Patricia A. Zapf

Patricia Zapf is a licensed clinical psychologist known for her work in forensic psychology, specializing in competency to stand trial. Zapf spent sixteen years as a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice prior to joining Palo Alto University as the Vice President of Business Innovation and Strategic Advancement. she completed her thesis, titled "Assessing fitness to stand trial: characteristics of fitness remands and a comparison of institution-based evaluations and the Fitness Interview Test, Revised", and her dissertation titled "An investigation of the construct of competence in a criminal and civil context: A comparison of the FIT, the MacCAT-CA, and the MacCAT-T.". She is a licensed psychologist in four states in the United States: Alabama, Florida, New York and Missouri.

Career Upon completion of her doctoral program, Zapf worked at the University of Alabama as an Assistant Professor in the Psychology Department until 2002. She concurrently began and maintains faculty affiliate status at Simon Fraser University in their Mental Health, Law and Policy Institute. From 2014 to 2015, Zapf was president of the American Psychology-Law Society. Currently, Zapf is Vice President of Business Innovation and Strategic Advancement at Palo Alto University, where she works to advance academia by implementing business strategies to strengthen academia's impact. In 2018, she brought CONCEPT to Palo Alto University. Zapf serves as the editor-in-chief of the APA Handbook of Forensic Psychology. Alongside traveling throughout the United States and internationally to provide training in forensic evaluation, Zapf served on the panel of experts for the National Judicial College's Mental Competency: Best Practices Model. evaluating the current research and instruments used for competency assessment, including a meta-analysis in 2011. She wrote Evaluation of Competence to Stand Trial Zapf and Roesch also created a forensic assessment instrument called The Fitness Interview Test used in assessing for competency. The Fitness Interview Test was found to be a good screener when deciding if a defendant needs inpatient psychiatric treatment to be fit to stand trial.

Zapf's research also lies in forensic evaluations and bridging the gap in understanding between the legal field and psychology, running trainings for both mental health and legal professionals. and Forensic Psychology and Law (an exploration of legal topics and psychology).

In more recent years, Zapf has researched and written on cognitive biases in forensic assessment. She has researched how to identify and mitigate bias in forensic evaluations, as well as how aware forensic evaluators are of their own biases. Distinguished Member of the American Psychology–Law Society (2006) Pirelli, G., Beattey, R. A., & Zapf, P. A. (2017). The ethical practice of forensic psychology: A casebook. Oxford University Press. Roesch, R., & Zapf, P. A. (2013). Forensic assessments in criminal and civil law : A handbook for lawyers. Oxford University Press. Roesch, R., Zapf, P. A., & Hart, S. D. (2009). Forensic psychology and law. Wiley. Zapf, P., & Roesch, R. (2008). Evaluation of competence to stand trial. Oxford University Press.