Researcher
Alan Leschied
RESEARCH INTERESTS: My research interests have been in areas related to children’s legislation and how policies and services promote the welfare of children and families. The following books may be of interest: The Young Offenders Act: A Revolution in Canadian Juvenile Justice (1991); Offender Rehabilitation in Practice: Implementing and Evaluating Effective Programs (2001), and Research and Treatment for Aggression with Adolescent Girls (2002).

Professor Alan Leschied

Ph.D. C. Psych.

I am a psychologist and professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Western Ontario, and began working in children’s mental health in 1977 at the London Family Court Clinic. I have served on numerous children’s services Board’s of Directors, including the Children’s Aid Society of London and Middlesex, The Coordinating Committee for Children and Youth, and The Canadian Council on Social Development. He is a past chair of London’s Investing in Children. I am a founding member of the International Prisons and Corrections Association, served on the research advisory committee of the Sparrow Lake Alliance and, from 1993 to 1998, was the Canadian Psychology Association’s representative to the Health Care Advisory Committee for Correctional Services Canada. Currently I serve on the advisory committees to the Centre of Excellence in Children’s Mental Health at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, the Research Advisory Committee of the Child Welfare Secretariat for the Ministry of Children and Youth and the research advisory committee with Correctional Services Canada.

I appear as an expert witness in youth courts and coroner’s inquests on matters related to youth justice and child welfare and have appeared in the provinces of Alberta, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. Clinically, my current work focuses on assessing and advancing prevention related to childhood sexual abuse in the context of institutions such as schools and faith communities.

I am a Fellow of the Canadian Psychology Association, a recipient in 2003 of both the Edward G. Pleva Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Judge Wendy Robson Award for outstanding service to children in Ontario and in 2004, the recipient of a life-time achievement award through the Criminal Justice Section of the Canadian Psychology Association.