Peter Zucker
Dr. Peter Zucker, MS ‘81/H&S and PhD ‘84/H&S, completed his graduate work at Virginia Commonwealth University in counseling psychology. After graduate school, he held positions as a supervisor, manager, clinical director and administrator in residential treatment center. Drawing upon both his training in counseling psychology and elective courses he took in the VCU Graduate School of Business on management and organizational development, Zucker later founded Stars Behavioral Health Group, a community-based behavioral health, child welfare, education and training company in California, serving as its president and CEO. “My pathway from VCU to my current role reflects the academic and professional training I received and personalized to fulfill my goals, along with great assistance and support from my advisor and other VCU faculty.”
Impact
Zucker honored his beginnings in the VCU Department of Psychology by establishing the Dr. Peter Zucker Scholarship with a $25,000 gift which will provide support to a graduate student in psychology with career aspirations in healthcare or behavioral healthcare management, organizational development, executive consulting or leadership in the field. Professor and former chair of the VCU Department of Psychology, Wendy Kliewer, Ph.D., describes the transformational impact that the gift has on graduate students in psychology. “This gift will further validate our strong training model and reward the high caliber students we attract to the department and will augment the amount of support we are able to provide to students during their doctoral training, which will be extremely helpful in recruitment and retention of the very best students. More than ever, due to state and federal cuts, we depend on the generous support of our friends and we are most grateful that Dr. Zucker’s reflection of his time in the department that led him to make this gift that will benefit our students.”