Allan Zuckoff, PhD, is Vice President, Clinical Program Development, at Vital Decisions, a company that provides MI-based telehealth advance care planning services. Prior to joining Vital Decisions in 2016 he spent more than two decades as a clinician, researcher, and teacher in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh.
Allan has been a member of MINT since 1998 and has conducted MI training nationally and internationally over more than two decades. Since 2020 he has been a member of the MINT Board of Directors, serving as Treasurer from 2020 - 2021 and currently serving as Chair. He was previously on the MINT Board of Directors from 2008-2014, serving as Secretary from 2009-2010, Treasurer from 2010-2011, Vice Chair from 2010-2012, and Chair from 2013-2014. From 2004-2010 he was editor of MINT's newsletter, MINT Bulletin, and he was the founding editor of MINT's online open access journal, Motivational Interviewing: Training, Research, Implementation, Practice (MITRIP). Other roles in MINT have included membership on the MINT Forum Program Planning Committee (2006-2007) and serving as Chair of the MINT Trainer Development and Certification Workgroup (2008-2009) and of the MINT Practitioner Certification Committee (2015-2017). In 2008 he co-led MINT's Training of New Trainers in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
Allan's MI-related publications include two books. He is author, with Bonnie Gorscak, PhD, of Finding Your Way to Change: How the Power of Motivational Interviewing Can Reveal What You Want and Help You Get There (Guilford Press, 2015), available in English, Dutch, Italian, and Spanish; and with Dennis C. Daley, PhD, of Improving Treatment Compliance: Counseling and Systems Strategies for Substance Abuse and Dual Disorders (Hazelden, 1999). He also published (with Allen Zweben, PhD) the chapter “Motivational Interviewing and Treatment Adherence” in the second edition of Miller & Rollnick’s Motivational Interviewing: Preparing People for Change (Guilford Press, 2002), and the chapters "Enhancing the Effectiveness of Exposure and Response Prevention in the Treatment of Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder: Exploring a Role for Motivational Interviewing” and "Motivational Interviewing as a Prelude to Psychotherapy for Depressed Women" in Arkowitz, Miller, & Rollnick’s (Eds.) Motivational Interviewing in the Treatment of Psychological Problems (2nd Edition; Guilford Press, 2015).
Allan’s research at the University of Pittsburgh focused primarily on the development and testing of novel applications of MI, in particular when used to enhance treatment engagement and adherence. He oversaw intervention development, training, and fidelity monitoring for a dozen clinical trials of MI in substance use, mental health, and health behavior settings. He published more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters about his research.