Dr. Pam Buck

Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Dr. Pam Buck is a licensed clinical psychologist and the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Boston Child Study Center, where she provides evidence-based treatments to young adults and families with mood and anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, trauma-related disorders, substance use and eating disorders, attention-related difficulties and personality disorders. She provides CBT, DBT, and evidence-based treatments for PTSD: prolonged exposure (PE), DBT-PE, DBT-PTSD, and Cognitive Processing Therapy. Dr. Buck is a DBT-Certified Clinician by the Linehan Board of Certification.

Dr. Buck earned a Bachelor of Science at Georgetown University – School of Foreign Service, in globaldevelopment studies. She completed graduate work at the Johns Hopkins University – School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in social change and development. Dr. Buck earned a second bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University at Albany, SUNY. She then earnedher Master of Arts and doctorate in clinical psychology at Duke University, where she was awarded multiple Fieldwork Grants and a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowshipfrom the Duke Global Health Institute to support her research in Thailand. Dr. Buck’s dissertation focused on the expansion of mental health service delivery among refugees and immigrants from Burma in the USA, including the development of a CBT-based paraprofessional training manual for community and religious leaders to provide support for depression among community members. Dr. Buck’s manual was translated into Burmese, Karen, Thai and Nepali; and was later utilized to study CBT-based support for depression among Philippine domestic workers in Singapore.

Dr. Buck completed her predoctoral internship at the Durham VA Medical Center, in Durham, NC, specializing in treating PTSD across the PTSD Clinic, Substance Use Disorders Clinic, Behavioral Medicine Clinic and Inpatient Treatment Unit. Dr. Buck came to the Boston Child Study Center from the Portland DBT Institute, where she completed her postdoctoral residency and later served as Manager of the DBT-PTSD Treatment Program.

Dr. Buck provides DBT training in the USA and internationally. She introduced DBT in Vietnam and Malaysia through intensive trainings for psychiatrists and psychologists at the Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City and the National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, respectively. Dr. Buck currently provides clinical supervision and leads the first DBT consultation team for clinicians in Malaysia and Singapore.

Dr. Buck cares deeply about increasing the availability of culturally-responsive evidence-based treatments provided through an intersectional lens for individuals of all ages and their families. She is actively working to increase anti-oppressive practices in mental health care. Dr. Buck has completed the Diversity and Inclusion Certificate Program through Cornell University, as well as numerous other professional trainings in cross-cultural communication, working with diverse populations, supporting social justice, equity and inclusion in the work place, and managing multicultural mental health care settings. Dr. Buck completed the Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery Certificate Program at the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma. She is a member of the American Psychological Association (APA) and APA Divisions 56 (Trauma), 45 (Culture, Ethnicity and Race), 35 (Women), 44 (Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity), 36 (Religion and Spirituality), and 52 (International).Dr. Buck speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and Arabic and has varying degrees of proficiency in five other languages. She holds a Certificate of Translation from four languages into English from New York University. Through work, study and pure interest, she has traveled to twenty-nine countries.