DR. KATHERINE NORDAL'S BIO

Dr. Nordal received her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Mississippi in 1976. She maintains a full time private practice with offices in Vicksburg and Jackson, MS.  Dr. Nordal’s clinical interests include: learning, behavioral, and emotional disorders in children and adolescents; neuropsychological assessment; brain injury in children and adults: and, forensic psychology. 

She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Mississippi Psychological Association. She currently serves on the the Committee for the Advancement of Professional Practice (CAPP), 2004-06, Chair 2005, and is a Trustee of the American Psychological Association Insurance Trust.  She served on the APA’s Board of Directors from 2001-03 and was the Board’s liaison to the APA’s Ethics Office, Committee on Legal Issues, the APA/American Bar Association Task Force, and the Public Interest Directorate. Dr. Nordal is a member of several APA divisions including Div. 42 (Independent Practice), Div. 31 (State Associations), Div. 41 (American Psychology Law Society), and Div. 35 (Women) and was treasurer of the Division of State Psychological Associations. She previously represented Mississippi on the APA’s Council of Representatives. Dr. Nordal served as chairperson of the APA’s Committee on Rural Health;  co-authored the chapter on behavioral healthcare needs of rural children and adolescents in the book, Behavioral Healthcare in Rural and Frontier Areas, edited by B. Hudnall Stamm, and published by APA; and serves the psychological health needs of rural residents in her private practice.

She is a recipient of the APA’s Karl F. Heiser Presidential Award for advocacy on behalf of Psychology.  She was APA’s first independent practitioner Congressional Science Fellow (1990-91).  She served as senior staff member in the congressional office of the Honorable Mike Espy, Democrat from Mississippi, and with his Domestic Task Force of the House Select Committee on Hunger.

(Photo by Dr. Nordal)

 Dr. Nordal worked with Congresswoman Schroeder’s Congressional Women’s Caucus and worked to increase NIH funding for women’s health and mental health research.  She was a Board Member (from 1995-2000) and has been a regular contributor to Women in Psychology for Legislative Action (WPLA), a national PAC organized to support women candidates for federal political office.  Dr. Nordal served the APA Women's Caucus as Treasurer (1995‑1999) and Chair‑Elect (2000).  She  worked on the campaign committee to elect the first African American woman to the bench in Warren County, Mississippi, Judge Vicky Roach Barnes, who is now in her third term as Chancellor.
 

Dr. Nordal is a past president of the Mississippi Psychological Association and has served on the Mississippi Board of Psychology, which licenses psychologists for practice in Mississippi. She is a recipient of the Mississippi Psychological Association’s Kinlock Gill Outstanding Professional Psychologist Award, in 1997 was presented with the association’s Distinguished Practitioner Award, and in 2003 was presented its Distinguished Fellow Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr. Nordal receiving Mississippi Psychological Association's Lifetime Achievement Award. With her is Dr. James D. Herzog, President of MPA. 

Dr. Nordal is also a past president of the Brain Injury Association of Mississippi and currently serves on that board. She has served on the Mississippi Department of Education Advisory Committee for the Office of Special Education and is currently an IDEA Due Process Hearing Officer.

Earlier in her professional career, she was a strong advocate and active visitor on Capitol Hill in support of psychologists' inclusion as providers under Medicare.  Since passage of that legislation, she has been a Medicare provider and treats elderly clients in her practice.  She has provided consultation to nursing home staff and has served in an evaluative capacity for inpatient geropsychiatric units.  On a more personal note, she has been a Hospice volunteer and Meals-on-Wheels volunteer in her community and been a regular visitor of the aging/shut-in members of her Episcopal church.