Experts Information

Ritch Savin-Williams, Ph.D.

Professor / Chair
Department of Human Development
Cornell University

Expertise:

• Sexual minorities
• Sexual minority youth
• Identity development
• Relations with family
• Same-sex marriage
• Same-sex parenting
• Gay adoption

Additional Information:

Ritch C. Savin-Williams is professor of clinical and developmental psychology in the Department of Human Development at Cornell University. He received a master's degree in religious studies and the Ph.D. in Human Development from the University of Chicago, where he studied the development of dominance hierarchies in adolescent groups at summer camp. Later research projects included examining behavioral and experienced domains of self-esteem and adolescent friendships.

Dr. Savin-Williams teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on sexual minorities and conducts research on sexual-minority youth. He is also a licensed clinical psychologist with a private practice specializing in identity, relationship, and family issues among young adults. He has served as an expert witness on same-sex marriage, gay adoptions, and Boy Scout court cases and is on numerous professional review boards, including co-chair of the American Psychological Foundation's Roy Scrivner Small Grant Awards. He has written junior high school curriculum for the Unitarian Universalist Association, Beyond Pink and Blue: Exploring Our Stereotypes of Sexuality and Gender.

He is the author of:

The New Gay Teenager (Harvard University Press, 2006)
 Mom, Dad, I’m Gay: How Families Negotiate Coming Out (American Psychological Association, 2001)
… And Then I Became Gay: Young Men’s Stories (Routledge, 1997)