Dr. Rony Berger is a senior clinical psychologist and a family and child therapist, an internationally acclaimed expert in dealing with the psychological preparation for and aftermath of terrorism and other major disasters. Dr. Berger faculty member of the Emergency Medicine at Ben Gurion University, a senior member of the PREPARED center for emergency response research and faculty member of the Stress, Crisis and Trauma program at Tel Aviv University. Rony Directs Brit Olam‘s Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation Unit and is a Fellow in Psychology Beyond Borders (PBB), a humanitarian organization that aims to alleviate psychological suffering in the aftermath of trauma events.
Dr. Berger also serves on the advisory board of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University where he assists in designing compassion cultivation programs and collaborates with Prof. Philip Zimbardo (The Stanford Prison Experiment) in developing manuals to enhance community resilience and promoting pro-social orientation. Dr. Berger and Prof. Zimbardo developed and empirically validated a school-based program geared to promote tolerance toward the “other” and cultivate pro-social behaviors. They are currently working on developing additional community programs. Together they are PI’s of a large international study on de-radicalization featured in the film 10% – What Makes a Hero (Executive Director- Michael Moore). Most recently, Dr. Berger has been designing empirically-based anti-radicalization and anti-prejudice programs that were applied to Palestinians and Israelis.
From 1999-2010 Dr. Berger directed the community services at Natal Trauma Center, where he designed community programs to deal with the impact of war and terrorism and trained thousands of professionals in treating trauma survivors.
Between 1997-2000 Dr. Berger was a visiting Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Medicine at Al Quds University where he taught medical and graduate students. He co-founded and co-directed the Palestinian Center for Traumatic Stress Studies. Dr. Berger also served as a senior researcher at the Harry Truman Center for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Dr. Berger has trained thousands of professionals and lead emergency relief teams across the world and was involved in rehabilitation processes of major disasters including Oklahoma City, 9/11, Katrina; the Tsunami in Asia and the Pacific; conflicts & terror in Israel and Palestine, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tanzania and Congo: and in the earthquakes in Turkey, Indonesia, China, Samoa, Haiti, Japan and New Zealand. Dr. Berger Has published two books, wrote numerous articles in peer reviewed journals and authored several chapters on dealing with the aftermath of major disasters.