Edward Beck (psychologist)
Edward S. Beck, CCMHC, NCC, LPC has recently retired as a Contributing Faculty Member to the Mental Health Counseling Program of the School of Counseling and Social Services at Walden University in September, 2012, Director of the Susquehanna Institute. He practiced mental health counseling, marriage and family counseling and career counseling with Commonwealth Affilitates, P.C. in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Academic background and professional background
He holds a Bachelors in Science in Education and Masters Degree in Counseling from New York University and a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
He has served on the faculties and student personnel staffs of The Pennsylvania State University, Rutgers University, New York University. He has also taught at the University of Pennsylvania, Alvernia College, Rosemont College, Walden University and Lebanon Valley College. He is the author of numerous article and book chapters and is a co-author of Mental Health Counselor Training Standards (1987).[1] He also served as a consultant to Catholic Charities of Central Pennsylvania for about 15 years.
Posts
Beck recently served as Jewish Community Relations Council Chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg. He is a Past President of the American Mental Health Counselors Association, the Pennsylvania Counseling Association, The Mental Health Association of the Capital Region (PA). He has served on the Board of Directors of the American Association for Counseling and Development (now American Counseling Association) and is a past president of the American Mental Health Counselors Association, Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs and the Pennsylvania Counseling Association. A Licensed Professional Counselor,he is also certified by both the National Board for Certified Counselors and Academy of Clinical Mental Health Counselors. He also served on the Penn State Hillel Foundation Board for many years and was a Vice President of Jewish Family Services in Harrisburg. In 2013 he founded and then retired from the Professional Resource Committee, a group of mental health professionals who were alumni of the Horace Mann School to provide referrals for victims of pedophilic sexual abuse perpetrated by Horace Mann School teachers and staff in the 1960s through early 2000 which was reported in the New York Times and other media.
Professional contributions
He currently serves as editor and publisher of Kol Harrisburg since 1999. He also regularly writes Op-Ed and columns for the Jerusalem Post and other news outlets. He has recently been elected to serve a board term for Historic B'nai Jacob Synagogue in Middletown, PA which is a 104-year-old congregation whose building is registered with the United States, Pennsylvania and Middletown historical registries.
Beck was co-Founder and President of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East from 2002 to 2009 and served on the board through 2011. He currently serves as President Emeritus and, until February 2013, Chair of the Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions Task Force of that organization. Beck has been instrumental in defeating boycott activities against Israeli academics and academic institutions by rallying as many as 50 Nobel Laureates on various projects (as many as 40 at a time), in combating boycott campaigns. Beck also serves as an international Vice President of ZAKA, Israel's international search and rescue group who are first responders to natural disasters, terrorism and other man-made disasters throughout the world, such as Katrina, Japan, Haiti, Mumbai, Spain, 9/11 and other events throughout the world. He writes and blogs and has written in the New York Times, Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel and Gatestone Institute and other media outlets. He and his family recently seeded funds to the Jewish Community Foundation of Central Pennsylvania for the establishment of funds to bring in many varied expert voices from Israel through a fund for the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg called the CRC Israel Speakers Education Fund.
In his retirement, he formed and headed the Professional Resource Committee for survivors of alleged sexual abuse at his high school, the Horace Mann School . He also served briefly as a Vice President and Community Relations Chairperson for the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg. He has been honored by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East with a Lifetime Achievement Award and being named President Emeritus of SPME; and by Hadassah, the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors and The American Mental Health Counselors Associaion, both with Clinician of the Year awards from the last two organizations.
Personal life
He is married to Esther Sawicki Beck whom he met when they were both students at NYU, and lives in Harrisburg PA. He is the son of the late Gustav J. Beck MD and Rita Beck of Gwynedd, PA and the parents of Rishona Myers (Scott) and Avi Beck (Anat). They have four grandchildren, Elle and Michael of Harrisburg, PA and Amanda and Sarah of Abington, PA. His late brother Andrew Preston Beck, died in 1983 whose widow Leslie Debrocky Beck Fusfeld died in 2012. His nieces and nephews are Samantha Tate Beck and Rob Masabny, Jeremy and Jenn McKay and Nicole Debrocky-Fusfeld.