Neil Gowensmith
Associate Professor
303-871-4841 (Office)
Ammi Hyde Building, 2450 South Vine Street Denver, CO 80208
What I do
Assistant Professor, Masters of Forensic PsychologyGraduate School of Professional Psychology
Professional Biography
After completing my postdoctoral fellowship in forensic psychology at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, I worked as a staff psychologist at New Jersey State Prison. I then took a job in community forensic mental health and later became the Chief of Forensic Mental Health for the State of Hawaii. As Chief, I focused on implementing community forensic services and refining court-ordered forensic evaluations across the state. I began my faculty appointment at DU in 2011 while also working half-time as a competency evaluator for the State of Colorado's Office of Behavioral Health. As a full-time faculty, I created the University of Denver's Forensic Institute for Research, Service, and Training (Denver FIRST), our program's postdoctoral fellowship in forensic psychology, and the state's first outpatient competency restoration program. I also conduct forensic evaluations and consult on public forensic mental health systems across the country, specializing in competency to stand trial systems and services.
Degree(s)
- Ph.D., Counseling Psychology, Colorado State University, 1999
- BA, Psychology , The University of Texas at Austin, 1992
Licensure / Accreditations
- Licensed Psychologist
Media Sources
Research
My research focuses on bias in forensic evaluation, quality and reliability of forensic evaluation, and improvements to the public forensic mental health system.
Key Projects
- Denver First Competency Restoration Project
- Colorado Tramatic Brain Injury State Implementation Partnership Grant Program
- PHASE Day Reporting Grant
- Colorado Coalition for the Homeless MHCD
- Prevention of Violence and Trauma of Women and Girls
Featured Publications
. (2016). Lookin' for beds in all the wrong places: Outpatient competency restoration. Journal of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law.
. (2016). Field reliabilty influences field validity: Risk assessments of individuals found NGRI. Psychological Assessment.
. (2016). New frontiers for conditional release: Applying lessons learned from other offenders with mental illness. Behavioral Sciences & the Law.
. (2014). The impact of ethnicity on competency to stand trial evaluations. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry.
. (1997). The effects of heavy metal music on anger and arousal. The Journal of Music Therapy, 34, 33-45.
Performances
. (2018). What does race mean to me?. Cape Town, South Africa.
Presentations
. (2019). Competent competency restoration: Program evaluation of outpatient restoration. American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference. Portland, OR.
. (2018). A survey of forensic psychology postdoctoral programs. APLS 2018. Memphis, TN.
. (2017). Challenges and solutions in forensic psychology. Pan-African Psychology Union Congress . Durban, South Africa.
. (2017). Decision-making in post-insanity acquittal conditional release evaluations. International Association of Law and Mental Health. Prague.
. (2018). Forensic evaluators' perspectives on mandated video recording. American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference. Memphis, TN.
. (2018). Monitoring one's personal bias in forensic evaluation: a how-to guide. American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference. Memphis, TN.
. (2018). Mandated video recording of legal sanity evaluations. APLS 2018. Memphis, TN.
. (2018). Outpatient competency restoration programs: Updates on the hows, wheres, and whos. American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference. Memphis, TN.
. (2018). Validation of risk-need-responsivity assessment measures. APLS 2018. Memphis, TN.
Awards
- Service Learning Faculty of the Year, CCESL
