Robert Wicks, Psy.D.
Professor Emeritus
Email: rwicks@loyola.edu
Loyola University Maryland
Pastoral Counseling Department
8890 McGaw Road
Columbia, MD 21045
Biography
For over 35 years, Dr. Robert Wicks, has been called to speak calm into chaos by individuals and group experiencing great stress, anxiety and confusion. Dr. Wicks received his doctorate in Psychology from Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, is Professor Emeritus at Loyola University Maryland, and has taught in universities and professional schools of psychology, medicine, nursing, theology, education, and social work. In 2003 he was the Commencement Speaker for Wright State School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio and in 2005 he was both Visiting Scholar and the Commencement Speaker at Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago. He also was Commencement Speaker at and the recipient of honorary doctorates from both Georgian Court University and Caldwell College in New Jersey.
In the past several years he has spoken on Capitol Hill to Members of Congress and their Chiefs of Staff, at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the U.S. Air Force Academy, the Mayo Clinic, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, the Defense Intelligence Agency, at Harvard’s Children’s Hospital and Harvard Divinity School, at Yale's School of Nursing, and to members of the NATO Intelligence Fusion Center in England on his major areas of expertise: resilience, self-care, and the prevention of secondary stress (the pressures encountered in reaching out to others.) He has also spoken at the Boston Public Library’s commemoration of the Boston Marathon bombing, addressed 10,000 educators in the Air Canada Arena in Toronto, was the opening keynote speaker to 1,500 physicians for the American Medical Directors Association, spoken at the FBI and New York City Police Academies, led a course on resilience in Beirut for relief workers from Aleppo, Syria and addressed care givers in: China, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Haiti, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Hungary, Guatemala, Malta, New Zealand, Australia, France, England, and South Africa.
In 1994, he was responsible for the psychological debriefing of relief workers evacuated from Rwanda during their genocide. In 1993, and again in 2001, he also worked in Cambodia. During these visits, his work was with professionals from the English-speaking community who were present to help the Khmer people rebuild their nation following years of terror and torture. In 2006, he also delivered presentations on self-care at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda Maryland and Walter Reed Army Hospital to those health care professionals responsible for Iraq and Afghan war veterans evacuated to the U. S. with multiple amputations and severe head injuries. More recently he addressed U.S. Army health care professionals returning from Africa where they were assisting during the Ebola crisis.
Dr. Wicks has published over 50 books for both professionals and the general public including the bestselling Riding the Dragon. His latest books from Oxford University Press for the general public are: Perspective: The Calm within the Storm and Bounce: Living the Resilient Life. Two of his latest books for professionals include: Overcoming Secondary Stress in Medical and Nursing Practice and The Resilient Clinician. His books have been translated into Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Polish, and Spanish. In 2006, Dr. Wicks received the first annual Alumni Award for Excellence in Professional Psychology from Widener University and is also the recipient of the Humanitarian of the Year Award from the American Counseling Association’s Division on Spirituality, Ethics and Religious Values in Counseling.
Education
- Psy.D., Hahnemann Medical College
- M.A., St. John's University
- B.A., Fairfield University