Dr. Norm Gustavson, PhD

Dr. Gustavson originally trained as a medical anthropologist and worked for several years doing research and educational programming in HIV/AID prevention in San Francisco and Seattle. Dr. Gustavson also completed an APA internship in clinical psychology and has had a private practice in counseling and consulting psychology for over 15 years. During the last 10 years, he has specialized in the assessment of complex psychosocial and neurological problems and has provided expert witness testimony in cases involving alleged mental incapacity or disability.

Dr. Gustavson’s field experience goes back to modernization research with the Makah Indians of north-west Washington state. He has done additional fieldwork with the Tsimshan of northern British Columbia and participated with a medical assistance team in Ethiopia, as well as doing an assessment of the IMC mental health program in Afghanistan in 2004.

Recently, Dr. Gustavson has also served as Chief of Party for the American Institutes for Research as they develop a contract proposals in Basic Education and Vocational Education for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He is currently the country representative of American Friends Service Committee in Afghanistan (AFSC).  AFSC is partnering with PARSA working with psychosocial training for teachers and working with the mentally ill who are institutionalized at Marastoon.