Biographies

Ted B. Cunliffe, Ph.D.

Carl B. Gacono, Ph.D., ABAP

Jason M. Smith, PsyD, ABPP

Ted B. Cunliffe, Ph.D.

Ted B. Cunliffe, Ph.D, is a Clinical and Forensic Psychologist licensed to practice in the State of Florida, and over the past 6 years, he has been in fulltime private practice and provided expert witness services in various jurisdictions and courts within Florida and beyond. He is a co-founder of Maverick Psychology Training and Consultation PLLC. He is currently an Associate Professor of Albizu University in Miami, FL. He has provided assessment services and worked with forensic populations in a wide variety of settings including juvenile detention centers, adult prisons, juvenile probation, and outreach programs in the community for over 30 years. Specifically, he has served as a Staff Psychologist and Mental Health Director at a wide number of correctional facilities in Florida, California, and Canada. Further, he has provided expert witness services to the Florida, California, and Virginia courts in the areas of Competency to Stand Trial, Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity, Dangerousness, Death Penalty, Wrongful Death, Dependency, Mitigation, and Civil Litigation. His clinical and research interests include the forensic use of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, the Rorschach inkblot test, trauma-related disorders in a forensic context, domestic violence, stalking, criminal decision-making, dangerousness/violence risk assessment, and criminal recidivism.

Carl B. Gacono, Ph.D., ABAP

Carl B. Gacono, PhD, ABAP, was the Assessment Center Director at Atascadero State Hospital (CA) and the Chief Psychologist at the Federal Correctional Institution (Bastrop, TX), having worked over 20 years in correctional and forensic psychiatric facilities. He is the coauthor of The Rorschach Assessment of Aggressive and Psychopathic Personalities, senior editor of the Handbook of Forensic Rorschach Assessment, author of The Clinical and Forensic Interview Schedule for The Hare Psychopathy Checklist: Revised and Screening Version, editor of the Clinical and Forensic Assessment of Psychopathy: A Practitioner’s Guide (first and second editions), and author or coauthor of more than 100 scientific articles and book chapters. He received the Samuel J. and Anne G. Beck Award (1994) for excellence in early career research and the Walter G. Klopfer Award (2000). He is a member of the American Board of Assessment Psychology (ABAP) and a Fellow of the Society for Personality Assessment. As a noted artist, Dr. Gacono exhibits his paintings (see carlgaconoart.com and @carlgaconoart [Instagram]) and he has had several displayed on book covers. Currently, Dr. Gacono maintains a consulting practice in Asheville, NC, where he lives with his son, Jackson.

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Jason M. Smith, PsyD, ABPP

Jason M. Smith, PsyD, ABPP, is currently a Chief Psychologist at a female prison in the United States where he is responsible for the treatment, assessment, and management of female offenders. With his coauthors, Carl Gacono and Ted Cunliffe, he has published on female offenders/psychopathy as well as theoretical Rorschach articles. He is on the Board of Assessors for Rorschachiana, and he has received board certification from the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) in Clinical Psychology. He was the senior author of Understanding Female Offenders: Psychopathy, Criminal Behavior, Assessment, and Treatment. Dr. Smith has presented his research and workshops on assessing and treating female offenders both nationally and internationally. Dr. Smith was awarded the APA Division 18 Criminal Justice Section Outstanding Dissertation Award (2014) and the SPA John E. Exner Scholar Award (2019).