Walter Bockting, PhD, LP, is a Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Program for the Study of LGBT Health at the New York State Psychiatric Institute / Columbia Psychiatry and the Columbia University School of Nursing. His research interests include identity development across the lifespan, transgender health, and LGBTQ+ aging. His research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the New York Community Trust, and a number of other private foundations. He is currently the Principal Investigator of three large NIH-funded studies: Project AFFIRM, a longitudinal, multi-site study of transgender identity development across the lifespan; Convoy Q, examining the role of social networks in cognitive aging of LGBTQ+ adults and their cisgender, heterosexual counterparts; and a new investigation of the quality of life of trans and gender nonbinary individuals following gender-affirming surgery.

Bockting is an internationally known expert in gender-affirming healthcare as well as in the mental health and psychosocial adjustment of transgender, gender non-binary and gender-diverse children, adolescents, adults, and their families. He is the Editor of six volumes on gender and sexual health, and has published more than one-hundred articles in peer-reviewed journals. Bockting is a past president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and a past president and Fellow of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality. In 2010-11, Bockting served on the Institute of Medicine Committee of the National Academies whose work culminated in the IOM Report on the Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People: Building a Foundation for Better Understanding. Bockting's work at CUIMC focuses on combining research, clinical practice, education and training, and innovative policy development to promote the health of LGBTQI+ individuals and their communities.