About

ABOUT DR. EDRICK DORIAN

Edrick H. Dorian, PsyD, ABPP, is a Los Angeles–based psychologist and public-safety leader whose work spans clinical psychology, police and public-safety psychology, organizational leadership, scholarly and professional writing, and applied innovation in mental health.

Over more than two decades, his work has increasingly centered on the application of psychology and behavioral science to leadership, organizational life, human performance, and decision-making in high-accountability environments.

Dr. Dorian is licensed as a psychologist in California (PSY19858) and is board certified by the American Board of Professional Psychology in both Clinical Psychology and Police & Public Safety Psychology. He is also a Diplomate of the Academy of Cognitive & Behavioral Therapies.

Education and Clinical Formation

Dr. Dorian received his Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University and his bachelor’s (B.A.) and master’s (M.A.) degrees in psychology from California State University, Northridge.

His predoctoral clinical training included work across community mental health, academic medical, and Veterans Affairs settings. At the Child and Family Guidance Center, he provided treatment services for sexually abused children; at Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, he worked in a 28-day crisis residential treatment program; and at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center, he provided psychological assessment and family therapy.

Dr. Dorian’s pre-internship training at the VA Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center began on September 11, 2001, where he worked with military veterans whose service extended back to World War II. His work included cognitive rehabilitation, chemical dependency, weight management, and psychological and neuropsychological testing.

He later completed an APA-accredited predoctoral internship at the VA Los Angeles Ambulatory Care Center, where he continued working with military veterans across generations. His work included health psychology, chemical dependency, psychotherapy, and treatment of combat-related PTSD.

Dr. Dorian subsequently completed an APA-accredited postdoctoral fellowship in Clinical Psychology at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center. His rotations included the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Twin Towers Correctional Facility, where he provided psychological services to incarcerated individuals, and Harbor–UCLA’s AMI/ABLE Integrated Psychiatric Services Program, providing wraparound care for individuals with serious mental illness.

In 2004, Dr. Dorian was appointed Program Director of the AMI/ABLE Integrated Psychiatric Services Program at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychology at the UCLA School of Medicine. In these roles, he led multidisciplinary clinical teams and provided training and supervision in cognitive behavioral therapy to psychology postdoctoral fellows and psychiatry residents.

Police and Public-Safety Psychology

In 2006, Dr. Dorian joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) as a Police Psychologist. His work included clinical services and training for law-enforcement personnel and their families, critical-incident response, consultation with the SWAT Crisis Negotiation Team, and managerial consultation to LAPD command staff.

Over time, his work increasingly extended beyond individual clinical services to the application of psychology within police operations, leadership, and organizational decision-making.

During this period, he co-edited the scholarly volume Police Psychology and Its Growing Impact on Modern Law Enforcement. In 2018, he received the International Association of Chiefs of Police Leadership in the Field of Police & Public Safety Psychology Award.

Command and Institutional Leadership

In 2021, Dr. Dorian was appointed Chief Police Psychologist of the LAPD and Commanding Officer of Behavioral Science Services, the department’s in-house wellness division comprising a multidisciplinary team of psychologists, addiction counselors, administrative staff, and a registered dietitian.

As a member of LAPD senior staff, he works alongside executive and command leadership to support organizational well-being and operations through innovation and cross-disciplinary collaboration. His work includes leadership, policy development, risk management, morale, discipline and rehabilitation, media relations, technology, training, and other organizational issues involving human behavior and performance.

In 2023, Dr. Dorian received the LAPD Command Officers Excellence in Leadership Award. In 2026, he and his command received the Police Commission Unit Citation, the Department’s highest organizational honor.

Direct command experience has also shaped his approach to consultation and advisement. Leaders routinely confront problems that cross disciplinary boundaries and for which no single area of expertise provides a complete answer. His interest is in how psychology and behavioral science can contribute to those decisions while preserving the authority, responsibility, and judgment of the leader.

Advisory and Professional Engagement

In addition to his institutional role, Dr. Dorian participates selectively in advisory, consulting, and speaking engagements related to leadership and the human and organizational dimensions of public safety.

