WCCBT President, Dr. Lata K. McGinn, receives the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of CBT.

On November 20th, 2025, Dr. Lata McGinn was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (A-CBT) at the Awards ceremony held at the ABCT annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is the most prestigious honor in Cognitive & Behavioral Therapies. Presented annually by the Academy of CBT, it recognizes an individual who has made significant and enduring contributions to the field. The Lifetime Achievement Award Nomination and Selection Committee is composed of all past presidents of the Academy of CBT as well as all previous recipients of the Lifetime Achievement award. The committee solicits nominations each year and then narrows the list to five finalists and selects the winner.

This distinguished honor recognizes Dr. Lata McGinn’s visionary leadership, her excellence in research, clinical practice, and training and her transformative impact on the development, implementation, and global dissemination of evidence-based psychological treatments. Through her pioneering research, training, clinical innovation, and strategic leadership, she has helped shape the modern landscape of cognitive and behavioral therapies worldwide. 

Dr. McGinn has delivered over 360 presentations, including peer reviewed conference presentations, invited keynotes, master clinician seminars, and workshops, and has authored or co-authored over 80 publications, including peer reviewed journal articles, chapters, and two books. Dr, McGinn has developed the Unified Vulnerability Model and innovative CBT preventative and treatment interventions in the areas of anxiety, depression, OCD, and PTSD such as the Mind-Action-Mood Program and Psychological First Aid Plus that have been implemented into schools and colleges in the United States and are being implemented in South America. Her co-authored books—Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders (which has been translated into 14 languages) and are used internationally by clinicians and trainees and as texts in graduate departments of clinical psychology. Dr. McGinn serves on the editorial board of peer-reviewed journals such as Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, International Journal of Cognitive Therapy and Cognitive and Behavior Practice, on the advisory boards of the Journal of Cognitive Behavior Psychotherapy and served as the associate editor of the peer-reviewed journal Cognitive Therapy and Research. She also served on Division 12, APA’s taskforce on Evidence-Based Doctoral Training. Dr. McGinn has earned the title of Beck Scholar by the Beck Institute and a Fellow by the  Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.  She was recognized for her professional contributions on trauma prevention interventions following September 11, 2001, was awarded ABCT’s Outstanding Service to CBT award in 2020 and was designated as a Global Thought Leader in 2022.

As a tenured full professor at Yeshiva University, she fundamentally reshaped the clinical program at Ferkauf Graduate school of Psychology, establishing the intensive, evidence-based model it is today. Over the 20 years she served as the Director of the clinical program, Dr. McGinn designed a comprehensive training infrastructure and processes rooted in scientific principles and recruited a faculty distinguished by expertise in research in evidence-based practice. She also founded the CBT training program at the graduate school, which has trained over 250 students since its inception and is notable for its rigorous emphasis on theory, research, clinical application and competency. She has also taught the advanced CBT courses to doctoral students over the past 25 years and founded the low-cost CBT university clinic in the Bronx in 2000, which to date has served and  expanded access to high-quality evidence-based mental health care for over 1500 residents of the poorest county in the United States.

Equally significant, Dr. McGinn co-founded Cognitive and Behavioral Consultants (CBC) in 2004 with her partner, advancing a mission to disseminate high-fidelity, evidence-based mental health treatments and training while cultivating a warm, collaborative, intellectually rich practice and training environment for professionals and students. Together, they have brought together a team of over 30 expert clinicians who deliver CBT and DBT with outstanding treatment reliability and efficacy. Since 2004, CBC colleagues have collectively served over 2000 clients, trained over 100 graduate and postdoctoral trainees, and trained professionals in over 150 schools, agencies and organizations.

Her leadership record is exceptional. She is a former president of the Academy of CBT and the International Association of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and was on the Board of Directors of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and continues today in ABCT’s governance. She has founded, co-founded and guided others to found evidence-based organizations locally, regionally, and across the world to disseminate evidence-based psychological treatments, especially for underserved areas and peoples of the world. She is a Co-Founder of the Access Psychology Foundation (APF), a founding fellow and trainer consultant of the Academy of CBT, and a founding fellow of the New York CBT Association. She played a pivotal role in guiding the establishment of the Indian Association of CBT in 2016 and continues to serve as its honorary president, providing visionary leadership and enduring guidance. In 2019, Dr. McGinn also spearheaded the global initiative to found the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (WCCBT). Recognizing a need for increased and collective efforts across the globe to reduce the burden of mental illness, she spearheaded the global initiative to develop the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (WCCBT) in 2013, and worked with colleagues and organizations across the world to ultimately launch it in 2019.  

Underscoring her global influence and continuing role in shaping the field’s future, Dr. Lata McGinn is the president of the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (WCCBT) and in that capacity, works with local, national, and regional organizations across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Australasia, and Africa as well as with Global organizations like the World Health Organization and with Governments to increase access to evidence-based mental health treatments. In this capacity, she has guided professionals across underserved regions worldwide, including Asia, Africa, and South America to establish CBT organizations that advance workforce development and expand access to evidence-based mental health care.

Over more than three decades, Dr. McGinn has elevated the field of clinical psychology through her training, research, and clinical practice, through her local, national, and global capacity building and leadership and through her influence, inspiration and guidance to hundreds of students, trainees, and psychologists. Her legacy is defined not only by her innovative research, training and clinical achievements but by her enduring achievements in disseminating cognitive and behavioral therapies locally, regionally, and worldwide and by her impact in cultivating the next generation of leaders in evidence-based mental health.

Through her teaching, research, mentorship, publications, and global leadership, Dr. McGinn has profoundly influenced the practice, dissemination, and reach of cognitive and behavioral therapies. Through her exceptional vision, scholarship, and global engagement, Dr. McGinn has founded and guided CBT organizations, forged partnerships among professional associations, governments, and the World Health Organization (WHO), and been a driving force in developing treatment and training standards that have shaped a worldwide CBT community. Her lifelong achievements embody the Academy’s core values of scientific excellence, innovation, compassion, and global impact.