Michael Reichert

Dr. Michael Reichert is an applied research psychologist who has long advocated for children and families. From counseling youth involved in the juvenile justice system and leading treatment teams in a psychiatric hospital to managing an independent clinical practice, Dr. Reichert has tested his understanding of children with real, even life-threatening, challenges.

He has also immersed himself in research and consultation experiences that have afforded him a deeper understanding of the conditions that allow a child to flourish in natural contexts: families, schools, and communities. He has created and run programs in both inner-city communities and some of the most affluent suburban communities in the world. Working across such varied conditions, he has come to a profound appreciation for the hard science of human development. For ten years, he helped create and lead an intervention for high-risk youth in the tri-state region around Philadelphia. The program raised over $4 million in grants and was named a “promising practice” for reducing youth violence by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

As an extension of his work with schools, boys, and their parents, he was asked to pull together top national experts by a highly regarded boys’ school outside of Philadelphia and to create a unique program combining research, advocacy, and service. The program was the first school-based research center devoted to understanding the particular needs of boys, which eventually grew into a research collaborative between independent schools and the University of Pennsylvania. He continues to lead this Center, which has honed a model for student empowerment and Youth Participatory Action Research to train high school students in rigorous research methods so they can explore pressing questions about relationships and identity.

Dr. Reichert's work with the Center led to a request by the International Boys’ Schools Coalition, an organization of over 300 state and elite schools around the world, to conduct a series of global studies on effective practices in boys’ education. In conducting these projects, he has traveled and spoken to audiences of boys, educators, and parents throughout Africa, the U.K., Canada, and many states in the U.S. He has led workshops and consulted with hundreds of schools of all types.

Since 1984, Dr. Reichert has maintained a clinical practice outside Philadelphia, PA, specializing in work with boys, men, and their families. In addition to direct patient care, he has served as the supervising psychologist at an independent boys’ school and has had the opportunity there to create and lead a program designed to enhance boys’ emotional literacy. This experience has led him to publish numerous articles and books, including "Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Lessons About What Works—and Why," and "I Can Learn From You: Boys as Relational Learners." His new book for parents is "How to Raise a Boy: The Power of Connection to Build Good Men."