He has been invited to work with public-safety leaders, agencies, and professional groups in the United States and Canada on issues involving organizational well-being, leadership, human performance, morale, organizational change, and decision-making. These engagements have included executive and command-level consultation, professional education, facilitated discussion, and organizational advisory work.

His approach begins with understanding the problem and the environment in which it exists. Depending on the circumstances, the work may involve listening across perspectives, clarifying the problem to be solved, integrating relevant expertise, examining assumptions, widening the range of considerations, and anticipating how decisions may be understood and experienced throughout an organization.

The advisor’s role is not to make the decision for the leader, but to strengthen the conditions under which the decision is made.

Dr. Dorian is also a co-founder of Command Alliance Group, through which he is developing collaborative approaches to behavioral-science-informed advisement for public-safety leaders and organizations.

Innovation and Entrepreneurship

In 2010, Dr. Dorian co-founded Thriveport with Pepperdine University Professor Dr. Drew Erhardt. Thriveport developed one of the first comprehensive CBT-based mobile applications, MoodKit®, followed by Moodnotes®, created in collaboration with the London-based design studio ustwo™.

In late 2019, Thriveport was acquired by Apalon, a subsidiary of IAC.

This work reflected a longstanding interest in applying established psychological principles through emerging technologies and extending their usefulness beyond traditional clinical settings.

Scholarship, Writing, and Teaching

Writing and teaching have been consistent parts of Dr. Dorian’s professional work. His scholarly and professional contributions have addressed clinical psychology, police and public-safety psychology, consultation, organizational well-being, leadership, morale, and the application of psychology and behavioral science to organizational and institutional problems.

He is co-editor of Police Psychology and Its Growing Impact on Modern Law Enforcement and has contributed writing to professional and scholarly forums in police and public-safety psychology. His work also appears in Police Chief, the professional magazine of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, where his writing addresses organizational well-being, leadership, behavioral science, and the responsibilities of public-safety organizations.

His more recent writing examines how well-being, morale, performance, leadership, and human behavior interact with organizational systems, command decisions, culture, trust, and institutional responsibility.

Dr. Dorian began teaching in 1998 through the Teacher Intern Program of the California State University, Northridge Department of Psychology and subsequently served on the adjunct faculties of Moorpark College, California State University, Northridge, and Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology, as well as the clinical faculty of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.

His work and perspectives have also appeared in broader public media, including Discover, The Guardian, WIRED, WIRED UK, Business Insider, Fast Company, TechCrunch, and Mashable, among others, as well as occasional television and radio news interviews.

In 2022, Pepperdine University presented Dr. Dorian with its Distinguished Alumni Award, and he was selected to deliver the commencement address for the Psychology Division of its Graduate School of Education and Psychology.

Current Orientation

Dr. Dorian’s current work increasingly sits at the intersection of psychology, applied behavioral science, leadership, and institutional responsibility.

A recurring premise in his writing and advisement is that the level at which a problem appears is not necessarily the level at which it should be solved. Individual behavior occurs within organizational systems, and outcomes such as morale, performance, well-being, trust, and resilience are influenced not only by individuals and programs, but also by leadership, culture, working conditions, and the cumulative effects of organizational decisions.

His current areas of interest include executive judgment under conditions of uncertainty; the integration of specialized expertise into leadership decision-making; organizational well-being and human performance; leadership transitions and institutional change; and the responsibilities associated with command.

An additional theme is stewardship: the recognition that leadership authority is temporary. Leaders inherit organizations shaped by decisions made before them, influence those organizations during their tenure, and eventually hand them forward to others.

These interests increasingly bring Dr. Dorian into conversations with public-safety leaders and organizations beyond his home institution. In those settings, his role is often not to arrive with a predetermined solution, but to help leaders more fully understand the human and organizational dimensions of the problems and decisions before them.

Together, these themes inform his continuing work in writing, speaking, advisement, and the broader application of behavioral science to public-safety leadership and organizational life.