Director
Patrick C. Friman, Ph.D.
(2006-2009)
Father Flanagan’s Girls and Boys’ Town
Dr. Patrick C. Friman received his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas under the late Montrose M. Wolf. He is the current Director of the Behavioral Pediatrics and Family Services Program at Father Flanagan’s Boys’ Home and the former Director of Clinical Training and Associate Chairman of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno. He is currently a Clinical Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Nebraska School of Medicine. In addition to the University of Nevada, he formerly was a faculty member of Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania, and Creighton Schools of Medicine. He is the current editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, the most influential applied journal in the field of behavior analysis. He is also on the editorial boards of eight other peer reviewed journals. He has published more than 150 scientific articles and chapters and two books. The primary focus of his scientific and clinical work in is in the area of Behavioral Pediatrics and Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Friman’s work in behavioral pediatrics has concentrated on the gap between outpatient well child medical care on one side, and referral-based clinical child psychologic and psychiatric care on the other. The gap includes a broad range of child health-related behavior problems that first present in pediatric medical settings but that are either outside the core curriculum used to train physicians or require more time for evaluation and treatment than is typically available in well child visits. A primary goal of his research is to demonstrate the powerful role behavior analysis can play in the assessment and treatment of health related behavior problems that present in primary care. An example involves a paper on solving bedtime problems published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Widespread interest in the paper resulted in its presentation at a large press conference in New York City sponsored by the American Medical Association where Dr. Friman was introduced by then Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. David Satcher. Dr. Friman’s work in behavioral medicine has concentrated on early disease detection, environmental factors that influence male spermatogenesis, and adherence to medical treatment regimens.