Howard Jeffrey Shaffer PhD, CAS

Dr. Howard Jeffrey Shaffer is the Morris E. Chafetz Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Field of Behavioral Sciences at Harvard Medical School; in addition, he is Distinguished Faculty at the Division on Addiction at Harvard-affiliated Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard Medical School Teaching Hospital. During recent years, Dr. Shaffer has served as principal or co-principal investigator on many government, foundation, and industry sponsored research projects around the world. Dr. Shaffer is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Currently, Dr. Shaffer is focusing on investigative and educational activities associated with addiction treatment, a syndromal approach to addiction, the public health correlates of gambling, and the epidemiology of psychiatric co-morbidity among repeat DUI offenders.

In addition to an active private practice, Dr. Shaffer consults internationally to a variety of organizations in business, education, human services, and government. Dr. Shaffer is licensed as a clinical psychologist in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; the National Register of Health Care Providers in Psychology also certifies him. Dr. Shaffer is the founder of the American Academy of Health Care Providers in the Addictive Disorders. The Academy represents the first international credentialing body for clinicians working with multiple expressions of addiction.

Dr. Shaffer served on the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, Committee on the Social and Economic Impacts of Pathological Gambling. His professional appointments also have included consultation to the National Institutes of Health, The National Cancer Institute, The National Council on Marijuana and Health, The Icelandic Ministry of Health and Social Security, The Massachusetts Council on Compulsive Gambling, the Tung Wah Hospital Group, and The Massachusetts Departments of Mental and Public Health.