Mary Nord Cook, MD, is a board certified child and adolescent psychiatrist. For the past 18 years, she has been developing and directly providing three psychosocial skills and parenting training, multi-family workshops weekly.
Dr. Cook has authored and published two books detailing the evidence-based, standardized, skills-building treatment protocols used for both the school-aged and adolescent patient populations, titled Transforming Behavior: Training Parents & Kids Together and Transforming Teen Behavior: Parent-Teen Protocols for Psychosocial Skills Training. Her passions are developing and applying family and strengths-based approaches, pursuant of a goal to minimize medication, while optimizing parenting and psychosocial skills. Her mantra is “More Skills =’s Less Pills!” Dr. Cook has received numerous awards for outstanding and innovative program development, leadership, teaching and mentorship. She frequently performs presentations in the community for school, primary care and youth outreach programs.
In July 2015, she assumed new roles as the chief executive officer and medical director for EMPOWER, a first of its kind, Non-Profit {501 (3)(c)} Center of Excellence in Family Behavioral Health. She has been extensively involved in the training of medical students, psychology and social work graduate students, along with psychiatry residents. She recently won a resident nominated award for teaching excellence and has also been recognized by the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), as an outstanding mentor. She specializes in working with families presenting with youth who’ve been diagnosed with disruptive behavior and mood disorders. Dr. Cook received her doctoral degree (Medicine) from Wayne State University, her General Psychiatry Residency at the Naval Medical Center, San Diego, and her Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship training at the University of California, San Diego. From 1998-2005 she served in the United States Navy, including working as the sole child psychiatrist for six military bases and over 30 Department of Defense schools, across Japan for three years. From 2005-2015, she held the rank of associate professor of psychiatry at the Colorado School of Medicine while concurrently serving as the medical director for the Department of Psychiatry at CHCO.
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Mary Nord Cook is CEO and Medical Director for EMPOWER. She is an author for Brookes Publishing and Elsevier Publishing and receives royalties. Dr. Nord Cook receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Mary Nord Cook is a member of the American Academy Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP).