Anxiety Treatment and Research Program, director of the Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology, and president of the University Faculty.
Dr. Herbert’s educational background is in psychology; he holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include cognitive behavior therapy — including newer mindfulness and psychological acceptance-based models of behavior therapy, anxiety, mood, and eating disorders, remote Internet-based treatment, and the promotion of evidence-based practice in mental health.
He is known internationally for his publications on quackery and pseudoscience in mental health, having authored more than 170 scholarly works on these and other topics. His 2011 book “Acceptance and Mindfulness in Cognitive Behavior Therapy” has been endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who called it “a most beneficial and powerful method for ensuring a healthy mind and heart.” Dr. Herbert is a fellow of the Institute for Science in Medicine, the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, and the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health.