Colin Powell School
Professor Steven Tuber has been with City College for almost 40 years, and has been a full professor in the psychology department for more than 30 years. In a recent interview, Tuber described his passion for teaching, the nature of his work with children, his family’s background, and more. Tuber acknowledged the Colin Powell School’s mandate to provide a platform for diverse future leaders as being intertwined with the doctoral program’s mandate to provide the highest quality care to persons who are often ignored or mistreated by the mental health system.
Please share something about your personal and professional background, and what brought you to CCNY and the Colin Powell School.
I have had the pleasure and privilege to have been a faculty member at City College for a long time, 39 years and counting. I’ve been a full Professor in the Psychology Department for over 30 years, been Director of Clinical Training in the doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology for 24 of those years and the Head of that Program for 21 years, both and counting! I wouldn’t have taken another road for a second, except for if I had been offered the position of starting point guard for the Celtics, but at 5 '7” that wasn’t going to happen! I grew up poor financially on the streets of Coney Island in the 1960's to immigrant parents who lived lives full of trauma and loss and thus wanting to be part of City College was a natural desire on my part once I felt that I had something to offer to students. I have always loved teaching and being in the front of a classroom is still a deep thrill, even after all these years.
Can you please briefly describe your scholarly work and findings? What’s most meaningful to your field — and to you — about your work?
Most of my work clinically and intellectually has been with children. Even as a teenager, I was fascinated by babies and their rapid development and took to working therapeutically with children and their families from the very start of my doctoral training. I continue to teach our doctoral students how to be child therapists and have written extensively in this area. I have also been drawn to assessment techniques that could make the process of treating children clearer and more three dimensional. I have used ambiguity-driven tasks such as the Rorschach Inkblot Method to get a closer look at the inner conflicts of prospective patients and found it very useful. I’ve written extensively on the use of this method as well. Since 2016, the doctoral Program has exclusively become part of the Colin Powell School and we are honored to have been designated the first doctoral granting Program in the Colin Powell School.
What would you want to make sure everyone knows about what makes the Colin Powell School special?
The Colin Powell School’s mandate to provide a platform for diverse future leaders is beautifully intertwined with the doctoral program’s mandate to provide the highest quality care to persons who are often largely ignored or mistreated by the mental health system. I look forward to future intersections between the Clinical Program and the Colin Powell School.