Honorary President — Dr. Lata K. McGinn

Dr. Lata K. McGinn is a tenured Professor of Psychology and Director of the Cognitive & Behavioral Therapies (CBT) Training Program and Clinic for Anxiety Disorders, OCD, Trauma and Depression at Yeshiva University, New York. She helped found IACBT and has served as its Honorary President since 2016.

Her clinical, training and research expertise spans the prevention and treatment of stress, anxiety disorders, trauma, PTSD, depression and OCD. She has developed a unified vulnerability model for panic disorder and social phobia, and co-authored books including Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Dr. McGinn is President of the World Confederation of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (WCCBT), which she was instrumental in founding in 2019, and Vice-President of the Access Psychology Foundation. She continues to serve on IACBT's Board of Directors, and is a past president of both the International Association for Cognitive Psychotherapy (IACP) and the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies (A-CBT).

Dr. McGinn holds the title of Beck Scholar from the Beck Institute and is a Fellow of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapies (ABCT), which recognized her professional contributions on trauma-prevention interventions following September 11, 2001. She received ABCT's Outstanding Service to CBT award in 2020, was designated a Global Thought Leader in 2022, was recognized as a distinguished psychology alumnus by Montefiore Medical Center–Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2024, and received Westfair's Innovator award in September 2025. In November 2025, she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies for her enduring global impact on CBT research, training and access to evidence-based mental health care.